The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-11-16

in our available water supply might
be shown up. Inasmuch however, as
l am addressing an audience composed
almost entirely of Salt Lake county
agriculturalists I wish to glance al
one more cause of loss before l pass
on to the next problem. The irrigation
engineer who surveys the many canals
taken out of the Jordan river and
their close proximity to each other is
reminded of the church buildings in
some of the smaller eastern towns
Each denomination Roman Catholic
Episcopalian, Methodist Presbyterian
Baptist, Congregational and a number
of others must erect a church edifice
of some kind although the number OF
worShippers be few. The desire OF
each particular denomination to fight
the devil single handed involves an
immense loss in what we might term
first cost and annual operating eX-
penses. In my rambles over this
vicinity last summer I learned that
you had at least five canals taking
water from the Jordan, three on the
west and two on the east and that
some ran nearly parallel to each other
and only the width of a few farms
apart Upon inquiry l learned that
the annual cost for maintenance and
repairs on each canal varied all the
way from so cents to 81 per acre per
annum. This conclusion may be wrong
and if so I trust some of you will
show wherein it is erroneous, but /
could not help thinking then and am
of the same opinion still that it was
much to be deplored that you could
not merge the five canals into two one
on each bank of the Jordan and the
money and labor which are now ex-
pended in striving to maintain five
canals could all be devoted to two
which would make of them the best
and most impervious bitches in the
country. This may prove too
difficult problem for our genera
ton to solve but there can be no
harm done in thinking over it
and it may be that our children will
satisfactorily complete the work which
we begin However this may be, there
is no question as to the immense
amount of loss through seepage and
evapora ton from so many canals. 1t
was this object in view, namely, the
determination of the amount of loss
from these causes that I made dur
ing the past season something like
fifty measurements at the various lat
eral head-gates of the Utah and Salt
Lake canal The waste of water on
this one canal along the. main trunk,
not to speak of the loss from similar
amounted to about an even 20 per cent.
or something like IS feet. enough to
irrigate, under skilful management,
perhaps 5000 acres Of land.
Mr.. President am reminded that
some one has put me down on the pro-
gramme to deal with the Irrigation
Problem of Utah" and l have already
spent most of my time in one little
county of Utah and on one little sub
G1xy or nf or
great problem, the most important in
Utah today. still remains unSolved, but
trust that an opportunity will be af-
forded me of appearing before you at
some future time to take up another
phase Of the question. There is the
storage of surplus waters of the terri
tory, a full discussion of which might
occupy the entire time at the disposal
of this convention. In connection with
that immense tract of fertile land ly-
ing above the Utah and Salt Lake
canal, comprising perhaps 10000 acres,
will some day support more than horned
toads and Jack rabbits. The admirable
facilities which exist on the sources of
the Cottonwoods to store water will
be utilized, and we may see in the near
future a high line canal taken around
by Draperville from the Cottonwoods
be that the stored water will be con-
Quoted from its mountain channel
through an inverted siphon stretching
across this valley and raising the
water 'on the other side of Jordan"
far above the level of your highest
canals, or it may be raised by centri-
fugal pumps.
The division of water might be taken
as the text to preach a pretty lengthy
irrigation sermon upon.
There is not only the apportionment
of the flow in a particular canal among
the various water right owners in pro-
portion to the number of shares owned
by each taker, but there is the more
serious undertaking of making an
equable division of the creeks and
rivers to the various bitches taking
water therefrom. Then again, we
have confronting us the judicial set
tlement of thousands of claims to
water rights. Comparatively few of
the irrigators of Utah possess an abso-
lutte title to their water. This is mat
ter which comes home to most of us.
We would ask that the water, the one
essential element in profitable farm
ing in this region, and the one for
which we have toiled from youth to
manhood, and from manhood to old
age to possess, be adjudicated. In other
words we desire to acquire as abso-
lutte a title to the water which is ours
by right of prior appropria-
ton and continued use as we
now possess in our lands, so that our
last hours upon this earth may not
be made miserable by the thought
that litigation may deprive our fami-
lies of the mainstay of their existence,
their water supply.
Now you will readily perceive that
Gil of
Irriga ton problem that have touched
upon, the crying need is for more &C
curate information The very founda-
ton of irrigation legislation has yet
to be laid in Utah-legislation that will
be adapted not to a particular section
Or community, but to the whole of the
territory. To attain this end we must
ascertain the needs of all the people
and when these wants together with
all the physical data that can be col
Iected are before us, we can then COM
pare the various irrigation laws in the
states around us and with this full
knowledge and upon such a broad
foundation we may frame our irriga-
ton laws
AS it is at present when a Utah man
Is asked some important question re-
ating to this art which has made the
territory famous, he has too often to
reply that he does not know. He asks
the questioner, however. to write to
man who lives in Washington, D. c.,
who may be able to give the desired
What is your available
water supply? We don't know. The
man measured a few
streams but hundreds have never been
measured. Is not the water supply by
ar the most valuable part of Utahs
possessions? Yes, we are irrigating
now about 100000 acres. but if we had
plenty of water we could irrigate ten
lines that amount. What is the duty
If water in Utah? In other words
now many acres will a continuous flow
If one cubic foot per second irrigate?
We don't know; the Washington man
links he knows, but he seems to be
-. l.. IL IL