188 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



WATER POWER THE NATION'S NEED 



(Continued from page 183) 



through the most wonderful and most useful of all 

 modern discoveries, to obtain, with the aid of elec- 

 tric energy, unlimited supplies of fixed nitrogen from 

 the atmosphere. Nitrogen plants using over one 

 million hydroelectric horsepower are in operation in 

 European countries, while the United States is not 

 using a single horsepower for that purpose. This 

 is a reproach to our intelligence and enterprise and 

 is solely due to the failure of congress to enact 

 laws under which capital may be secured for de- 

 velopment of our now wasting water powers. 

 Twelve million horsepower would be required to 

 produce the necessary nitrogen. The cost of the 

 fertilizer would be about $580,000,000, and the re- 

 sultant increase of crop value would exceed $2,000,- 

 000,000. 



In the twenty years preceding the war Ger- 

 many had, through the use of fertilizer, increased 

 the average of all her crops three and one-half times 

 as much per acre as America. Germany, with 70 

 per cent of the population of the United States and 

 cultivating but one-fourth the area, grows in normal 



times 95 per cent of the food products which she 

 consumes. 



The use of fertilizer has a most intimate rela- 

 tion to the cost of living, which has increased in this 

 country at a much more rapid rate than it has 

 abroad. 



The population of the world has doubled in the 

 past sixty-five years, and with increase in numbers 

 there is an increased per capita consumption of food. 

 The extraordinary increase in the cost of living in 

 the United States has been principally in the cost of 

 food products, while other items than foods have 

 increased at only the general rate 'prevailing 

 throughout the world. From 1900 to 1914 the cost 

 of foods in the United States increased 35 per cent, 

 and abroad only 15 per cent. The rapid increase in 

 food cost in this country can only be checked by in- 

 creased crop production, just as food prices were 

 held down in Europe previous to the war through 

 increase in yields per acre obtained without addi- 

 tional labor through the use of fertilizer. The 

 countries of highest agricultural development are 

 the largest consumer of fertilizers. 



The problem of food shortage can only be solved 

 through supplying the soil with atmospheric 

 nitrogen fertilizer, and thus doubling the crops. 



NEWS NOTES FROM IRRIGATION PROJECTS 



OF THE COUNTRY 



CALIFORNIA 



Application has been filed with the 

 State Reclamation Board by Mrs. 

 Annie M. Flaxon and Mrs. Hazel G. 

 M. Montague to build a private irri- 

 gation system in Colusa County, cov- 

 ering an area of 1,458 acres. 



Farmers in the district extending 

 south from Oroville to the Central 

 House and Honcut sections, have de- 

 cided to organize a mutual irrigation 

 district and will be allowed to sign 

 for only the acreage they propose to 

 irrigate. Construction of the irrigat- 

 ing canals will be commenced soon 

 after signatures for the irrigation of 

 10,000 acres of land are obtained. 

 The proposed canals will irrigate 

 60,000 acres in Butte county, south of 

 Oroville, and it is estimated that 30,- 

 000 acres in Yuba county could also 

 be served by the canal. 



The Sutter Butte Canal Company 

 has commenced work constructing 

 an irrigation canal to supply water to 

 a large acreage west of Biggs and 

 Gridley. This canal will be used to 

 convey water formerly carried in a 

 section of Hamilton slough. 



John W. McKeehan of Berkeley, 

 has filed an application with the State 

 Water Commission for permission to 

 appropriate 675.000 acre-feet of the 

 waters of the Calaveras river, by di- 

 version and storage above Jenny Lind 

 in Calaveras county. The application 

 states that the works are to be turned 

 over to one or more irrigation dis- 

 tricts. A diversion dam of concrete, 

 13 feet high, 240 feet long on top and 



bottom; waste way over and around 

 dam, screw-stem headgates, costing 

 $15,000, are embraced in the proposed 

 plans for the project. A storage res- 

 ervoir covering about 5,000 acres, ca- 

 pacity approximately 450,000 acre- 

 feet; a storage reservoir dam 200 feet 

 in height, 1,600 feet long on top, 

 height of dam above water when res- 

 ervoir is full, 10 feet, are also in- 

 cluded in the specifications. The es- 

 timated cost of the works is placed at 

 $2,500,000, and the area proposed to 

 be irrigated at 150,000 acres in San 

 Joaquin and Calaveras counties. 



At the regular monthly meeting of 

 the Happy Valley Irrigation District, 

 held at Olinda, the irrigation system 

 of the Happy Valley Land and Wat- 

 er Company was formally transferred 

 to the district, which will pay $3,000 

 a year rental with the privilege of 

 purchasing the system any time with- 

 in five years for $89,570. 



At a meeting held recently to con- 

 sider the organization of an irriga- 

 tion district between Pleasant Valley 

 and the Sacramento county line, the 

 following were named as members of 

 a committee to obtain data and take 

 such other steps as they deem neces- 

 sary: Geo. Schiff, Sr., of Placerville; 

 W. J. Goff, of Oak Hill; Jack Ray of 

 El Dorado and C. M. Skinner of Res- 



Eleven farmers of Bella Vista and 

 Palo Cedro have held a meeting to 

 attempt to form an irrigation dis- 

 trict. It is proposed to take the un- 

 appropriated waters of Hatchet and 

 Montgomery creeks through Cedar 



Creek into North Cow Creek. The 

 farmers concerned expect to irrigate 

 2,500 acres of land with the water so 

 diverted, provided the State Water 

 Commission will give the permission 

 asked for. 



Fearing that danger threatens 

 their dam and weir on Kings river, 

 the Alta irrigation district, a corpo- 

 ration, has filed an injunction suit 

 against a series of John and Jane 

 Does to prevent harm coming to 

 the weir. Claim is made that un- 

 known defendants have threatened 

 to destroy the weir on Kings river 

 or to divert the water of the river 

 elsewhere and the district seeks to 

 prevent both actions. 



According to the complaint there is 

 at present less than 300 cubic feet of 

 water in the river and the district 

 claims title to 1,000 cubic feet. In view 

 of the low ebb of the stream any di- 

 version at this time, the complaint 

 says, would work hardship on the 

 Alta district lands. 



The district has about 250 miles of 

 main ditch and lateral ditches 

 through Kings, Fresno and Tulare 

 counties. 



COLORADO 



After a delay of more than a year, 

 trial of the suit involving the pay- 

 ment of the East Denver Municipal 

 Irrigation District bonds and interest 

 coupons has been begun before Dis- 

 trict Judge Butler. The trial proba- 

 bly will consume two months. The 

 suit was brought by Prof. Wilbur F. 

 Steele of Denver University, a land- 

 owner in the irrigation district, who is 

 suing for himself and others. Henry 



