Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-12-26


 Dag = Millions of Dry Acres to Be
 Brought to FertiIity-Desire of the
 Sacramento Valley People = How
 the yalue of Land Is Increased by
 Irrigating It.
 A bulletin issued by the geological survey says the approval by the secre tary of the interior of the Rio Grande reclamation project in Texas and New Mexico, and the Carlsbad project in New Mexico, will bring the number of reclamation projects up to twenty four. Of these eleven are under way. They provide for the reclamation of 1,303, 500 acres of arid lands at cost of $37,- 028,571.
 On June 30 the total cost of con. struction and engineering work per. formed by the reclamation service, to. gether with the administration ex- penses, amounted to $5, ,462, ,169. On that date the reclamation fund had reached total of S2S,O2S,571. It was estimated at that time that the receipts for the fiscal years 1906-0S would amount to s9,o0O,O00, so that the sum of money available for reclamation purposes up to the end of 1908 will be $37, ,02S,571.
 Since the work of reclamation began seventy-seven miles of main canals have been constructed and fifty four miles of distributing canals, as well as 186 miles of ditches and 147 bridges. Over 9,350000 cubic yards of earth have been excavated and three and 8 half miles of tunnel driven.
 Labor, the bulletin says, Is one of the most serious problems the engineers have to confront. Several contrac. tors" the bulletin adds, engaged on government projects have already fail. ed because of their inability to secure the services of sufficient number of workmen, and others are on the verge of failure for the same reason. It is equally difficult to find competent sub. contractors ..-.i foremen.
 The people of the Sacramento valley, in California, are anxious that the. gov. ernment should extend the irrigation work that it is now doing in the west so as to take in a part at least of their land. The Development associa. tion of the Sacramento valley, which is taking very active interest in the subject, has representative in Wash ington now in the person of w. A. Beard, the secretary of the association. Mir Beard has already had an inter- view with the secretary of the interior, under whom the general scheme of the reclamation service is being plotted, and while there has been nothing def. nltely promised to the Sacramento peo- pie yet there is considerable prospect that the valley will be included in the work mapped out for the coming year
 At the recent hearing at the interior Walcott of the geological survey were botha spEesent, and the whelet situation was clearly put before the secretary. The Sacramento valley Is about 50 miles wide and 200 miles long. It con tains a little over 2,600,000 acres of arable land, and the surveys that have been made of It show that there is not only water enough in the Sacramento river to irrigate the whole of it, but that there are reservoir sites enough to hold the water for distribution dur ing the long dry summer without inter- fering with the navigation of the riy- CT. This is an unusually favorable showing for any irrigation project. The reservoir sites are such also that the work can be done economically and with more than usual speed.
 The counties interested in the work have been cooperating with the geo logical survey for about six years in the surveys and preliminary investiga- tions. The state appropriated S76,000 to aid in the original survey work. Now that the investigation is practical ly all done the Sacramento Valley as- sociation has taken up the work vigor- ously in hope of seeing one or another of the several projects put through, The people of the valley do not expect to see the whole of the work taken up at once. but they are in a frame of mind where they will heartily support the engineers of the reclamation serv- Ice, no matter which of the several units of the work they elect to start on.
 As has been said, the reclamation service has work under way in eight cen states that will ultimately cost over S3T, ,0O0.0Oo and will reclaim some thing over 1,300,000 acres of land, but there are more than 100000 acres in the Sacramento valley alone that are easily susceptible of irrigation and have the water and reservoir sites.
 The rate at which land increases in value when once 1t is under ditch" Is almost lnexplicable to the average easterner. The land in the Sacramento valley now which is irrigated by pri- vate enterprise is worth we'll over $1T5 an acre. while equally good land that is not irrigated can be had for so. The. subject of extensive irrigation work is pressing with the Sacramento valley people. The whole of the val Icy has been steadily cropped in wheat for fifty years. and this sort of treat nest has SO nearly worn 1t out that wnee4 raising is ID longer profitable. There are about 40.O00 acres of land that have been irrigated by private en- terprise. and this land is now selling for nearly s20O an acre.
 If any of the several sections of the