94 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



pumping plants have been purchased 

 by as many Roosevelt county farm- 

 ers and ranchers, who were tormerly 

 supplied with power by the Portales 

 company. 



The first sale of state land under the 

 new "thirty-year" or "deferred pay- 

 ment plan" enacted by the recent leg- 

 islature took place at Taos last week, 

 when State Land Commissioner Rob- 

 ert P. Ervien sold at public auction 

 20,716 acres of land in the Red river 

 district in the northern part of Taos 

 county. 



Idaho 



I. B. Perrine, the pioneer of irriga- 

 tion in the Twin Falls section, has in 

 charge another large irrigation 

 scheme for the Twin Falls country. 

 Arrangements have been made to ir- 

 rigate 24,000 acres of land south and 

 southwest of the town of Milner and 

 south of the town of Murtaugh, and 

 eventually to enlarge the system to 

 cover 40,000 acres. 



It is a pumping project and at pres- 

 ent a 1,000-horsepower dynamo is be- 

 ing installed, but it will take many 

 more such engines to furnish power 

 for the entire project. 



The legislature may be asked by 

 Governor Alexander to convey title 

 gratis to 10,000 acres of state land to 

 the Gem irrigation district in Owyhee 

 county, it was announced recently by 

 members of the lower house. The 

 chief executive has told several men 

 that he would prefer to give the Gem 

 district the state lands embraced with- 

 in the confines of that project rather 

 than sign a bill appropriating money 

 for the maintenance of the state 

 lands. 



Big Malad irrigation dam, under 

 construction 12 miles north of Malad 

 at a cost of $125,000, will be com- 

 pleted about June 1. The dam will 

 make a lake a mile long by half a 

 mile wide and will irrigate 8,000 acres. 



There were several advanced steps 

 taken in irrigation legislation in Ida- 

 ho recently. Besides throwing statu- 

 tory safeguards about contracts to be 

 made between the state and Carey act 

 projects promoting companies and 

 taking steps to give the settlers on 

 these projects greater protection, the 

 legislature made a number of amend- 

 ments to the present laws by giving 

 the state engineer authority to clean 

 up his water permits, providing for 

 appeals from his decisions to the dis- 

 trict court and calling for an investi- 

 gation and survey of the irrigation and 

 water resources of the state. In ad- 

 dition, the state virtually unloaded 

 two of the irrigation projects in which 

 it had been interested. It passed a 

 law authorizing the governor to deed 

 the King Hill and King Hill Exten- 

 sion projects to the United States 

 government. This project was pur- 

 chased by the state at public auction. 

 The reclamation service of the in- 

 terior department is now going to 

 have charge. 



Washington 



"Every acre of 100,000 acres of land 

 in the Quincy valley, Grant county, 

 offered lor sale because of delinquent 

 water assessments in the Quincy irri- 

 gation project, and fractions of acres 

 in some instances, were bought at ^a 

 public sale conducted by the county 

 treasurer at Ephrata today," said Fred 

 W. Anderson, of the Anderson Mort- 

 gage and Investment Company, on his 

 return from the scene recently. 



"The entire area brought about 

 $2,000 by estimate, the taxes being 

 generally about a cent an acre, and 

 the treasurer having no right to accept 

 more than the claims for taxes." 



The vote of the water users of 

 Peshastin creek was practically unan- 

 imous in favoring the creation of the 

 Peshastin irrigation district, says a 

 Wenatchee paper. The vote stood 

 55 to 11. This is another step favor- 

 able to the settlement of the water 

 troubles of all those getting water 

 from Peshastin creek. The district 

 will include water users under the 

 Peshastin, Pioneer, Beecher and Gibbs 

 ditches and all riparian rights out of 

 Peshastin creek. 



After representatives of the United 

 States reclamation service had thor- 

 oughly investigated snow conditions 

 at the head waters of the Yakima and 

 Naches rivers and measurements had 

 been taken of the depth of water now 

 in the reservoirs, Project Manager R. 

 K. Tiffany announces that expressed 

 fear of a water shortage in the valley 

 this year is unfounded, notwithstand- 

 ing the light snowfall of the winter. 

 All comparisons were made between 

 conditions as they now are and as 

 they existed on corresponding dates 

 in 1915, the only year that a shortage 

 has existed. 



The passing of amendments to the 

 state irrigation district law, broaden- 

 ing the scope of the act, will result 

 in spending $50,000 on the Sunnyside 

 project alone in the way of better- 

 ments, according to Project Manager 

 R. K. Tiffany, who helped to draw the 

 amendments. The amendments pro- 

 vide for the forming of districts with- 

 in the larger project, which may issue 

 bonds and make improvements. Mr. 

 Tiffany says that many laterals will 

 be concreted and metal flumes in- 

 stalled on different parts of the proj- 

 ect between now and the opening of 

 the 1918 irrigation season. 



In addition to the 4,000 acres includ- 

 ed in the Grandview irrigation district, 

 which will be opened this year, the 

 reclamation service is making prep- 

 arations to open an additional 2,000- 

 acre unit adjoining it on the east. 

 Money for this unit will be available 

 in July. The first machinery for the 

 Grandview project is being installed 

 and water will be available soon after 

 the irrigating season opens. 



May 1 will be the twenty-first an- 

 niversary of the opening of the first 

 irrigation canal on the Seauim prai- 

 rie, which is now the largest district 

 of the kind in western Washington, 

 with 12.000 acres watered by the Dun- 

 geness river. 



Texas 



The Texas legislature passed a bill 

 providing for a general irrigation code 

 and a bill authorizing commissioners' 

 courts to establish irrigation districts. 



A report of the sale of the San 

 Benito Land & Water Company's ir- 

 rigation plant and other holdings near 

 San Benito was filed in the federal 

 district court at Houston recently, 

 with a motion for the confirmation of 

 the sale, which would take the com- 

 pany's property out of receivership. 

 The plant was sold for a cash con- 

 sideration of $150,000 and the assump- 

 tion of $200,000 indebtedness, and was 

 bought by trustees for bondholders. 

 It is now proposed by people living 

 near the irrigation canal to issue 

 bonds to the amount of $600,000 and 

 purchase the plant from the present 

 owners. 



The general irrigation bill, which 

 strengthens the present irrigation law, 

 was signed March 10 by Governor 

 Ferguson. The governor also signed 

 the house bill authorizing commis- 

 sioners' courts to create and establish 

 districts for irrigation purposes; the 

 house bill providing that sand and 

 other deposits taken from raising the 

 grade of salt flats of Corpus Christi 

 shall be exempt from the provisions 

 of chapters 68 and 154. 



South Dakota 



Four thousand acres of irrigation 

 land in the vicinity of Belle Fourche, 

 which recently was opened to settle- 

 ment in accordance with an order of 

 the secretary of the interior, rapidly 

 is being entered. The land is subject 

 to entry in 80-acre tracts. The en- 

 trymen. and entrywomen are charged 

 $2.25 per acre at the time when entry 

 is made, and an additional sum of 

 $42.25 per acre will have to be paid in 

 fifteen equal annual payments. Those 

 who have entered the lands are pre- 

 paring to make them produce crops 

 during the coming season. The open- 

 ing to settlement of these lands will 

 add greatly to the crop production of 

 this territory. 



Nebraska 



The first irrigation district bonds 

 ever bought by the state of Nebraska 

 were bought over the protest of State 

 Treasurer G. E. Hall. Governor Nev- 

 ille, Attorney-General Reed, Land 

 Commissioner Shumway and Secre- 

 tary of State Pool, members of the 

 board of educational lands and funds 

 of the state, bought irrigation bonds 

 to the amount of $46,000 as an invest- 

 ment for educational funds. Treas- 

 urer Hall, who is a member of this 

 board, protested. 



The purchase was completed Feb. 

 24, when Secretary of State Pool af- 

 fixed his signature and the seal of the 

 state to each bond. The brokers who 

 sold the bonds to the state paid a fee 

 of $260 for the signature of the secre- 

 tary of state. The bonds bear 6 per 

 cent interest. In the rate of interest 

 this is the best bargain the state has 

 received in many a year. 



