Show t i A !i ii s Catch that “get ’em” spirit and help the fellows out Now is the time to get Don’t wait to eat your turkey started dinner before you wake up Come on Let's all go! o i I in C iiviiop'iiT nr I ikkioation lofjriison Agronomist Diiision I’ A C Extrusion the first successful irrigation practice of community size in the United States was by the Mormon pio neers in 1847 when they reached the valley of the great Salt Lake Their first act was to dig a trench which conveyed the waters of City Creek to the field where the pioneers were to plant what little seed they had brought with them from the East The ground was so dry that it was found to be impossible to plow before irrigating This valley at that time presented a vast stretch of sage brush with not a tree to be seen Colonel IJridger offered a prize of $1000 for the first ear of corn that could be raised in this arid region Undoubtedly 1 mi i in Canals T i f E vT 3 hIFE of the desert principally along streams where the maximum supply of water could be obtained and Water now is personal propel tv or leased rights are sold exchanged W hen a farmer finds that his water right furnishes more water than he needs he transmay buy another piece of land and fer the surplus water right to that or he may rent a part of it by the year to some neighbor or he may sell it outright by having such transaction recorded with the company Following the early development cultivation soon extended so far that the amount of water at their disposal would not serve all Accordingly acts were passed by the legislature regulating the distribution of water The principle was established that those farmers who first made use of the water should be entitled to sufficient water to irrigate the amount of land originally cultivated by them and that later comers should not take the water until those having prior rights had used what they need the latest comers being first to be deprived and those settling before them losing their water supply in succession as it became less and less This system is known as the “Priority of right system” and embraces three distinct classes primary secondary Nevertheless the people were advised to construct canals open individual ditches and apply water to the land that food supplies might be forthcoming The methods of irrigation used and tertiary rights Tin Tlim Kinds of Uilits then were almost identical with those are acknowledged used at the present time Canals were Primary rights whenever any person had taken diverted run from the canyons out upon the more and used any of the unappropriated water level land of the valleys and there subdiof any natural stream or other natural vided into branch canals antf these again subdivided into laterals leading to every source of supply Also whenever any farm as far as the water was to be disperson has enjoyed the open peaceable tributed Each farmer had canals leaduninterrupted and continuous use of water for a period of seven years ing from the main one to every field Each field had occasional furrows runSecondary rights are acknowledged wherever the whole of the water of any ning either lengthwise crosswise or distream had been diverted and used for a agonally across as the slope of the land The water was turned into part of each year only and other persons required these furrows one or more at a time had subsequently appropriated the water until it had flowed to the other end ami during the other part of the year also spread out on the surface when it Tertiary rights accrue only when farwas turned into the next few furrows mers having primary or secondary rights Each farmer used the water a certain do not use or claim all the water A person buying the land usually number of hours each week The amount buys of water which he obtained the water also The evolution of right depended upon the number of shares of water which irrigation in Utah has followed the nahe owned and the amount of land he cultural course beginning with a small tivated In the early history of Utah the stream that a single farmer or small practical application of the principle that group of farmers could divert and use the water right should he inseparable then the larger creek calling for the from the land was encouraged combined and To the effort of the pioneer water was not only the basis of community and finally the larger wealth hut of human existence The irunder a single system of works rigation canal was the first and highest where it is necessary to obtain outside of public utilities Labor was the basis capital for their development of stock in every canal built Each farllntr 1th it (’mini mer became an owner of shares in the These organizations of large capital canals constructed in proportion to the had their beginning in Utah in 18(58 diligence of himself and hoys and when the first survey was made for a strength of his oxen or mules Everycanal to convey the waters of Pear River thing was done on the plan upon the parched but fertile land of and very little actual money was Pear River valley It was not until IKS!) required A rimnjjr ti s lo lilli when the required amount of capital was Thus cities and towns sprang up out secured and the Pear River co-operat- under-reclaim- co-operat- Irrigation ed Company was formed that a $2000000 canal was begun This canal was a work of great magnitude and presented great engineering difficulties At a point where Pear River leaves Cache Valley and cuts its way through the mountain range into the Salt Lake Pasin a dam was constructed on the solid bed rock of the river requiring 750000 feet of square timber put together by 50 tons of bolts the whole structure being supported by a solid masonry wall extending across the channel and back 200 feet The canal was then built through the rocky walls of a gorge for a distance of six miles The canal is 15 feet wide and 10 feet deep and every foot of it for the distance of six miles was either built of masonty or tunneled through solid rock Six miles from the headgate the main canal divides one branch going off upon the rim of the valley on its right while the other runs through the valley The length of the canal is 07 miles while laterals to the extent of 40 miles lead the water to the various lands under irrigation The capacity of the main canal is 1000 second feet an ample supply for 150000 acres Most of this land under the canal is now being cultivated planted to fruit trees although wheat and sugar beets are also grown extensivelv w Homes lor More Settlers The amount of money invested in irrigation systems in Utah is about thirty millions of dollars There are problems in the arid regions which are so vast that individual companies and communities cannot handle them Yet if they were worked out they would furnish millions of acres of good farming land and homes for a large number of people Ili'claimiii" tin Desert In the year 1896 both national political conventions declared in favor of national irrigation and Senator Newlands of Nevada formulated a measure which became law This bill provided that the Secretary of the Interior should make investigation and surveys and wherever he found an irrigation project practicable he should have the power to commence the work provided the money necessary was then in the treasury The means were to be raised from the proceeds of the sales of public lands in thirteen states and three territories which should be put into a special fund in the treasury of the United States to be called the Reclamation Fund It al- so gave the Secretary of the Interior the power to fix the cost of each project upon the lands reclaimed by the sale of water rights been accumulated and it is expected payable in ten annual installments that within the next twenty years with0 out interest $20000000 has now will have been expended in the storing and distributing of water in the arid west The National Reclamation Service now lias huge projects in hand $200-00000- Many (ummI ItrsiTYnlr Kill The topography of Utah is very favor- - |