The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-06-17
TODAY MARKS THIRD ANNivER-
SARY OF PASSAGE OF IRRI-
CATION LAW
Event Will Be Celebrated by Opening
of Big Project in Nevada
Water Will Flow

congress of the irrigation law, is to be
signalized by the formal opening of the
first great government irrigation work.
The Nevada town of Hazen, which
owes its existence to the government
irrigation project, is to be the scene of
the opening, and dispatches received
here by the officials of the reclamation
bureau state that the event is to be
accompanied with interesting cere-
mony.
Water will be turned onto $4,000 &C
res of land which has never known the
taste of water. 1t is a rich, fiat soil,
needing only moisture to make it the
another three-year period has passed,
100000 additional acres will be under
water, and made tributary to the same
general system. Already the govern
ment has spent $1,5O0,0OO. The entire
project contemplates an expenditure
of 100000.
The irrigable lands within reach of
the Truckee and Carson river waters
outside of 10000 acres already under
cultivation in and about Reno, as
result Of private irrigation enterprises,
comprise a total acrea of about 460.-
900 acres.
The Truckee- Carson jrOject, which is
the official designation of the under
taking, which has produced the town
of Hazen, and will soon be the creator
of some 1000 farms, is one of the IA
principal projects" to which the gov
eminent has set it's hand The others
are in various less advanced stages OF
progress. The problem involved in the
Truckee- Carson project was to find
some way to save the waters of two
rivers of importance, the Carson and
Truckee, which flow from the SHOWS
of the lofty Sierra Nevada mountains,
on the northwest border of Nevada
and California, and plunge into mys-
FERROUS pit on the borders of the des-
ert. This pit, in which the waters
disappear into the bowels Of the earth
just when they are most needed to
irrigate the plain, is known as a
sink
To divert the daters of these rivers
and lead them into canals and storage
basins for distribution over the fiat
dry areas about the sinks is the task
to which the government engineers set
themselves two years ago. Since then
structed. The main canal taps the
Truckee river a few miles below Reno
It carries the waters south to nat
ural reservoir site, which the engineers
discovered on the lower Carson, some
80 miles distant. Into this same reser
yoir the waters of the Carson are also
to be diverted and stored. From this
reservoir it is but a short distance to
the wide, fiat lands about the Carson
sink and the way is down gentle
incline, which lends itself to the con-
struction of the network of distrik ut
ing canals.
Elaborate drainage works are includ-
ed in the general scheme, farm boun-
daries have been laid out, and the plats
are ready for the formal approval Of
the secretary of the interior. About 10
per cent of the irrigated land belongs
to the government. The remainder is
in the hands of the Central Pacific
railroad and some private individuals.
The farms have a soil adapted to the
raising of apples, pears, grapes, peach
es, berries, wheat, oats, potatoes, sugar
beets and alfalfa. The government has
a particular interest in this first of it's
irrigation projects, and will try to see
that the best kind of settlers have a
chance to take up the lands.
No one can get more than 80 acres
of the irrigated land for homestead,
and the purchaser is required 10 stay
on the land and improve it. There are
some fees to pay, and it will take a
year to make the farm bitches and to
raise a crop. The proportionate cost
of irrigation is paid back by the set
tier in ten annual installments with
out interest. 1t is estimated that the
payment to the government in ten
years will be $2,0SO, and that the farm.
Judging from the value of other irrl-
gated land, will then be worth at least
IS, OOO If the settler at the end of ten
years can show that he has reclaimed
at least half of his entry for agricul-
tural purposes the land and water sup
ply are his perpetually.
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