Show CANAL ROUTES 1 c Suggestion tiiat tlia Draper Canal L be Adopted I SALT LAKE CIT April 9 1850 Editors Herald On principles of general economy there ought to be but ono canal in this county cast of the Jordan River to carry water from that river for th necessary uecd of the inhabitants and the line of that canal should have as great an altitude as is i practicable A multiplicity of canals extending from the tame source and in parallel directions is watts unnecessarily 1 w > o f land a waste of money and a waste of water besides destroying the unity and special value of many homestead home-stead and injuring facilities for irrigating irri-gating lands intersected by them The ratio of tbs loss of water by evaporation and percolation incnmses with wonderful rapidity according as the number of canals into which the water is distributed is increased This ia certainly a matter worthy of atten tionsince it is already considered that the ordinary supply of water in the Jordan is inadequate for necessary I purposes For these general as well aj for special reasons which may be given the present location of the canal to supply the city with watr ought to be reconsidered and a new route selected At the time of the location of the city canal there was a canal already located and partly constructed by a company consisting of farmers and landowners in the southern part of the county This latter canal is so located as to convey the water along the eastern part of the valley at as great an altitude as possible and will reach the city if extended on a line 125 feet higher in altitude than that of the city canal as at present located The heaviest work on this canal that around the point of the mountain is in the main completed it has ahead a-head of water six feet in depth and so far as constructed baa at least twice the carrying capacity of the I contemplated city canal The ex tension of this canal will cross the Big Cotton ood creek above where the main irrigating ditches and canals I tip that stream and will follow not along the edge of the bench east and I south of the city but on top of it The cost of acquiring the right of way for this canal will be less than that for the city canal because the lands through which the former passes are less valuable I is true that there aro some large ravines to cross which will add to the cost of too northern half of the canal l but no one can doubt the practicability of crossing these This additional outlay out-lay however while partly compensated compen-sated by the amount saved on the southern part of tho canal can bear I no proportion to the additional advantages ad-vantages of such a canal to the city for all time This canal i extended to Jo the city may be made to cover and supply water to every part of the same and would have an altitude sufficiently great to connect with any system of water works tD supply water for culinary purposes and for the extinguishment of fires Such a canal may be used to carry pure water from mountain streams to such points as it might be wanted in caeo farmers south would accept Jordan water in lieu thereof This they would probably do as Jordan water is better for general irrigation on account of its fertilizing properties Ii The company organized to construct con-struct the canal referred to placed its northern terminus at Little Cottonwood Cotton-wood about onehalf the distance to the city Almost onehalf the labor necessary to complete the canal to that point has been performed The entire cost of completing this to Little Cottonwocd as estimated by Surveyor Sur-veyor Fox is 87000 This estimate was not according to cash rates but at rates somewhat higher as the laborer would take for his pay stock in the company I have reason to know that EG far as the company is concerned con-cerned the city can obtain at the Little Cottonwood onehalf the quantity quan-tity of water the canal will carry by pacing onehalf the entire expense of completing the canal to that point as an original cost and afterwards one half the coat of necessary repairs Thus for an outay of between 40 000 and 50000 all the water that could be desired by tho city can be obtained at a point on the Little Cottonwood Cot-tonwood fiom which it can be conveyed con-veyed t tho city by a canal constructed I con-structed by it independently An arrangement cau be perfected with tho company in regard to the management man-agement of the upper section of the canal to which the city can certainly have no objection I these considerations are now ignored ig-nored regret i will be 1 matter for future Respectfully J L RAWLINS |