Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-03-30
THE DUBOIS IRRIGATION PROJECT

crescent than that area, and Is also
concave to the south. This area cul-
inmates at the mountain summitsy-and
includes approximately a million acres
Taking the three areas as an entity
better geographical conception Is
available by comparing the whole
shape Of the district to q horseshoe
with the mountains on the outer RIM
the irrigation project considerably low
er than the center, and the bench lands
between. 1t Is necessary to visualize
and retain this conception in consid-
ering the meteorological phenomena
which would come as the aftermath of
irrigation.
The Oregon Short Line railway,
running north from Salt Lake City,
Utah, to Butte Mont, would form an
approximate medal line from south
to north. Along this line the territory
has a length of about so miles and an
average width Of about 40 miles. The
altitude ranges from $500 to 1900 feet.
The bench lands are settled over
practically the entire area, while the
stock range is pastured to the limit of
its capacity and this capacity. is being
menacingly reduced by the progress of
settlement. Under the next heading
will be demonstrated how such an in
crease in rainfall as would result from
evaporation from the Dubois project
under irrigation would easily double
the crop yield on the benc HANDS, and
vastly increase the pasturing capacity
of the stock ranges.
To the south of the heel of this
| horseshoe shaped territory lie the
| splendid areas to the west of Idaho
Falls and Blackfoot, Idaho, to which
the water tailings, as well as present
| and prospective surplusages of water,
can be carried economically. In this
manner the plans of the Snake river
plains development association can be
| started toward realization and n con-
structive foundation laid for the full
| development of the" easterly section of
! the Snake river plains. the waters from
the irrigation of which inevitably must
return to Snake river for use farther
to the west.
METEoROLoGic AND ISoTHERMIc
| Russell's report cites the fact that
the prevailing winds in the Snake river
plains are from the south. This applies
contiguous to the Dubois project It
enters this area from the southwest,
east, south and west winds are COM
mon, while in the growing season less
than one seventh of the wind pressure
| comes from the north, the latter pres
sure usually bringing rain.
Keeping this in mind and with a
lucid recollection of the horseshoe
shaped area which would be favorably
influenced by the irrigation of the
flats, a reciprocal condition confronts
one, which scarcely needs explanation.
In fact from the meteorologic view
point, those two horseshoe shaped lev
els, namely, the bench lands and the
stock raising area, comprising nearly a
million and a half acres, and surround
ing as they do the irrigable flats,
would, IL the flats were placed under
irrigation, constitute q veritable mois-
ture trap for the conservation of the
water? which on other projects would
be lost through evaporation.
THE bold contours of these two i'm
mense levels and their higher altitude,
would, through the chill of the atmos-
phere as well as through other meteor
ologic influences, induce the precipita-
ton so necessary to a more successful
exploitation of these two great areas.
AT the present time on these two eX-
panses, stockraising on the greater one
| is successful, though becoming more
and more circumsCribed each day,
while on the lesser area, the economic
status of the farmer-there are thou
sands of them-is a dubious, if not
actually a precarious one.
Only two additional inches of rain
in the growing season would transform
the bench land and stock raising areas
from n problematiC, to superb condi-
ton. The evaporation from the Du-
bois project would furnish that much
and more moisture and the change
wrought through this influence would
be fully as startling as that produced
by irrigation waters on a parched des-
ert
SiX-sevenths of the atmospheric dis
turbance in this section pushes the
evaporation against one or another
portion of the highlands where precipi-
| tation is induced.
But the argument does not end here.
| Writing of the characteristics of the
rain storms on the Snake river plains
generally, Russell states in his nara :
tive the following: More often, how
ever the vast banks of brilliantly iilu-
minated cumulus clouds are festooned
| below with descending rain sheets
which fail to reach the earth" This is
tragically true of the irrigable area
under the Dubois project. The writer
though present only a portion of the
growing season, counted seven such
storms in 1917 and II in 1918.
| The isothermic lines of heavy baro-
metric pressures invariably lead lat
orally into the Birch creek valley and
! for four years and more the Palouse.
the Sweet Sage and the Mountain View
soldier and civilian farmers, living dali
ly in hopes of relief from some mys-
FERROUS direction, have titled their soil
without practically drop of rain or
so much of q return as the seed itself
| In the surrounding territory there are