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BETTER FRUIT 



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MOST PROFITABLE USE OF OUR WATER SUPPLY 



BY S. O. JAYNE, 



A RECENT PUBLICATION issued 

 by fhe State Bureau of Statistics 

 says: "It is quite within the 

 range of possibilities that the products 

 of the irrigated lands of Washington 

 will in time exceed in annual value 

 the present output from our combined 

 timber and cereal producing areas." 

 According to the same authority the 

 forest and grain products aggregate not 

 less than $100,000,000 in value each year. 

 To expect so much from irrigated lands 

 may seem very optimistic, but I do not 

 consider it unreasonable. But whether 

 or not the products of irrigation ever 

 reach the figure given there can be no 

 question that the future development 

 of agriculture in the State of Washing- 

 ton will depend as much, or more, upon 

 a judicious use of our water supply than 

 upon any other factor. 



There are millions of acres of land in 

 Eastern Washington most admirably 

 adapted to irrigation farming so far as 

 soil and climatic conditions are con- 

 cerned; in fact there is scarcely an acre 

 of ground or a farm which would not, 

 with the skillful use of water, yield much 

 larger and more profitable crops than 

 can be grown by dry farming methods 

 or by depending solely on the natural 

 precipitation. And not all of the land 

 adapted to irrigation is in the eastern 

 part of the state. Over west of the 

 mountains there are many districts of 

 considerable extent which would be 

 wonderfully benefited through irrigation, 

 though the fact is only beginning to be 

 realized. 



We have at the present time less than 

 500,000 acres under ditch, and I believe 

 less than 300,000 acres actually irrigated. 

 It is conservatively estimated that we 

 have four times the former figure, or 

 2,000,000 acres irrigable, but as to what 

 part of this or how much more will 

 eventually be irrigated no man knows. 

 But certain we are of this, that our 

 available land many times exceeds the 

 amount of available water, and we know 

 that the greater the area that our avail- 

 able water can be made to efficiently irri- 

 gate the greater will be the wealth and 

 general benefit to the state. 



IRRIGATION MANAGER U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



With this knowledge, then, it is per- 

 tinent and timely to determine whether 

 existing methods and agencies affecting 

 the use of the water supply are such as 

 will guarantee the maximum duty. If 

 present conditions are not favorable to 

 best use along what lines and in what 

 way can improvement be brought about? 



To discuss in detail all the many and 

 varied influences bearing upon the sub- 

 ject is, however, not permissible here, 

 and an attempt will be made to consider 

 only a few of the most important. 



In the disposition of public resources 

 of value, such as our water supply, there 

 should be in the beginning adequate laws 

 or provisions to regulate its appropria- 

 tion and insure its proper use. Not to 

 maintain such supervision is like giving 

 a large family of small children free 

 access to the sugar barrel. 



The sugar would disappear very rap- 

 idly. There would be abundant evidence 

 of use, but no record as to how or where. 

 There would be waste, over-indulgence, 

 internal ills, doctor bills, and doubtless 

 bickerings over possession of the biggest 

 lumps. Now, the people of this state 

 have for the past thirty-five or forty 

 years been runiling to Mother Washing- 

 ton's sugar barrel, or, more literally, to 

 the water barrel, with practically no 

 restraint beyond the individual will. 

 Appropriations have been made out of 

 all proportion to the physical needs; 

 some has been used, much has been 

 wasted. There has been over-indulgence, 

 and the internal ills are evidenced by the 

 breaking out of alkali. Over on the 

 reservation we have a doctor bill of 

 $150,000 for a capital operation in the 

 way of an eighteen-mile drainage ditch; 

 at Richland another for $40,000; in the 

 Moxee, on Nob Hill and at Sunnyside 

 already large sums have gone to pay 

 the price of folly and misuse, and the end 

 is not yet. At times of shortage there 

 have been the to be expected bickerings 

 over possession of the biggest share, and 

 expensive litigation is still going on. 

 Official records of use are almost entirely 

 lacking and of little value. Outside of 

 the Yakima Valley perhaps not one ditch 

 in a hundred has ever been actually 

 measured, and no one knows how much 



water is being used, or with what 

 efficiency. 



State supervision over the character of 

 irrigation development there is practi- 

 cally none at all. Anyone, be he so 

 inclined, may place a few miles of cheap 

 pipe on a piece of cheap land, connect a 

 cheap pumping plant, print an expensive 

 book showing beautiful and profitable 

 orchards and proceed to sell out to inno- 

 cent Easterners for whatever price his 

 conscience will stand for, and there is 

 no authority to say him nay. It is legiti- 

 mate business. But it is not fair to the 

 purchaser, to the honest promoter, nor 

 to the state. Such a condition of affairs 

 is in every way inimical to best use of 

 the water supply, and it certainly is time 

 for Mother Washington to assert her 

 prerogatives, lay down some better law 

 and assume her responsibilities in the 

 matter. 



One of the prevalent sources of waste 

 throughout the state has been, and still 

 is, the seepage from poorly constructed 

 ditches and canals. To this cause, in a 

 measure, also is due the waterlogged 

 condition of much of the land now 

 requiring drainage. The magnitude of 

 the annual loss occurring in this way is 

 not generally known or appreciated. 

 Measurements made by the irrigation 

 investigations of the Department of 

 Agriculture during the past few years on 

 a great many canals show an average 

 loss on main canals of about one per cent 

 for each mile that water is carried; on 

 laterals the losses amount to eleven or 

 twelve per cent, while on some California 

 canals the loss in a single mile is sixty- 

 four per cent, and we have some that 

 can probably leak as fast as any in 

 California. 



On one of the larger canals at the 

 lower end of the Yakima Valley, in 1906, 

 there was found to be a loss of twenty- 

 five and two-tenths per cent in a distance 

 of less than nine miles, and the total 

 amount lost from the main canal was 

 estimated at over fifty per cent of the 

 water taken in at the head. One of the 

 Spokane Valley canals showed a loss 

 in 1907 of forty per cent in about three 

 miles. The Sunnyside canal, the largest 

 in the state, constructed almost entirely 

 in earth of fine texture, loses, according 

 to estimates, fifteen per cent in the main 

 channel and an equal amount in the 

 lateral system, making a total loss of 

 thirty per cent of the water diverted 

 from the river. 



The waste from the Sunnyside canal 

 from this cause is less than the average. 

 If all the canals of the valley or of the 

 state be considered it is doubtful if more 

 than fifty per cent of the water diverted 

 from the streams ever reaches the fields. 

 But assume that the Sunnyside canal is 

 representative and that thirty per cent 

 is a fair estimate of the total loss in 

 transit, (the total average diversion 

 from the Yakima River and tribu- 

 taries during August, 1905, amounted to 

 approximately 2,000 cubic feet per sec- 

 ond,) then on the basis of our assumption 

 the waste from seepage would be 600 



