124 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



NEWS NOTES FROM IRRIGATION PROJECTS 



OF THE COUNTRY 



Arizona 



Restoration of approximately 400,- 

 000 acres of land lying along the Little 

 Colorado river to settlement and en- 

 try, says the Phoenix (Ariz.) Gazette, 

 indicates that the government has 

 abandoned the proposed Little Colo- 

 rado river irrigation project. This 

 land was withdrawn from entry under 

 an order issued Nov. 19, 1904, under 

 the same form of withdrawal as the 

 Salt river project. This land, it is 

 stated, will be open for settlement on 

 June 26 and for filing and entry 30 

 days later. 



A crop which may prove very im- 

 portant to the dry farmers is being 

 carefully watched at the Cochise Dry 

 Farms Experiment Station in the Sul- 

 phur Springs valley. It is the Cana- 

 dian field pea, which was planted in 

 February and will be ready to harvest 

 the last of May. 



It is not generally believed that corn 

 can be profitably grown in the hot irri- 

 gated portions of Arizona. However, 

 yields of as high as 125 bushels per 

 acre are reported 'and adapted varie- 

 ties have been bred which under con- 

 ditions of great heat easily yield 75 

 or more bushels per acre. The Agri- 

 cultural Extension Service of the Uni- 

 versity of Arizona, in co-operation 

 with the Arizona Bankers Association, 

 has arranged a state-wide farmers' 

 contest to demonstrate what may be 

 done in different counties of that 

 state. 



California 



The question of the organization of 

 an irrigation district in Thermalito 

 and the election of directors has been 

 fixed by the board of supervisors at 

 Oroville for June 14. 



A committee representing the Kings 

 River Water Control and Conserva- 

 tion district met recently at Fresno. 

 This committee has been working for 

 two years shaping up a plan for legis- 

 lative aid for the irrigation districts 

 of central California. There seems to 

 be a fight on as to what site will be 

 accepted for a dam on Kings river. 



Petitions have recently been circu- 

 lated in Lindsay asking the board of 

 directors of the Lindsay-Strathmore 

 irrigation district to call a special 

 election to vote bonds in the sum of 

 $1,400,000 for development of a water 

 system to irrigate 15,775 acres of land 

 lying along the foothills south of Ex- 

 eter. The estimated cost is on the 

 basis of about $85 per acre. Practi- 

 cally all of the land it is proposed to 

 cover is citrus land of a high quality. 



Word comes from El Centro of scien- 

 tific research work with a view to 

 solving the silt problem in the Im- 

 perial valley, and a recent conference 

 of directors of the Imperial Irrigation 



District, mutual water companies and 

 water users resulted in a resolution 

 being unanimously adopted urging the 

 work to be undertaken immediately. 

 The main purpose of the plan is to 

 provide an effective means of plac- 

 ing the rich silt from the Colorado 

 river on the farming land and prevent- 

 ing its deposit on the irrigation canal 

 banks. 



off and flood waters, not less than 

 seventy cubic feet per second for irri- 

 gation. 



The organization of a state irriga- 

 tion board was ^completed recently. 

 It is a non-salaried body with no ap- 

 propriation and will only have juris- 

 diction over irrigation districts that 

 are formed in the future. A. E. 

 Chandler, of San Francisco, was 

 named chairman of the commission. 

 Assemblyman Edgar L. Sisson, of Red 

 Bluff, was elected secretary. It is 

 probable that an application for the 

 formation of a $200,000 irrigation dis- 

 trict in the Tulare lake will be acted 

 upon at once. There is also an appli- 

 cation before the commission for the 

 formation of a district of 200,000 acres 

 in Tehama county. 



Word comes from Oakdale that the 

 Cape Horn tunnel, which will furnish 

 water to 10,000 acres of land in the 

 Oakdale irrigation district, was com- 

 pleted recently. This work cost $58,- 

 000. The tunnel is about a mile and a 

 half long. 



A Redding (Shasta Co.) letter states 

 that according to report of Roscoe J. 

 Anderson and W. B. Mason, the com- 

 mittee on irrigation named by the 

 directors of the Northern Counties 

 association, there are 200,000 acres of 

 land in Lassen and Modoc counties 

 for which irrigation projects are feas- 

 ible. 



The construction of the Anderson- 

 Cottonwood irrigation system will 

 cost more than was estimated. The 

 total cost of the construction of the 

 system has not been absolutely deter- 

 mined, but it is feared that it will go 

 above the amount which the district 

 is permitted to spend on it, namely, 

 $450,000, which is the amount of bonds 

 voted on and sold. 



An attempt will be made to store 

 250,000 acre feet of water for irrigation 

 purposes, this amount being obtained 

 from flood water of the Kern river. 



A project that contemplates the 

 construction of works costing $400,000 

 for impounding all the waters of the 

 Oak Creek water shed and the irriga- 

 tion of 61,440 acres of Kern county 

 desert land south of the Tehachapi 

 has been laid before the State Water 

 Commission by the Mojave Mutual 

 Land and Water Company, a San 

 Francisco corporation. The company 

 seeks permission to appropriate all of 

 the water of Oak Creek and Mill 

 Creek, together with all springs, run- 



A final opinion has been received 

 from Goodfellow & Eels on the $400,- 

 000 bond issue recently sold by the 

 Oakdale Irrigation District to the ef- 

 fect that the bonds are O. K., the final 

 proceedings have been carried out in 

 accordance with law. 



State Engineer W. F. McClure re- 

 cently approved the application of two 

 projected irrigation districts in Ma- 

 dera and Kings counties to proceed 

 with the formation and perfection of 

 their plans, which includes bonding 

 and construction of ditches. Both 

 projects contain about 15,000 acres 

 which are subject to the assessments 

 of the districts. 



Water is now available for all of the 

 water users of the Kalmath project 

 to irrigate 40,000 acres. 



Colorado 



An injunction against Douglas 

 Davis, rancher, is asked for in a suit 

 filed in the district court recently by 

 the Turkey Creek Irrigation Com- 

 pany to restrain him from diverting 

 the water of the creek to his own land 

 through a headgate about a mile above 

 that of the company. It is claimed in 

 the complaint that Davis began divert- 

 ing the water a year ago this month. 



Title to the water rights was ac- 

 quired by the irrigation concern Oct. 

 23 of last year, it is alleged, but by 

 reason of the defendant's actions in 

 taking out the water before it reaches 

 the lower headgate, according to the 

 complaint, 1,500 acres of crops bid 

 fair to be partly or totally ruined. 



The company's ditch is 11 miles in 

 length and was purchased from the 

 Teller Reservoir & Irrigation Com- 

 pany. It was constructed between the 

 fall of 1909 and the winter of 1910. 

 Its capacity is 60 cubic feet of water 

 per second, supplying 15 ranchers. 



Idaho 



Approximately 5,000 acres of state 

 land within the Payetttf-Boise irriga- 

 tion project were sold at public auc- 

 tion at Caldwell by State Land Com- 

 missioner George Day today. The 

 bidding was spirited, choice parcels 

 being sold for from $60 to $83 an acre. 

 Commissioner Day declared that the 

 state would realize $150,000 from the 

 sale. 



Martin & Cameron, of Boise, have 

 filed notice of appeal from the deci- 

 sion of Judge Carl Davis in granting 

 irrigation district No. 1 of Ada coun- 

 ty. The district was granted some 

 weeks ago and commissioners appoint- 

 ed. The attorneys opposing the dis- 

 trict are interested in the creation of 

 a much larger district, which covers 

 the same territory as the smaller dis- 

 trict which was created. 



