THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



85 



vided talking material for those who oppose the 

 formation of that particular district. 



"There need be but scant consideration given to 

 utterances of convention programmers. Irrigation 

 has brought wealth to the Yakima Valley in Wash- 

 ington, to the Imperial Valley in California, to the 

 lands under the Twin Falls works in Idaho, to 

 numerous valleys in Utah. Wherein irrigation has 

 fallen short of pronounced success in Oregon the 

 reasons for it are understood. Mistakes of the 

 experimental stage can now be avoided and are 

 guarded against by new legislation and a broader 

 understanding of engineering problems to be met. 



"The district at least should be organized. That 

 alone does not irrevocably pledge the settlers to 

 the enterprise, for authorization of a bond issue is 

 dependent upon the result of a future election. 

 Organization is but a step, but it is a step which 

 will denote among the settlers initiative, enterprise 

 and confidence in their lands and their own ability 

 to make good if given opportunity. The state is 

 not the only source of financial assistance." 



IRRIGATION DYNAMOS RUN DISTRICT 



There are few spots in the United States where 

 the bounteous blessings provided by nature have 

 been utilized to better advantage by the skill of 

 modern electrical and irrigation engineering than 

 is the case on' Idaho's Minidoka project. Some seven 

 miles above Rupert the Snake river has a natural 

 fall, and here there has been constructed, under 

 government auspices, the dam and other works 

 which supplies all the project with all the water 

 needed and in addition gives to the towns, villages, 

 and to the individual farmers, electrical power for 

 all purposes. 



Nine-tenths of the people in Rupert, Heyburn, 

 Burley and Paul use the current thus generated for 

 heating, many of them for cooking, and about all 

 the power used is that generated by the waters of 

 the mighty Snake, that greatest asset of the north- 

 west. 



Here an engine for power purposes that is not 

 run electrically is a curiosity. Their feed and grist 

 mills, their printing presses, alfalfa mills, in fact 

 every kind of energy, is the product of the big 

 dynamos at the Miniloka dam. 



IDAHO WATER USERS' CONFERENCE 



At a meeting of the directors of irrigation dis- 

 tricts of Idaho held in March at Boise City, Idaho, 

 at which directors were present from as far west 

 as Weiser and as far east as Shelley, a resolution 

 was passed indorsing the Addison T. Smith bill in 

 congress. 



The state legislature was asked to pass a law 

 to include all state lands within the district boun- 

 daries, into the district and subject them to the 

 same conditions as privately owned land with the 

 district. 



Resolutions were passed indorsing the Jones 

 bill in congress. 



The Ferris water power bill was discussed and 

 finally approved. 



The conference recommended that penalties 

 on delinquent assessments on district lands be 

 abolished and a rate of interest on delinquents be 

 assessed not larger than 12 per cent. It was unani- 

 mously agreed that the settler fails to pay only be- 

 cause of limited means, and as the districts depend 

 almost wholly on such people for development, it 

 was declared they deserve help, rather than penal- 

 ties. 



A resolution was passed asking the state legis- 

 lature to make it possible for districts to issue 40- 

 year bonds. 



The interior department was asked in another 

 resolution, to permit the settler to make his $1 an 

 acre, yearly assessment payment into the district 

 treasury instead of clearing or plowing, as hereto- 

 fore required. It was agreed that many a feasible 

 project languished for lack of consideration becailse 

 the necessary engineering could not be done -bec'ause 

 of lack of funds. 



A resolution was passed asking the legislature 

 to aid in amending the state constitution to-'enable 

 the state to join the national government in reclarria- 

 tion work. 



The officers of the meeting were Dow Dunning 

 of Homedale, president, and H. .F. Peterson of Shel- 

 ley, secretary. 



MEASURING STREAM FLOW 



One of the series of twelve reports presenting 

 the results of measurements of flow of streams in 

 the United States in 1913 has just been published 

 by the United States Geological Survey. 



Measurements of stream flow were begun by the 

 Survey in 1888 in connection with special studies 

 of water needed for irrigation, and since 1895 the 

 bills passed by Congress appropriating money for 

 the work of the Survey have carried an item for 

 "gaging streams." Measurements of stream flow 

 have been made at about 3,000 points in the United 

 States and at many points in small areas in Seward 

 Peninsula and the Yukon-Tanana region, Alaska; 

 and in the Hawaiian Islands. In this work many 

 private and State organizations have co-operated, 

 either by furnishing data or by providing finan- 

 cial assistance in collecting the data. In July, 1913, 

 about 1,380 gaging stations were maintained by the 

 Survey and the co-operating organizations, and many 

 measurements of discharge were made at other 

 points. 



The report on the Colorado river basin, which 

 forms part 9 of the annual series entitled "Surface 

 Water Supply of the United States," represents 

 the results of co-operative work between the Fed- 

 eral Survey and the States of Arizona, Utah, and 

 New Mexico. The records presented include de- 

 scriptions of stations on the Colorado and its trib- 

 utaries at which measurements were made and 

 tables of daily gage heights and daily and monthly 

 discharge. 



The report is highly technical in character and 

 has no interest for the general reader but will be 

 useful to engineers and others interested in the 

 utilization of the stream. Financial America. 



