The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-29

To-day the sixteenth annuai sessioh of the National Irrigation Congress will be held in Albuquerque. New Mex ico. For over a week eminent states men, engineers and men of science from other countries, as well as rom this. will discuss ways and means or furthering the great schemes for the redemption of the arid West to the uses of the agriculturist and stock raiser. From heads of departments and members of the diplomatic corps in Washington on down to the small ranch owner, there will be representa- lives endorsing the movement. With characteristic Western enterprise Al buquerque has built a big convention hall for the occasion. and to give pos
 tive proof of the efficacy of the irrf- gation system, has provided for an in- dustrial exhibit that will show to the 50.000 guests what products may be had from redeemed lands. The citizens have spent s100,000 on the Congress and in the big results that will follow will find 1t worth while.
 From a small beignning at Salt Lake City in 1891. the National Irrigation Congress has become an acknowledged factor In reclamation work. Its pur- pose in organizing was to devise ways of retaining land and to encourage national legislation for this purpose. It has already seen millions of acres of one-time useless land made into homes for thousands of people. and the nations income augmented great ly by the proceeds from their crops. The four specified objects of the Con- gress are: Save the forests; store the floods; reclaim the deserts; and make homes on the land"
 Based on the water supply avail able for irrigation purposes. there are S0,000,000 or more acres of irrigable land in the arid regions, enough for homes for 100000 American families if made tillable and divided into forty acre farms. About 15.000.000 acres have been reclaimed by private cor porations at an approximate cost of $160, 100000. Colorado has 3,000.000 of these acres New Mexico 100000, Ari- zona 350,000. and California 25O,000 with 215.o00 miles of canals, all told. All this lies like beautiful lesson be- fore the Irrigation Congress. with the later lessons of the Reclamation Ser vice of the Department of the Interior. a branch of public service created through the efforts of Senator New lands.
 Under this service there are eleven great irrigation projects in full swing, and nearing the completion that has been promised for this year. One half
 
 ed and on these the national govern ment has already spent nearly S19 9.000.- 900. Seventeen other projects will be completed in 1911 and the government win then have spent $70,00o,o00 In making its desert lands arabIe and suited for homesteading-a cost of $36.65 per acre. Including the office force in Washington. the service has about 16,000 men and women doing this great work. and is expending $1,- 100000 a month on it.
 Settlement has followed so fast on the heels of the various national pro- jects that 14.00o people have already made homes In the desert lands where nothing was known to grow before, over 100 miles of branch railroad line have been constructed and eight towns have been established. The work is done on a stupendous scale. Saw mills have been put up to help supply the amount of timber needed, and five electric plants have already been constructed, utilizing the electric power generated by the streams whose water will later be used for irrigating the lands further down. Here the reclamation service and the National Irrigation Congress find common ground with the National Conserva- tion Commission one of whose great aims Is the conservation of the water power now being wasted. Last year the service dug nearly 1900 miles of canals. excaWated thirteen and a half miles of tunnels and put up 2S1 build fngs and dams.
 Seven of the great government pro- jects lie in the far Southwest, in the region where irrigation was first prac- ticed in America. For the canals of the Salt River project follow the gen. eral lines of the canals and ditches constructed by some prehistoric race in remote times when Americas old est agricultural section lay there. When these are finished and the full appropriations of water have been made there will be s0o,000 or more acres of land ready for settlement. Some lands have already been filed upon. in the many projects of the gov ernment The first unit of the True kee-Carson project. for example, with its 50,O00 acres has already been homesteaded. and practically all of the North Platte project has been taken.
 While the majority of the projects under way look to the using of the waters of rivers exclusively, conserv- ing the moisture from the time it reaches the mountain tops as snow, until it is used on uplands and seeps down into reservoirs, to be used again. there are projects that look to the utilization of underground water through wells. Garden City Kansas, has 10000 acres so Irrigated. and North Dakota is redeeming 34,00O in this fashion.
 Deeds of daring without parallel in history have been performed in the perfecting of this great scheme of des- ert redemption, and engineering feats have been perfected that make achievements in other lines seem pal try and insignificant. Take the Un- compahgre project In Colorado for ex- ample. In the valley of the Uncom- pahgre river lies land of exceptional value-could it only be watered. but the river does not afford enough for the purpose. Flowing parallel with 1t is the Gunnison, whose route is al- most all through a canyon. whose volume of water is large and which has no contiguous land needing it. These two streams flow ten miles apart. separated by a mountain 2,000 from the Gunnison its superfluous wa ter. divert 1t into the Uncompahgre, and so make fertile the hundreds of thousands of acres in that valley.
 Then came the men of daring who must survey the route. Swinging by ropes over precipices, clinging in crev- ices of rocks. floating down the unex- plored river on rubber rafts. and en- countering many dangers the men who made the survey finally planned that a tunnel be cut under the noun tain. This tunnel will be six miles long when finished. and Is the great est underground waterway in the world. Outside. miles and miles or
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