Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-02-02

the loss should be so distributed that
no one will be injured unnecessarily.
Company Pledged Itself.
THE land board represents the
bondhoders. the people on the prof.
ect and the people of the state. and the
first duty the state has is to carry out
the mandates of the Carey act law to
reclaim desert lands. This company
has pledged itself to the state and to
the entrymen there is no escape from
that responsibility. BY some miscal
culation or through unavoidable cir
cumstances there was a larger segre-
cation of land made than it is pos
sible to irrgate from the run-off of
waters of the Salmon river.
There have been reports made on
this project time and again. The last
report was made by State Engineer ].
Fl. Smith, on July 6, 1915. His report
was based largely on the report made
by S. T. Bacr on June Is, 1915.
Mr.. Baer made a personal investi-
cation of the project and had all the
reports that had been heretofore made
which are now on file in the state en-
gineer's office, as well as all plats and
all information that was obtainable
from the United States reclamation
service and the geological survey, and
his report, l believe, should be the basis
of our deduction upon this project. 1
believe it is fair, comprehensive and
in the line of reason.
The United States reclamation SER
vice in a letter addressed to Mr.. Ed
wards, a copy Of which was furnished
the state under date of - no.
tines the bondholders as well as the
state of Idaho that the largest amount
of land that the government of the
United States will issue patent for is
10000 acres and that the government
reserves the right to reduce even this
10000 acres if it be found necessary by
further investigations
Approves Government Figures
Under the contract OF the Twin
Falls Salmon River company with the
settlers. they are to furnish ~ acre
feet of water during the irrigation
season at a price of $40 in 10 annual
payments with per cent interest for
deferred payments and 35 cents main
tenance charges for each acre of land
for which water has been sold.
Don II. Bark, a very eminent hy-
drographer and engineer, In a pre-
vious report on duty of water on this
project. is quoted on page 10, chapter
3 of Mr.. Raer's report, as figuring the
duty of water on said tract at 2.26
acre feet per acre for an irrigation sea-
son which may be taken as a fair crl-
! terion for the amount of water to raise
crops on said tract
Mr.. Baer recommends as n solution
n tho t1rOhIat11 hat CHI he
cut down to $4,000 acres. This is at
variance with the government figures
which puts it at 1000 acres, so we
may reasonably start out with the fig
ures made by the government of 10000
acres which it is possible to irrigate
under normal conditions.
| In that 10000 acres there are in
cluGed 1880 acres of school lands or
state lands, which for the time being
might be eliminated and the state
might hold these lands for some fu =
ture time when the available water
supply can better be determined than
now, then this would reduce the ac-
reage to 1920 acres.
In this report on page 8, there is
recommended the building of a ditch
around the catch basin which the COM
pany has under consideration at a cost
of $4,000. This would add an irrigat-
ing capacity of 5000 acres, which with
/ the state lands eliminated, would vir-
! tually give the project in its present
shape $4,000 acres.
Must Reduce Area.
In order to accomplish this, be-
lieve the settler ought to be induced
! to accept "a acre feet in place of 2Z
acre feet per Mr.. Baer's recommends =
ton. thus adding a capacity of over 20
per cent to the present water supply,
and the company should be allowed
after d proper demonstration shall first
have been made to furnish 2A acre
feet and to sell additional water rights
to recoup themselves for whatever
losses they may incur in complying
with the order of this board, provided
that experience under these demon
strations shall show that IA acre feet
will be adequate.
Mr.. Baer recommends on page of
his report If land is to be take IN
from the Project, I would recommend
the cancelling of all lands under Lat =
eral No. system. The transmission
Of water to the lands under this later =
al is the longest on the tract and heav-
Ter loss experienced (See further de
scription on page 9 of Mr.. Baers re
port)
He further states that the greatest
improvements have been made under
sub laterals Nos. 26 and q. He found
| believe. that Lateral No. 81 could be
extended around to the northwest 10
cover these lands. Some lands east
| Of -. 1.
eliminated as the presence of alkali is
making a large portion of this area
| valueless.
The company should be notified to
comply as early as possible with Baer :
recommendations and to reduce the
area to 10000 acres, including the
states lands in the 10000 acres. They
should be compelled TO make equitable
adjustment with the entrymen who are
to be cut off and compensate them for