Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1903-09-03
IRRIGATION FUND
WASHINGTON HAS MORE THAN
MOST STATES
Chief Engineer Newell, OF the Geo
logical Survey. Writes of The gro
jectOd WUrk.--His Report Now III
Course OF Preparations. Yakima
Valley Projects

Washington, Sept. l.-For irrigation
its credit on the books of the federal
government fully million and a half
OF dollars. Yet the federal reclama-
ton act was passed by congress only
little more than year ago. There
is hardly state in the union-the eX-
ceptiOns may be two or three-which
has a larger available fund for the
purpose OF retaining arid and semi
arid lands under the great policy so
persistently championed by President
Roosevelt last year.
The first annual report of Chief En-
gineer Newell, of the geological survey,
is now in preparation. This report
Will discuss in volume of more than
300 pages the progress of the last year
in irrigation projects under the recla-
nation act of 1902. Washington makes
fine showing. Other states, included
wholly or in part in the arid belt, have
! large funds to their credit already,
but the superior advantage of Wash
ington is directly due to the rapid
settlement of government lands with
in her borders. The proceeds of the
sale of public lands are devoted al
most entirely to the irrigation fund
Under this system Washington has
a credit of S257, $50 for the fiscal year
1901; $541 500 for the fiscal year 1902
and an oct i1na aI crodit of cop,atb ;,r
like 100000 for the fiscal period re-
Gently closed-1903. Montana, North
Dakota and Oklahoma alone, probably,
have accumulated a larger fund for
the irrigation of arid and semi-arid
lands
Yakima Valley Projects.
AS to irrigation in Washington,
Chief Engineer Newell will say in his
annual report that the most feasible
opportunities for reclamation are
those offered by the Yakima river and
it's tributaries, the principal obstacle
being that much of the land to be bene-
flied is in private ownership.
Already steps have bee ntaken,"
says Mr.. Newell in this connection, Ito
utilize some of the storage reservoirs
in the Cascade mountains, and it is
not desirable for the government to
fOreStall work which can be carried
on by private parties. The river meas
urements carried on through several
years throw light upon the possibili-
ties of storage, but thorough inves
tigation of the entire river is neces-
sary before it can be determined what
projects will be of greatest public
Importance. Such an examination is
greatly facilitated by the existence of
good topographic maps covering much
of the drainage area, so that in this
respect Yakima river is more favorably
situated than some of the other
streams.
Need Artesan Wells.
There is some difficulty in reclaim
ing the great arid plains of the Column
ba basin for the reason that the
stream, although carrying a large
amount of water, is far below the gen
eral level of the country The North
ern Pacific railroad owns the alternate
sections of land, the government lands
form a checkered pattern. Reclama
ton on a large scale is thus compli-
Gated by the existence of alternate sec
lions in private ownership.
Nevertheless, Mr.. Newell says: The
matter of chief interest in the center
of the state is the possibility of obtain
ing deep or artesian waters over the
dry Columbia plains. Before deter
mining. this a very thorough study
of the geologic structure must be
made. Preliminary work in this d.
recton has been done by Prof. Israel
c. Russell, of Ann Arbor also by
George Otis Smith, and, in 1902, by
Frank C. Cakins, assistant geologist.
3 typefdry seq 81
Even the people of Washington, out
side of the irrigated regions, probably
do not realize the extent and value
of the reclamation work that has al
ready been done. This work has been
accomplished largely through private
enterprise, however, for absolutely
nothing except preliminary work has
yet been done in the state under the
reclamation act of last year. The to-
tai irrigated area of the state was Civ
en- in these dispatches several days
ago. In 1889 the irrigated area was
only 4S.799 acres. Now it is four or
five times as great.