THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



203 



FUTURE WATER CONSERVATION IN 

 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 



In the Los Angeles Time's of recent date, Harry 

 Bowling, one of the best informed irrigation men 

 of the west, reviews in detail the irrigation possi- 

 bilities of Southern California. 



"Southern California," he writes, "when all the 

 waters are properly conserved, will witness a start- 

 ling change in its topography like the change in 

 road travel when an old, dusty lane is broadened, 

 leveled and macadamized. Water conservation 

 means that our rivers and creeks will be made over 

 in the scientific and thorough way that installed the 

 good roads system throughout Los Angeles county. 

 And the transformation of the country will be even 

 more remarkable. 



"From San Gabriel Canyon to Alamitos Bay 

 as the crow flies is less than fifty miles. But in 

 crossing this strip of territory the San Gabriel 

 twists and wriggles till it manages to scoop out a 

 water course more than a hundred miles long. In 

 many places its bed is a mile across, though the 

 actual water channel or channels occupy only a 

 twentieth of the space. During the rainy season 

 it has eaten through acres of good farm land and 

 wasted tons of good real estate on the inappreci- 

 ative waters of the Pacific Ocean. 



"To undertake the straightening of this river 

 seems a big job, but it is insignificant compared 

 with the gigantic task of bringing the Owens River 

 water from the base of Mt. Whitney into the city 

 of Los Angeles. Yet this was successfully accom- 

 plished without government aid. We hope and 

 believe, however, that the United States govern- 

 ment will lend a hand in helping to conserve the 

 storm waters in Southern California, for which 

 work plans are already being formulated. 



"Supposing the cost of reconstructing the San 

 Gabriel River to be $8,000,000. This would be a 

 cheap price compared with the benefits that would 

 accrue from new orchards, new alfalfa and sugar 

 beet fields, new dairies and stock farms in a hundred 

 different localities. As soon as the extra water was 

 available for irrigating interest would be forthcom- 

 ing on the capital expended, and with prudent man- 

 agement ten years should see the debt wiped out. 

 When you come to think that every acre brought 

 under irrigation is enhanced ten times in value, the 

 cost of saving all our winter rains for agricultural 

 purposes looks like a conservative and paying in- 

 vestment, however large the initial outlay. On the 

 credit side we must also add the sum saved every 

 winter from flood damage, washed out bridges, 

 filled-in harbors and good soil pounded into sand 

 by unfettered flood waters. 



"In the Salt River Valley, Arizona, the United 

 States government has carried out a more difficult 

 project by building the Roosevelt Dam, providing 

 water for 210,000 acres, at a cost of $11,000,000, 

 and the revenue for 1915, exclusive of land sales, 

 is calculated at $500,000. Land that formerly was 

 worthless is now selling at $300 an acre. Before 

 the time granted by the government for refunding 

 the money has elapsed, the capital and interest will 

 have been fully paid up and the whole project 

 belong to the farmers of Salt River Valley. 



"After the San Gabriel the Los Angeles River 

 is the chief water course in the county. This, too, 

 has been neglected in the past. As this stream 

 empties into San Pedro harbor and causes incessant 

 expense to the government for dredging operations, 

 the government is also interested in controlling and 

 regulating it. 



"There are three schemes now being worked 

 out for water conservation in Southern California. 

 One is to divert the Los Angeles River from the 

 San Pedro harbor into the marshes that line the 

 coast from Bay City to Balboa. Another is to con- 

 trol all the water courses' by building an immense 

 dam in the foothills to impound the storm waters 

 in one gigantic lake at the base of the mountains. 

 This lake can then be tapped for irrigating thou- 

 sands of acres between San Bernardino and Santa 

 Monica. A third plan is to straighten the principal 

 streams, catch the overflow in various reservoirs 

 along the course, and dispose of the silt in con- 

 venient places. A combination of the chief features 

 of all three schemes may be the final outcome." 



ENGLISHMEN PRESENT BIG CLAIM 



There is a pretty international tangle develop- 

 ing around the Elephant Butte government project 

 in Texas and New Mexico. 



Nathan Boyd, of Las Cruces, N. M., organized 

 the Elephant Butte Dam and Irrigation Company 

 years ago and interested a vast amount of English 

 capital. 



Boyd attempted to build a dam at Elephant 

 Butte for the reclamation of the Mesilla valley, but 

 the United States government beat him out on it 

 in the courts after long and costly litigation on the 

 plea that a dam at the Elephant Butte would inter- 

 fere with the navigability of the Rio Grande. Then 

 the U. S. Reclamation Service turned around and 

 built the dam, on the plea that under treaty rights 

 the government owed Mexico and Texas a certain 

 amount of the waters of the Rio Grande. 



Now Nathan Boyd's associates have turned to 

 the state department with a nice sized claim for 

 damages. New Mexicans fear the Reclamation 

 Service will use this claim as a pretext to give away 

 some more of the waters of the river. 



F. E. Myers & Bro., Ashland, Ohio, have recent- 

 ly published a poster patterned after their annual 

 calendar poster which shows their line of power 

 pumps only. This poster is an exceptionally good 

 example of the Lithographers' art. It shows only a 

 few illustrations of their line of Bulldozer Power 

 Pumps and working Heads. These pumps are par- 

 ticularly adapted to irrigation and heavy drainage 

 work and a copy of this attractive poster will be 

 mailed to any of our readers who will write F. E. 

 Myers & Bro., Ashland, Ohio, and mention IRRIGA- 

 TION AGE. 



SEND $1.00 FOR THE IRRIGATION AGE 

 ONE YEAR AND THE PRIMER OF 

 IRRIGATION. 



