The San Francisco call., 1905-01-25
PERKINS WIELDS
SENATE GKVEL.
Serves During FrUo'S Absence
Suggestion Made That California
Should Grow Pineapples.
BY S. w. WALL.

salmon Matched and planted by the
bureau fishermen are catching 1000
pounds of adult salmon for the mar
ket. AS the entire expense of this
work to the Government is shown to
be under 81 per thousand fish planted,
Bowers estimates that salmon culture
is yielding an enormous profit. If the
average results are but one tenth those
indicated, he says, the bureaus oper-
at1ons give an actual money return of
1000 per cent per annum.
Beneficial use" has come to be a
frequently used term in the talk of the
Reclamation Bureau touching the
question of the diversion of waters for
irrigation purposes. Beneficial use,
says the Secretary of the Interior in a
recent report to Congress touching the
Colorado River schemes, should be
the basis measure and limit" under
which individuals or corporations may
ask or Congress, should grant the right
to use waters of navigable streams.
The diversion of water upon land for
the purpose of irrigation is not
enough, II will be seen. The diver
sion must be upon land of a character
which 1t Is known will respond with
profitable crops when so watered.
The inference is that all the land upon
which water, money and effort have
been expended is not of that charac-
ter. Some of it is so heavily charged
with alkali that the water will not re-
deem it,
In regard to the Colorado River the
report says, with its great fluctuations,
its flood in spring dwindling to a
thread of water in the fall, only by
the comprehensive plans of the Cow
ernment, involving the building of
great and expensive reservoirs, can its
waters be properly conserved and any
considerable area be irrigated whiie
the nayigability of the river is still
maintained. With the Government
acres may be irrigated. 1t is declared
to be manifestly improper TO permit
further appropriations by individuals
and corporations, as such make the
work of the Government more and
more difficult. Appropriations al
ready made, it is said, should be rec>
ognized as limited to the extent that
water has actually been diverted and
beneficially used upon land capable
of producing remunerative crops"
The so-called klamath project is
esteemed by the Reclamation Bureau
as one of the most feasible of all the
reclamation schemes its engineers are
working out. The reason first as
signed is that 1t Will return more for
the money. But even an engineer
will lean to a picturesque feature in
his business. This scheme will first
create desert and then redeem it. 1t
will throw away an abundance of wa
ter, drain two or three lakes to get at
the tillable soil beneath. which it will
water from another lake higher up.
BY draining Tule Lake 100. ZOO acres
will be uncovered. Lower klamath
Lake will release $4,000 more. Then
there Is a bog area to be drained,
embracing about $4,000 acres. About
10000 acres. of valley land is in
cluded in the Scheme. All this is to be
watered by the proper disposition of
the waters of Upper klamath Lake,
body of water covering a surface
area of about 10000 acres This
scheme necessitates legislative action
on the part of the national Govern
ment and the States of California and
Oregon, the States being required to
waive their title to the beds of the
lakes which are on the boundary The
Government works will cost about
s4,0O0,000. The work will be begun
at once following the legislative war;
rant stated.