The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-07-17

proceeds of the sale of government land adjacent to the ditehes and the sale of water to the settlers who are expect ed to take up the land. One of the chief difficulties that government en- lgineers will have to contend with is the wind, which carries in front of it and in its trail a cloud of sand. On stormy day the desert sand drifts constantly into the ditch so rapidly that it threatens the usefulness of the canal if not cleaned out every few
 weeks The only remedy that has been l found for this evil is a series of fences
 to hold back the powered silica.
 The initial irrigation system will be used to distribute water over about
 SOOOO acres of land. During the next
 two years the system will be extended to cover 10000 acres more. This will
 increase the total distributing system to length of 1,200 miles. Arrange ments are now being made to construct a regulating dam at the mouth of Lake Tahoe. As a large acrea of land is brought under irrigation and the de-
 mand for water increases. five or six tSe"@SA NS1iAAo OIl lllG II uNACS 4kIfCI anu its tributaries will be constructed and four reservoirs will be built on the Carson River. One of the reservoirs
 will be eighteen miles in length and will have a surface area of 11,000 acres The method of obtaining the govern
 ment land in the newly irrigated area Will be simple. The charge has been fixed by the Secretary of the Interior 1 at maximum of $26 an acrea. This sum
 will not represent the purchase price
 of the land, but a perpetual title to the
 water. The land itself will be home stead. Applications for the land are 1 now being made to the Land Office in Carson City. The water right of $26 an
 acre will be payable in ten equal in- , stalments, and title will not lapse un- til two payments have been passed, , which will give the homesteader the
 opportunity of passing over a hard
 year. The government will charge no i interest in deferred payments, but will probably offer an incentive for prompt settlements.
 The charge of S26 an acre is set to | cover all cost of constructing the ir- 1 rigation system and maintaining it
 for a period of years. If it is found
 that the charge was set too high the last payments will not be required. In any event, there will be no additional 1 charge. At the conclusion of ten years 1 the plant will be turned over to the water users association that is to be organized after plan to be indorsed
 by the Secretary of the Interior The
 government will continue to hold the i title to the sources of supply and will remain in a position to straighten out
 affairs if mismananagement ever re-
 suits on the part of the water users
 association. The government is sparing
 no expense to build the system so that I it will need no expensive repairs, and for this reason has erected rock and | cement walls where mere earth would have sufficed for a few years.
 The soil of the great Carson plain is
 one of almost unknown depth and
 was deposited by water courses in an-
 cient days. The constituents are 1vari-
 ed, owing to the many points from
 which they were brought. There are
 not enough stones in the entire plain
 to build the foundation of a house. In
 addition to ease cultivation and great
 depth, the soil possesses remarkable
 fertility. The train bearing the Con-
 gress Irrigation Committee and guests