THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



155 



Letters from Our Readers 



Boston, Mass., July 20, 1916. 

 To the Editor of the IRRIGATION AGE, 



30 North Dearborn Street, 



Chicago, 111. 

 Dear Sir: 



I read in your July number an article on the Duty of 

 Water in Irrigation with some interest. 



I own an irrigated ranch of about 160 acres in south- 

 eastern Colorado and have been for some time interested 

 in the duty of water. 



Prof. V. M. Cone of the Colorado Experiment Station, 

 in an address at Fort Collins some years ago, made a 

 statement that nine inches of water was enough. 



John A. Widtsoe, president of the Utah Agricultural 

 College, Logan, Utah, in Bulletin 117, gives a very inter- 

 esting discussion on the duty of water, in which he says: 



"The duty of water depends in part on soil condi- 

 tions. 



"The investigations that we have made, and others 

 have made elsewhere, make it clear that the best quantity 

 of water to be used for the various crops ordinarily grown 

 is between ten and twenty-acre inches. The best quantity 

 lies nearer probably the former figure. It is doubtiul if 

 more than two feet of water is ever justifiable, especially 

 when the rainfall is between twelve and fifteen inches. 

 Twelve inches would undoubtedly be better." 



This bulletin also contains a series of very careful 

 experiments regarding the use of water, and his conclu- 

 sions are based upon the actual working conditions, cov- 

 ering a number of different crops which are commonly 

 grown in arid regions. You will see that his conclusions 

 bear out what Professor Cone of Colorado says. 



Colorado is one of the earliest irrigation sections and 

 contains more irrigated lands than elsewhere. The over- 

 use of water there is more clearly demonstrated than 

 almost anywhere else. Thousands and thousands of acres 

 in old irrigated sections have been abandoned because of 

 waterlogging of the land through overirrigation, and you 

 can go through the San Luis valley today and see aban- 

 doned farms by the wholesale, due entirely to this cause. 



The true facts seem to be that farmers undertake to 

 make the overuse of water take the place of cultivation. 

 In some cases this is extremely successful for a few years 

 and then the land is ruined. 



There have been some interesting experiments made 

 in connection with alfalfa growing and the use of water. 

 It appears that up to twenty inches of water during the 

 growing season a crop of alfalfa is constantly increasing: 

 beyond twenty inches the results show a decrease until 

 one gets up to a duty of three feet, and from three to 

 four feet there was a small increase in the crop, but 

 beyond that, none whatever. 



The man who is using four feet of water on his alfalfa 

 is gaining, in a slight addition to his crop, at the expense 

 of his land in years to come. 



From my own experience, I would not use over 

 twenty-four inches of water for alfalfa in any event. The 

 results of irrigating above twelve inches of water for the 

 ordinary grain crop grown in our section show a large 

 decrease in the crop, usually one-half of normal. 



Settlers under the old irrigation districts have learned 

 the danger of overuse of water. The new settlers cannot 

 get enough of it, and the results already show in the 

 government reclamation projects that settlers are over- 

 irrigating to such an extent that now at the end of only 

 a few years of the use of the land it becomes necessary 

 to put in a drainage system in order to let the land grow 

 anything. 



It seems to me that this question is so important to 

 any one operating an irrigated farm that it should be 

 brought to the attention of the farmers and your readers 

 as forcibly as possible. 



Very truly yours, 



HENRY D. TUDOR. 



Seattle, Wash., July 19, 1916. 

 Mr. D. H. Anderson, 



Editor IRRIGATION AGE, 



Chicago, 111. 

 My Dear Sir: 



In case your attention has not been called to it, I 

 believe some facts regarding the recent state Water Code 

 Conference, held in Tacoma, will be of interest to you. 

 There is a good deal connected with it, but I shall touch 

 the whole subject only in high places. 



Two months ago I wrote a note to ten of the leading 

 men in Seattle, who were in one way or another inter- 

 ested in irrigation, asking them to meet for a luncheon 

 at the Arctic Club, which I had arranged, and the pur- 

 poses of which were to start a movement for the securing 

 of a water code for the state of Washington. These men 

 appointed a committee of five, of which I chanced to be 

 a member, whose duty it was to "start something." We 

 immediately interviewed the governor, with the result that 

 he sent out over 200 invitations, including irrigation dis- 

 tricts and projects, hydro-electric companies, power com- 

 panies, commercial organizations, labor unions, clearing 

 house associations, certain county officials, etc., asking 

 that they send delegates to Tacoma on July llth and 12th 

 in order that we might frame a water code and be agreed 

 upon some line of procedure in advance of the coming 

 legislature in January. 



You perhaps know that where our sister states of 

 Oregon and Idaho, and most of the other arid states, have 

 revised their water laws in protection of irrigation inter- 

 ests, the state of Washington is still straddling the fence. 

 Our constitution provides for appropriations, but our Su- 

 preme Court has made some strong resolutions in favor of 

 riparian rights. The whole situation needs attention, and 

 for the past twelve years relief has been needed from leg- 

 islation. 



Interest is more diversified in the state of Washing- 

 ton than any other arid state. The Cascade Mountain 

 range, running north and south, makes eastern Washing- 

 ton as different as England is from Australia. Power 

 predominates on the west slope and irrigation is king, or 

 ought to be king, in eastern Washington. On the west 

 side Stone & Webster are deeply entrenched. The Great 

 Northern Railroad has a stupendous, potential, hydro- 

 electric plant at Lake Chelan, not to mention a number 

 of others. At each successive legislature the irrigation 

 people have met the same old -story, so that this year we 

 thought it wise to begin in time and to make an effort 

 to see to it that the water code was a part of the legisla- 

 ture program in advance of the election of the legislators, 

 to say nothing of the coming together of the legislature. 



At Tacoma we met the same old faces which have 

 confronted us at various legislatures, with the result that 

 nothing definite was accomplished. It is true that irri- 

 gation interests there could have secured the adoption 

 of any sort of a resolution recommending a code most 

 favorable to irrigation, but the object of this conference 

 was to get together and arrange matters so that there 

 would not be the same fight when the legislature meets 

 in 1917. Therefore, there was much talk of compromise. 

 The final result, however, was that the conference was 

 adjourned to meet again in North Yakima in November, 

 at a date to be set by the permanent chairman. The 

 chairman also is to appoint a committee of seven, repre- 

 senting the various and sundry interests which are af- 

 fected, and this committee, it is hoped, will be able to 

 submit to the Yakima meeting a code which will be sat- 

 isfactory to all concerned. Whatever passes this meet- 

 ing will in all probability pass the legislature also. 



The Associated Press gave considerable publicity to 

 this conference, but what I have said I hope will at least 

 supplement the information you have on the subject. 

 Very truly jours, 



H. M. STREET. 



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