St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1912-02-14


10 settling basins and carried by
canals 70 the lands irrigated. The
river banks are so unstable in char
acter that the pumps are placed on
floating barges connected to the
shore by flexible pipes.
On the Shoshone project in Wy
oming the highest dam in the world
has been built. This dam, which is
at the head of the canyon of the
Shoshone River, is over 325 feet
high, 108 feet thick at the bottom,
but only 200 feet long on top. The
reservoir which IL creates has an
area of 5000 acres. The water Al
allowed to flow down the river
when needed for irrigation purpos-
es. and at Corbett is diverted by ans
other dam through a tunnel az
miles long into the main canal.
On the Belle Fourche project,
in northwestern South Dakota,
there has been constructed one of
the largest earth entertainments in
the country. This is lis feet high,
20 feet wide on top; over a mile
long, and is faced with re-en-
forced concrete. The reservoir is
being filled by an inlet canal from
the Belle Fourche river With the
estimated annual run-off from 1870
square miles of $4,000 acre feet or
water, 100000 acres OF land are to
be irrigated, and water for about
one-half of this area is now avail
able.
Hundreds of other individual en-
cheering problems, too numerous
to mention, have been encountered
and successfully solved on these and
other projects, each one initially
presenting its own individual COM
ponent factors of topography, CHI
mate, soil composition, utilization of
watershed areas, etc.
Conducted ON Business Basis.
On account of the fact that the
reclamation service is conducted on
a business basis, it is quite differ
emit from all other government OPP
erations. The money appropriated
and used by government agents in
the reclamation and administration
of these lands can be considered lit
tie more than an enormous trust
fund loaned to thousands of settlers
taking up lands on the different pro-
jects, in that the person filing upon
unit of land under a reclamation
project is required to pay his APP
portionment of the construction of
the main works and a small charge
per acre for the maintenance of the
distribution system. For instance,
on the Belle Fourche project set
tiers are required to pay building
charge of $50 per acre and 40 cents
per acre for the maintenance of the |
this way the money at first put into |
the construction of the works on
any project is automatically return
ed to the government for further |
work in reclamation.
The area of each farm obtain
able on a reclamation project is |
not the same on each project, |
as the value of the land and the es-
sential producing power per acre
varies to great extent; therefore |
the limit of area per entry is fixed |
by the secretary of the interior for
each individual project. The pur-
pose of the reclamation act is not |
to place individual wealth within
the grasp of any settler, but to !
furnish a homestead upon which
reasonable family support may be
realized by the person taking up the
claim. The charges made to the
settler as his apportionment of the
cost of construction of the works
and maintaining the distribution
system are made easy of payment,
usually in ten annual payments.
No Monopoly Possible.
Another wise consideration of
his act is that no water shall be
supplied on any farm unless the
,wner shall be a bona fde resident
# it, and the use of water shall be
made to one settler only on the !
.rea prescribed by the secretary of
he interior. In this way capitalists
nd land agents, who make a prac-
ice of obtaining large areas of land
nd cultivating them under the
enant system, are prohibited from
pplying their practices upon gov
rnment lands reclaimed under this
ct and made possible of entry
nder the homestead and other
avs