The San Francisco call., 1905-01-04
STATE rs In NEED
OF JUST CODE OF
IRRIGATION LAWS

California has suffered much for
want of well ordered and definitely
settled policy for the use Of water for
irrigation. At the last session of the
Legislature efforts were made to Sc
cure an improved code of irrigation
laws, but the draft of such a code SUBJ
mitted proved unsatisfactory to the
Legislature and one of the reasons
why 1t was opposed was that the data
on which it was based was inadequate.
When the Department of Agriculture
shall have completed the investigations
in hand it cannot be doubted that
scme Legislature in the near future
will be in possession of the knowledge
necessary for formulating a wise,
beneficent and just code of irrigation
laws. Pending the completion of this
investigation it may be well for the
Legislature to refrain from attempt
ing irrigation legislation of a radical
character.
AT the recent meeting of the Ma
tional Irrigation Congress in the city
of Ell Paso there was adopted a reso-
luton favoring cooperation between
the reclamation service of the Fed
eral Government and State and local
authorities in the planning and execu-
ton of irrigation works which are un-
0CIl ldhcIl Oy ulSlilClS OIsdIllZeu unQ6T
general laws, and the proposal seems a
practical one.
There is reason to hope that, with
the powerful aid of the Federal Gov
ernment, reservoirs for the impound-
ing of flood and irrigation waters will
be constructed on a scale of magnitude
that will insure the reclamation of
great areas otherwise doomed to par
tial if not total aridity. 1T is be-
lieyed," declares one of the Govern
ment experts employed in this work,
the greatest, if not the greatest, latent
opportunities for irrigation develop
ment in arid America
Much success has attended the eff
fort to find reservoir sites in North
ern California, and such as have been
found on Government land have been
withdrawn from entry. The greatest
of these projects is one to utilize Big
Valley on Pit River, which, il damned
to a height of 10 feet, would afford
the enormous impounding capacity of
100000 acre-feet, or sufficient to
cover that number of acres with water
to the depth of one foot The total
aggregate capacity of all the reservoir
sites so far surveyed in Northern Cali
fornia is 100000 acre-feet.
At the extreme southeastern and ex-
Lreme nOrtnedSlern euQS OF our State
two reclamation enterprises of great
extent are proposed. One of these is
for the irrigation of more than 800 .O00
acres of land situated near the Colo
RADIO River and for this an allotment
of 100000 has been obtained from
the national reclamation fund.
The other undertaking, one to which
legislative attention will doubtless he
invited. Is likely to prove still more re-
markable and important. The KIam-
ath Basin. situated partly in Califor-
MIA and partly in Oregon. contains sev-
eral lakes and both over1owed and
arid districts. A way has been found
so to increase the flow of the Klamath
River as to drain two irnnorta ~
lakes and reclaim to cultivation tha
greater part of their areas. To do this
the consent of both California and
Oregon will be needed.
It is proposed that California shall
cede to the National Government her
interest in the lands which will he
laid bare by the lowering of the water
in the lakes; but as these lands will he