Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1910-08-05
WASHINGTON.
Continued from Last Week.)

,,;okitat county, Washington, was
aanted to growing these products, ow-
s az to certain unique conditions exist
ing there u;,T in+eras+s comnleted
mNorth Bank" railroad, this Sec
NV was brought into prominence, and
W. = furnished good transportation for
"a several large companies began
lnaration. The absence of late spring
va Of early fall frosts, together with
s sno soil and climate, renders this To-
n ua1tv particularly favorably situated
for growing early varieties and ones
subject to frost, such as apricots,
sImonds and peaches, and the bright
annsbiue and freedom from early fall
soins make the growing of Tokay, Mus
LOT Malaga and Black Hamburg grapes
Uroftable, 1t will not be long until
III north bank of the Columbia river
~ Kickitat county will be as famous
tor its apricots and grapes as other sec
Cons in the northwest are for apples,
pears and cherries.
Washington Water Rights.
Tho most valuable resource of Wash
motion is the large amount of water
Available for irrigation and power.
Water gives value to more than one
half of the total area of the state.
With water some of this land is worth,
when planted to orchards, from $500 to
a GOO or more an acre; without water
tbe same land is worth only a few
dollars an acre for grazing or for un-
certain grain yields. The rapid fall
of the streams that have their source
in the Cascades create a large number
of sites where may be developed almost
unlimited water power. These streams
are fed by the peSpetual SHOWS and
deep glaciers of the mountain peaks
which form inexhaustible reservoirs.
The Yakima, Snake and the Upper Co.
lumbia rivers are already retaining
thousands of acres of land in eastern
Washington, and with the creation of
storage reservoirs these and other
streams will irrigate thousands of ad-
ditional acres.
Notwithstanding its great value for
irrigation and power, water is the most
carelessly treated resource of the state.
The water laws are old-fashioned, in.
definite. and few water titles are Sc
cure. This condition is discouraging
to the individual irrigator, has much
hampered the work of the reclamation
service in Washington, and has resulted
in costly litigation. The whole situa-
ton is summed up in these words by
DR., Bryan, president of the Washington
State college at Pullman: "We have
no state irrigation engineer, no state
department for determining and con.
trolling the use of water, no adequate
record of existing rights and titles, NO
satisfactory bodies, either of law OF
adjudicated cases to go by. We are
still in part under the tyranny of the
riparian doctrine which is at the anti
pOdes of the doctrine of appropria'
ton
1t should be said that an earnest at
tempt is being made to give the state
modern water law, such as Oregon
Wyoming, Idaho and other states have
The great advertising value of 6
modern water law is not to be ques
toned, to say nothing of the develop
ment that it will insure. In Oregon
for example, no new Carey act projects
were initiated for five years previous
to the passage of it's model new water
code. In single year after this new
law was passed, nine new Carey acr
projects, which will reclaim 100000
acres of land at cost of $5O,0O0,00o
have been initiated. AS soon as thu
streams can be adjudicated, water title
IN Oregon will be as definite as lan(
titles.