The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1917-05-10
WAR MAY SPEED
IRRIGATION OF
BENTON LANDS
Extension of Sunnyside Canal
May be Built to Increase the
Food Production
SURVEY HAS BEEN STARTED
IL Work is Rushed 10000 Acres OF
Fertile Lands Could be Farmed
Next Year

Instead Of rearding the development
and growth of the valley, the war
promises to hasten it as nothing has
ever done. Thousands of acres of
fertile lands tributary to this city, tho
irrigation of which has been one of
the hopes of the future, are now likely
to be brought under cultivation by the
government as part Of the national
food preparedness campaign. In other
words the Kennewick extension Of the
Sunnyside canal is to be rushed TO
completion as war measure, If the
present plans of the reclamation COM
mission and the secretary of the i'm
terror are carried thru.
Just what communications have
passed between the reclamation of
ficials at North Yakima and the in
terror department is not known, but
it is known that the immediate survey
of the project has been ordered and
Engineer Ferd Bonsted and his crew
have arrived in Kennewick to begin
the survey.
1t is understood that the extension
has been taken up by the government
as the most effective means Of increas-
ing the food production of the Yakima
Valley. If work is rushed this fall
and winter it is estimated that 10000
acres can be made ready for cultiva-
tion next spring and 10000 acres can
be brought under cultivation the fol-
lowing year.
Irrigation experts, reclamation en-
gineers and experienced agricultural
lists have pronounced the lands under
the proposed project the choicest in
the Northwest and it is the belief Of
many experienced men that the ex-
tension will bring into production the
finest body of irrigated land in the
United States. The contour Of the
project is ideal for successful irriga-
tion and the lands could be cleared and
made ready for irrigation at very
small cost per acre.
"If the water is available,
great crops of staple foodstuffs could
be raised, there next year," said Coun-
ty Agriculturalist Lee M. Lampson
this morning. "There is no higher
class of lands in the Northwest and
they could be successfully cropped the
first year. The first blowing would
put considerable humus into the soil
and no cover cropping would be neces-
sary, in fact the new lands would be
more productive than land that has
been farmed year or two without
fertilization. Beans, corn, potatoes
or almost any vegetable or forage crop
could be produced in great quantities"
The project has been surveyed under
the proposed Northern Pacific High
line and is known to be entirely feas-
ible from an engineering standpoint.
1t is known too, that the construction
cost would be moderate and the land
could be offered the settler at per-
acre cost considerably less than the
price which similar lands under pri-
vate irrigation projects in this district
have been sold. Altho some of the
lands We're homesteaded before the
government ordered their withdrawal
a large percentage Of the acreage is
owned by the government and the
Northern Pacific Railroad company.
The railroad, it is understood, will CO.
operate with the government in plac-
ing the lands on the market at price
that will be most attractive to the
home builder.
The proposed extension will start
at Benton City where the irrigation
water will be siphoned across the
Yakima river. The project embraces
in all about $4,000 acres, extending
from Kiona to Hover. Included in this
acreage are the lands already irrigated
by the Highlands pumping system
which will be abandoned as soon as
the gravity project is completed.
The first unit of 10000 acres which
can be brought under irrigation next
year lies between Kiona and Badger.
For the purpose Of more forcibly
presenting the desirability for speedy