Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-11-20 | Page 9 | Plan Reclamation of Suburban Land

M RECLAMATION OF SUBURBAN L10 About 20,000 Acres in Davis and Salt Lake Counties Will Be Drained. Preliminary action for the draining and reclamation of about 2'0'n" acres of land along the Jordan river and the Great Salt lake, in Salt Lake and Davis counties, coun-ties, was begun at the meeting of more than 101) interested property owners at the Auditorium yesterday afternoon. A committee was appointed by E. B. Oriteh-low, Oriteh-low, who acted as chairman of the meeting, meet-ing, which was authorized to secure the signatures necessary for tho presentation of the petition for the formation of a drainage district. "When permission of the county commissioners for forming the district is secured three trustees with the authority to raise the money will be appointed. ap-pointed. Members of the committee for securing signatures' are: G. R. Bothwell. chairman; chair-man; Joseph W. Mellen. Thomas E. Jeremy, Ansel Hatch of Woods Cross, D. O. Willey, Jr., Perry Burnham, James Winters and A. 9. Gilmore. Members of , the committee own large holdings in the i territory affected. Among others who j attended the meeting and are interested in the success of the enterprise were Dr. i A. S. Bower, A. J. Lowe. A. T. Moon, C. W. Johnson and V. A. Bettilyon. That the proposal of converting the thousands of waste acres into productive j land is entirely feasible and at very mod- . erate cost, was the statement of R. A. Hart, federal reclamation agent of this j section, who made one of the chief ad- i dresses at the meeting. This tract, which includes some fertile land now, can be made to bear good yields by draining it of water and washing out the accumulations accumula-tions of salt, Mr. Plart stated. The work of reclamation should not cost more than from ?15 to $25 an acre, Mr. Hart believes. The federal government govern-ment is willing to act in an advisory capacity, ca-pacity, and will furnish surveyors and otherwise aid in making the project a success, he stated. Those interested in the work assert that they will push the district to huccess and that further developments will be made as fast as the successive steps can he taken. The presentation of ths proposal pro-posal at the meeting by D. O. "Willey met with approbation. The securing of signatures sig-natures by the committee is expected to be accomplished very soon, and the petition pe-tition will be presented to the commissioners.