Arizona republican., 1917-09-29
DAM T0
 BE REBUILT BY
 STATES FUNDS
Cheering Word for Farmers
 of St. Johns and HolbrOOk
 Carried North by Lamar Cobb, Special Engineer

Relief is to come at last to the farm i CTS of the St. Johns and Holbrook dis l trict in the northern part of Arizona. With the assistance of the state the Lyman dam reclamation project is to be completed and the farms of that district made productive once more.
 At meeting yesterday at the state house of the state land board and the state land commissioners it was de- cided that if the commissions engineer verifieS the figures of the engineers who have estimated that the dam can be restored and the canal system com pleted for the sum of $65,000 as stated, the loan board will consider the appli cation and advance $75,000 of state money to pay for the completion of the project.
 Lamar Cobb of Phoenix, special en- gineer for the state, will leave Phoenix on Tuesday for the St Johns and Hol- brook district and make an investiga- ton of the proposed project and verify the figures of the engineers already presented to the board. Upon his re- port depends the future action of the loan board, but there is said to be little doubt that MT. Cobb's report will be favorable and that the necessary $75,- 900 will be loaned to the farmers of that district whose lands will be wat. cred by the proposed porject
 If Engineer Cobb finds that the project can be completed for $65, 900. as claimed, the application for loan of S75,000, amounting to not more than S1O per acre on the land under the | project, will be filed with the loan board and the loan concluded in the | usual manner. According to the agree iC tn In in, a single bank and will be expended subject to the regulations of the board which are that it must all go toward ! the building of the dam and the canal 1 system.
 i The original Lyman dam which ir- rigated the lands of this district went out during the high water of the spring 1 of 1915, within a few days of the date 1 Of the first overfloWing of the Roose- welt dam, to commemorate which there | was huge celebration in Phoenix and | other towns in the state. At that time i there were about 12,000 acres watered 1 by the Lyman dam project
 l With no water to irrigate their farms the farmers of the St Johns Holbrook | district suffered extremely, being able l to raise only what little that could be done by dry farming. The condition of some of those farmers became so serious that it was necessary for the state to go to their relief
 According to the plans of the new project there will be about l5, 5,00O acres Watered from the Lyman dam The visit of Lamar Cobb, states special en- | glneer, to that district next week will
 be practically the last step before the money to complete the project will be-
 come available, the succeeding ones of acting on the application and making | the loan being mere routine concern
 ing which there will be no hitch. i The action of the state sloan board
 and the land commission yesterday
 means much, not only to the farmers of J the St. Johns- Holbrook district but
 to the whole state, as by the comple-
 ton Of the large project more than
 l50O0 acres of some of the finest land
 In Arizona is made highly productive
 again and materially increases the
 value and amount of the states agri
 cultural output
 IL IS estimated that the new project
 will be completed in six months