The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12
Work of Tunyormine Me West.

, feet at the water line. and carries eight l feet of water. Their combined length is 15O miles. From them lead network of ] branches and distributing ditehes-S00 miles of them-making total of 967 miles of waterway in the western section alone, and exclusive of the farmers laterals. | The canal system in the central and l eastern sections, on which work is now 1 being opened up, will be similar to that of the western section. A second main canal has been planned to run east and north from the Bow river at point south of Bassano, on the Canadian Pa ci1c. From this. secondary canals and branches will cover the rest of the area to be irrigated.
 The construction of the canal in the western section with it's hundreds of miles of secondary canals and distributing ditches has cost a large sum of money although the cost per unit of work done has been less than in most other irriga- tion projects. Careful engineering sur veys have been made, locating the con tours of the sections to five foot inter- vals. This scale will be made even closer in the future work, and completed maps of the two remaining sections will show not only contours at one-foot intervals, but also the exact acreage of irrigible land on each farm
 Figures usually can give no adequate idea of the work involved in an undertak- ing of this sort. Yet the figures in this case tell a story of problems solved and hardships overcome that cannot be mis- understood. The total excavation in the western section has been approximately:
 Cubic yards. Main canal .. ..........2 25O0,Oo Secondary canals ..,. ........ 100000 Distributing ditches .... .. .... 750,O0O Making a grand total for the west
 ern section of q. .. .. .. .......S 250,000
 Steam shovels and small construction locomotives are being used in the exca- vation and elevatng graders are em- ployed wherever possible The porous surface soil is thus removed and then cut Is made in the underlying earth, which is composed of hard clay which houds the water well. The best of this clay Is packed in layers against the banks of the canal. and then wetted down and rolled until the banks are perfectly hard and water tight. At one point it was necessary to cut away the top of jut- ting cliff 1000 feet long, 1S0 feet wide and 100 feet deep.
 When the main canal of the western section was completed last year. and the water was let into 1t for the first time. only two of the twenty head-gates were open. yet with this fraction of it's possible flow, the canal filled for it's en- tire length, F miles, in the short space of 46 hours When measurements were made, 1t was found that the difference in the level of the water at the two ends of the canal was only one inch; so perfect had been the engineering skill displayed in the construction of the canal
 The source from which the water Is drawn is inexhaustibe The beautiful Bow river rises in the heart of the Rockies and Is fed continually from the melting snows and glaciers and the over flow of inaccessible mountain lakes The river has a capacity of 60O0 cubic feet per second during the irrigation season.
 Usually the promoters of any large irrigation project look for their profits from the sale of lands brought under water. Not so, however, in this under taking of the Canadian Pacific railway. Following out far-sighted policy which led them to build thousands of miles of road through a practically uninhabited country. they are now bending every en- ergy to bring about the settlement of it. Bare land is of little value to them, and they are disposing of it cheaply to induce immigration For immigration and the settlement of tract of land 150 by 40 miles means to them q continuous vol ume of traffic. and traffic Is the life blood of a railroad
 In size. the Calgary project exceeds any individual scheme now being undertaken by the United States government, under the Proclamation act' and is easily the largest undertaking of the kind on the continent. Work In the United States projects has been divided into eighteen districts, containing a total acreage of 100000 acres of irrigable land. and n- volving a total acreage of 1.9000O0 acres of irrigaple land. and involving an ulti- mate expenditure of S35, ,0000 GOO. The lar gest individual project provides for the irrigation of 2500G0 acres-a small figure when compared with 1.500,O00 acres of land embraced by the Canadian project.
 The farms which are rapidly being es- tablshed along the completed canals will be among the richest in Canada This soil is fertile consisting of a black loam with a clay sub-soil in the western por- ton. and q lighter sandy loam In the eastern part. It makes possible the cul- tivation of Alberta Red" one of the finest winter wheats on the market to- day: spring wheat alfalfa. the greatest fodder crop known; sugar beets, with an established market, that average a great. CT percentage of saccharine matter than any beets grown to the south: oats that run forty pounds to the bushel, and from eighty to one hundred and fifteen bushels to the acre; rye barley, which is superior to that grown in the famous Gallatin valley or MOntdHd, ana dll NdrietleS ol root crops. The abundant and nutritious native grasses also make possible the breeding. raising and feeding of the best of all kinds of stock. The feeding effect of the cured prairie grasses puts finish on beef and mutton almost equal to grain.
 Through the heart of the irrigated sec ton runs the iron way of the Canadian Pacific, bringing the land into communi- cation with the rest of the world, and to ho ba of of the mining and numbering districts in British Columbia and Alaska, and. by way of Vancouver, the world market of the Orient.
 The opening of spring is bringing a flood of immigrants chiefly from the states, and towns are springing up and growing visibly throughout the whole section. Calgary itself. which is the metropolis of the province, now has population of 200oo, which is increasing rapidly as result of the opening up of the new territory.