The San Francisco call., 1904-09-06
IRRIGATION FANcIES.

OWED bv desire to disp illusions their indulgence
M and disappointment recently deprecated GER
responsible people in authority in the Federal rgaon enter
One of these ancies duty of water the
quantity allotted given Of gab land 1t had been stated
m one of the engineers charge Federal work Nevada
that miners iriga 500 OF land We regarded
this unsound position and gave Our reasons M Ppne0i
another Federal engineer supported our position out
the proof had been made But it
made II advanced as mere theory pe forward IN
an academic discussion nor was expressed hope used
for illustrative purposes illuminate hypothesis 1t was sworn
TO as fact, stated under oath. m Ill ..:
occurred the with interest because the
engineer under oath charge OF the
IIH 1Iuokee % p - % I :; Nada were brought under irri
cation and fine production by using of the Humboldt
River Others these rrgaors and proposed
b building dam to take all the water OF the river denying any
light thereto v the prior appropriations at Lovelocks prior
appropriations fought for the fertility of their fields and in the
duous litigation the expert employed
by those who proposed depo them He sought to show that
the approprators using than their land
Cal he testified dry climate of Fresno
sandy land miners inch efficiently irrigated 500 acres Of
land When similar litigation arose in Churchill County, Nevada
ng against the rights OF the prior aPProPrators there he
the
These things are by attorneys
cases. whom San Francisco The
pators their the Federal courts But the testimony of
the expert engineer 500 of land
inspiration of theoretical gaors and their
extraordinary service OF water put in charge OF the Govern.
work This the origin of the entirely inflated expectation of
of land that will be irrigated the arid by the
esurelv examination of the estimates made bv Mr. Lippn-
his letter The Call reveal him leaning toward
OF about the of He
conditions Klamath district His allowance for
him correctly go cubic feet of
which treesxteenhs inch That
thin sheet of spread upon land region where
evaporation fifteen year We doubt
much whether will sustain growing If he that a
flowing constantly ninety will suffice for
this result: In half 4o
square which miners inch ninety days would about
inches He allows eighteen inches klamath for the
against the record of thirty
rainfall Yuma shows annual precipitation
three inches only while klamath is thirty
o fifty inches.
world show that land requires about
during the growing produce
This averaging all aborptve conditions of the soil and all
evaporation Itay the valley of the Po has long established
scientific irrigation and the average duty of cubic
about continuous flow But
has rainfall of between thrtyve and FORTY
inches which twenty-five inches falls in the of growing
crops irrigated land of Italy gets about 3o inches o.
inches of little eve
feet in the of crop growth.
OF take Mr. Lppincott in his Yuma illustration to
mean a miners inch in twentyour hours distributed
days. cubic three months
produce We refer the subject again
practical gato who that the world
passed experimental stage which many Government engineers
nger take the herein expressed and its publication
explanations will them right they wrong.
word of caution have that it will be far
engineers underestimate the duty
than overestimate it. Federal irrigation large and
experiment 1t politics with the approval of both
the failures dsappontmens likely attend will be
mtigated by moderation