The Arizona sentinel., 1906-01-10
Great Irrigation Work For Arizona
[Continued from Page l..

concrete walls of the dam. The canals will have waste gates,
 which will enable all water not
 required for irrigation purposes
 to be returned to the stream be-
 low the weir.
 There will also be a skimming
 process performed, for only the
 top foot or two of the impound-
 ed waters will pass by the ca
 nals into the irrigating system,
 after the heavier silt has been
 dropped in the dead water above
 the barren. In this way the
 trouble caused in the past on the | Colorado river by the quantities
 of silt which without such regu-
 lation works, have proved so
 disastrous by clogging up irri-
 gation ditches, will be met at
 the very headworks. Only a
 small proportion of the lighter
 silt float down the irrigation
 channels; the heavier silt will be lscoured out of the canals back
 to the river bed by opening the
 waste gates.
 Area to be Reclaimed.
 For the immediate present
 these works will make possible the permanent reclamation and cultivation, not only of 9l,- IOOO acres of river bottom lands in Arizona below Yuma, but also
 of 23,O00 acres on the California
 side just below the dam, a tract of splendid soil now forming the
 Yuma Reservation. It is the in-
 tention of the government to al lot to each Indian on the reser-
 vation five acres in severalty;
 after which the balance of the Hands now of course withheld from settlement, will be availa-
 ble for sale to homeseekers gen
 erallv. Later on dam further
 up the Colorado river may event
 ually serve the Yuma mesa by
 high-level gravity canal, adding ! 1000 acres to the territory to
 be irrigated. This further pro-
 iect has been approved by the
 government engineers, and will | be the natural sequel of the pres
 ent opperations. Thus in all,
 over 200, ,0O0 acres of land will
 be benefited, truly princly do
 main.
 River Bottom Lands.
 The main canal for irrigating
 the river bottom lands will come |, down twelve miles to Yuma. where it will pass under the bed of the Gila river by a three pipe siphon, built into one solid mass
 of reinforced concrete, thus avoiding the vagaries of this
 much flood troubled stream. Just below this point the main ' main canal will be divided, one branch to flow along the contour line of the mesa; the other to flow along the great levee now . being constructed on the river , bank as an essential part of the
 works, preventing any direct in, l flow from the river. From both sides-from the mesa and from l the river bank-there is gentle : dip towards the center of the l bottom lands. Here the main t drainage, or waste canal will } flow. As irrigation without ade ) uuate drainage would lead to the ] lands lowest down. being water t logged, near the Mexican border i will be a pumping plant which 2 will return all the surplus wat : CTS to the river bed over the 1, Ilevee.
 s Such, in a broad outline, is tho n government scheme, and it vii :, be completed in it's entirety (not S counting the high-level cana S for the mesa lands, which is ; e separate proposition,) in two s years time from the presen l. date. In all some 40 squar, r miles of bottom lands will b, d rendered permanently secur' d from future risk of flooding anC Il will so at once become availabl, g for close settlement and inten n sive farming.
 tt Rich Fertility of the Soil.
 e Now, what are these bottom Il lands? They are simply accum d ulations of Colorado river silt