The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1905-01-15


company to measure every mans
water to him on his land, the COM
pany bearing all loss by evaporation
or seepage in reaching the land. In
this particular this company, | am
told, differs from most others, for
generally the water is measured at
the main canal and the user bears the
loss in reaching him. The amount
of water appropriated by the Sunny
side canal is 1854 cubic feet per Sec
ond. The highest amount yet carried
by the canal is 825 cubic feet per sec
ond. The canal will be widened as
occasion requires till it will ultimately
be one hundred feet at the top. Mr..
Blaine informs me that it was formerly
thought necessary to make canals
deep rather than wide on account of
loss by evaporation but it has been
ascertained that water from melted
snow near by does not evaporate as
readily as was supposed, and now the
custom is to widen rather than deepen,
and this is an important gain in safety
to the banks.
The amount of land covered by the
Sunnyside canal is said to be $4,000
acres, including about 5000 acres that
must be reached by pipe lines. Not
quite half of the land under the canal
is now in cultivation, the amount being
somewhere between 81 200 and $4,000
acres now using water 1t takes
great amount of water to reclaim raw
land. The company has been generous,
to my certain knowledge, to those who
are subduing new land and has al
lowed a great deal more water than
their contracts called for After the
lands are brought into cultivation
much less water is needed. There is
all the time a tendency among the
inexperienced to use too much water.
In some places now the soil is so
saturated with water that drainage is
necessary In other cases the ex-
cessive use of water has brought
alkali (sulphate of soda and carbonate
of soda) to the surface to such an
extent that the land is greatly dam
aged. The writer we'll knows that
water cannot be substituted for cult
walton without danger to the land. In
cultivated crops each irrigation should
be followed with thorough pulveriza-
ton of the soil.
Mr.. Blaine informs me that his COM
pany aims to keep in close touch with
the government experts on irrigation
and follow their teaching closely This
is a good thing for both the company
and the users of water. The COM
pany will be saved from unreasonable
demands and the people from eX-
actions on the part of the company not
sanctioned by these disinterested ex-
perts These government experts rec
ommend that water should never be
carried more than twenty rods in the
burrows and that the burrows should
not be more than three feet apart.
Some one may ask what difference it
makes how long the burrows are If
burrows are too long that part of the
field near the head ditch will be irri-
gated too much, while the part furthest
away is getting enough 1t is well
known that in one county in Washing
ton some farmers carry their water
eighty rods in the burrows and the
burrows are sixteen feet apart. If
men who practice such methods of
irrigation have not ruined part of their
land by turning such parts as are
near head bitches into Dogs it proves
the marvellous capacity of their lands
to resist the injurious use of water.
The Sunnyside canal has cost over
IL etc Mr. R1ainn