The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1904-08-04
IRRIGATION PROSPECTS IN NEVADA.

annual report of Engineer l.. H. Tay-
lor, the resident photographer of
Nevada for the Geological Survey, has
been forwarded to Mr.. Newell, the
national photographer, and is now,
along with other reports, in the hands
of the government printer. Important
work has been done in Nevada since
the passage of the irrigation law; work
which promises to lift the battle born
State from the foot of the list and at
least give it the agricultural Importance
to which its fertile soil and fine climate
entitle it. The trouble with Nevada
has been that all her lands, suitable for
| farming were in their early history
stolen by the stock men, who turned
the State into one vast grazing ground.
The national government now comes
to the rescue with storage reservoirs,
and the small settler will have his
ends.
The first shovelful of earth under the
national irrigation act was thrown in
commencing the work on what is
known as the government Truckee-
Carson project. The irrigable lands
commanded by the Truckee and Car
son rivers, the flood waters of which
the government will store, lie in Reno
valley, to the extent of probably $4,000
acres; along the foot hills north of the
Truckee river and in a number of me-
dunn sized valleys, about 10000 acres;
on the Pyramid Indian reservation and
adjacent to Wadsworth about $4,000
acres; in the Carson Sink valley fully
100000 acres; in the Churchill and
Dayton valleys about 10000 acres and
in the lower Humboldt or Lovelock val
ley about Is, 900 acres.
Much of this land is held in private
ownership and will require the opera
ton of water users association, to
deal with the government such as has
been organized III the Salt River valley.
In the Carson Sink valley Mr.. Taylor
reports about ZOO acres in public
land This is a fortunate circumstance,
and from the standpoint of the future
! settler it is also fortunate that the en-
gineers of the present Reclamation
Service had these Nevada conditions in
mind at the time of the passage of the
| irrigation act, else there would have
been a repetition in part of the calam-
ity which happened to Nevada when
she came into the Union and the spec
ulators Immediately secured all the
valuable land and water rights and eX-
cluded settlement, so that now Nevada
has but about 10000 population. Ger
tain parties were ready to file upon this
government land, Immediately that the
irrigation bill passed. utilizing the
desert land act and the communication
clause of the homestead act for this
nefarious scheme, by which the specu-
lators would profit at the hands of the
future settler But the telegraph was
quicker than the steam engine and be-
cause members of Mr.. Newelps sur
veying force knew what would happen
to the public lands under the Truckee
project, Immediately the irrigation bill
was passed, vesting authority in the
Interior Department to withdraw lands
from speculative entry, the entire
country within any possible range of
the Truckee or Carson waters was held
up from anything but fve-year home
stead entry.
Mr.. Taylor's official statement re-
garding the surveys made of the
Truckee-C Carson project is that:
'sThe investigations of the water sup
ply have not progressed sufficiently to
warrant close estimate of the irriga-
ton possibilities, but it is confidently
believed that the water can be con-
trolled so as to reclaim at least 375, 900
acres"
Here would be 2,344 one hundred and
sixty acre farms or an agricultural pop
ulation, leaving out the towns and
trading centers, of probably 1,72O.
While Mr.. Taylor's report is of
statistical nature and somewhat dry,
though Notwithstanding the subject
treated of he, in one paragraph, paints
picture of the possible results of the
government work, not without human
interest. The principal crops, he says,
arc alfalfa which is emf five or six
times a year, about ton to the crop,
barley, oats, and wheat, averaging
twenty five or thirty bushels to the
acre, though instances have been
known of seventy-five bushels per acre.
Grapes thrive and produce good yields
of fruit of excellent flavor, three acres
having produced 5000 pounds. Pome-
granates, peaches and apricots do well,
as do vegetables and small fruits.
GUY E. MITCHELL.