Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1914-06-27
NEEDLESS WASTE OF WATER
Sir William Wilcox Issues Statement in Regard
to the Use of Water in the West.
Sees Trouble Ahead.
CONTINUED from page u

1t required an army OF 10000 men
working for months at a time not
only without pay but furnishing their
own subsistence, tools, the brushwood
required to rip rap the caving banks
of the Nile, and even the lanterns
by which they worked or watched at
night.
AS inspector of Irrigation, by sub
stitCting dredses for manual labor
and by levying small maintenance
tax upon all the users of water, Sir
covee system, except as to guarding
Of the Nile entertainments at flood
stages.
AS director general of reservoirs
for the Egyptian government he orig
inattd, designed and carried to com
pletion the Assuan dam and reser-
voir, the most beneficial work of its
Kind ever constructed. At cost of
$l6,000,00 this structure controls the
river Nile, passing the silt laden wa
ters of the extreme floods, to be us
ed in filling the basins of Upper
Egypt and canals of Lower Egypt, |
and storing over 100000 acre feet |
of the tail of the flood for use in the |
canals in upper and lowerEgypt dur
ing the low water season. This will !
supplement the low water supply upef
100000 acres of irngated land, and
add 100000 acres of new land to the
resources of Egypt.
One of the nest important tasks
entrusted to Sir William, and one
which brought him into most il
mate contact with the economic life
OF Egypt was the determination OF
the rental value of all the land in
Egypt for the purpose of making an
equitable assessment, and correcting
the abuses which had grown up undo RI
the native rulers.
When in 1909, the young Turks
placed Mohammed V upon the throne
in the organization of the new gov.
eminent Sir William Wilcox was
made director general of irrigation
for the Ottoman empire.
One of the most eminent of the
English engineers in Egypt, writing
of Sir William Wilcox, says: mo
European is better known to all sorts
and conditions of men in Egypt from
the first cataract to the sea, from
Migdol to Syene."
BY the engineers of America, he Is
regarded as the greatest living au-
thority on irrigation engineering and /
book Egyptian irrigation" probably
ranks higher than any other book on
irrigation.
The immediate occasion Of Sir VIII /
Hams visit to this country lis his de-
sire to see the leading irrigation
works in the United States, and the
wish OF Secretary of the Interior. La1e
to have his advice on some of the !
larger problems of the reclamation I
service, principally in connection with
the drainage of irrigated lands. t
At a dinner and reception tender. /
ed him by the Commercial Club dur. {
ing his stay at Boise, Sir william .
talked most earnestly about the &C. f
onomitc problems he has seen in the n
Boise valley. He deplored especially C
The waste of water, declaring that in
ail his experience he had not seen b
such excessive irrigation as the Boise t
valley Is now receiving. I'm his op O
nion, there is sufficient water In the h
Boise river, when properly conserved D
md regulated TO irrigate 100000 acres &
instead of the 10000 now being cul- Is
waited He told of his inspection of q
he drainage operations now being q
conducted by the reclamation service "
n the Boise valley, and which the
ground water was standing within Ct
ew inches of the surface, and of ri
'ther orchards not so far gone, Ia
through which the drains have lust W
cen extended, where the trees, to
blinking that spring had come AS the in
fater is being lowered from around hi
heir roots are putting out buds from ly
heir half dead branches. "
He compared this condition with Il
hat In India where his early years W
we're spent in the construction of the
1ower Ganges canal. This gigantic "
anal with length of ISL miles and a,
overing l,250,00O acres, was COM 80
leted at q cost of Sis, 1000 900 by the lie
'nglish government in 1876 as If
anime relief measure. Like most Fl
rigation works in this country, the n,
Eanges canal was constructed with a,
o thought of the necessity for drain. W
&c. The use of water was at first of
wished and the effect was intensi- al
ed by a few years of excessive rain d,
vi. The whole country became IT
Dg and the government was so bit st