Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-03-25
Conquest q ID. Great
American Desert
ssS=ss., 80

Irrigation implies certain amount
Of labor aud expense. The main irri-
eating canal must be built with it's
dams. headgates, fumes, bridges,
rights of way, etc. The individual
consumer must prepare for receiving
his share during the irrigating season.
He must dig lateral bitches, construct
headgates, and sometimes dixie up or
fume over a low place in his land.
| When it comes irrigating time he must
hire extra help, unless he Is wise
enough to keep his irrigated acres
within the limits of his own capacity
for labor. But so far as that goes, a
| farmer in almost any section of the
country finds himself obliged ON GER
tain occasions to employ an extra hand
or two. However, he is not always re-
quired to put up cash either for the
original purchase of his water right,
or in the payment of annual assess
ments. Original owners in irrigating
bitches frequently pay for water rights
entirely in labor or material. besides
the excavation of the bitches, lumber
must be provided for headgates and
fumes and stones for dams and bulk
heads
Then he is frequently permitted to
work out his annual assessments with
his teams, or by putting on a hired
hand or two, for all of the big bitches
need attention each succeeding year
Large quantities of sand wash In from
the river, and this has to be cleaned
out. Banks must be strengthened and
repairs and Improvements made gen
orally So between construction and
maintenance the average farmer is not
Required to dig up much cash to meet
the expenses of securing and keeping
up water rights. or course a farmer
buying piece of irrigated land has
the water rights included In the pur-
chase price of the land, and is re-
quired only TO pay his assessment from
year to year. A single water right usu-
ally carries with 1t sufficient water to
irrigate 100 acres of land. More land
must have added shares, or fractions
Of shares, while smaller tracts call
for fractions in proportion to their
area of 100 acres. The value of
water right depends on the reliability
of its source Of supply and upon its
seniority.
The first ditch to be built on any
given stream and to have established
that fact in court naturally has a prior
right to water from that stream up
to the amount of its legal appropria-
ton over all other bitches taken from
the stream at subsequent dates. It's
legal appropriation is not what it may
claim, but the amount of water that 1t
can use benefieially from season to
season. All irrigation water is meas
ured by the cubic feet passing a given
point in a second of time. During the
winter and early spring irrigation
farmers turn anxious eyes to the
higher attitudes and great timber belts
up in the mountains. Reports of the
amount of snowfall and conditions of
the snow beds are eagerly sought.
If the snowfall is reported to be
light, every farmer hastens spring
work as much as possible in order
that the fields may be all planted by
the time the high water runs, so that
all the good possible may be obtained
out of the limited water supply while
1t lasts. In such cases farmers rather
hope for cool, wet spring, as this will
give the crops time to start and will
hold back the supply of irrigation wa
ter by reason of the cold weather in
the upper altitude. When they hear
that the SHOWS are falling early in the
mountains so that they will become
packed against the coming of late win
ter and spring snow there is feeling
of comfort and an rs france of good
supply of water. When it is known
that the SHOWS lie from four to six
feet deep in the timber belts and high
mountain slopes the farmers do not
lie awake nights worrying about max
Ing good crops for the coming sum
mer.-Denver Field and Farm.