OCR Text |
Show w mm 1 Mtt PROJECTS Commissioner of Indian Af fairs Proposes Genera! Consolidation IB WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 Consollda- tion of sonic of the twenty-two ludi- "s-" vidual irrigation projects on Ihe i in gSHH tah Indian reservation end tr. EjH water storage are recommended by H the commissioner nl Indian al'l.ui Bl lila annual report published ester- 'M That the Uintah irrigation Is prof- $M Stable he shows by the value of crops grown, but a better and more cconoiu- yfl leal system can be built up, in his WHzjj judgment. Extension of the Fort Hall j iftBIM irrigation systems in Idaho also is, 5j3jfjH urged by the commissioner. Discuss- "!?I5B ing these two projects, Commissioner filE Sells says: UINTAH BASIN jljgK "The Uintah basin, Utah, is in an e:c-j ceedily isolated locality, being some 'wfS ninety miles from the nearest railroad., wjth an Intervening mountain rang? "!B some 11,000 feet high. Hauling sup-J ; 3j plies into the valley and shipping prod- ldol ucts therefrom is expensive and th" lack of transportation facilities Be-J J&gAj3 riously liandicaps development of this MH valley. Last year the drouth in the i HH western states affected this reserva-; KH lion also, but in the face of these handicaps something over $2,000,000 1 LjH worth of crops wore grown on the irri- nation projects at Uintah, the area un- V der cultivation being over 50.000 acres. ' Hv Instead of having one or more compre- V hensive irrigation systems at this r ' 1 point, we have some tv. . ni a sepa-i II projects, each with an Independ 8rH enl blading i;i the various s ream; "1C largest ol i terns supplying $ftr I 11.000 acres and the smallesl bul tl " Indian allotments aggregating 160 H9 acres. The geology of Ihe country is H such that these systems cannot be Wm combined into one. as thej lr. qinnti K draw water from entirely independent BH streams; but some of the systems are i so located that consolidation can be BSb ; effected to considerable advantage jl Storage would be of great benefit if it I 8H could be had for reasonable expi ndl- tuie, but desirable reservoir sites are. jfi lacking, and, unless further surveys ' d sclose sui able sib . the In igabl T areas in this valley must depend en HHI tlrely on the available flow in the HH streams. When the rainfall is deficient. j9B naturally crops BUffei VALUABLE CROPS. i"On the Fort Hall reservation, Ida-, ho, the value of the crops raised last year exceeded $1,000,000. This is moro I than the total cost of the project to! date, including operation and main-j tenance. Such figures as these place ).. beyond question the wisdom of ex pending even comparatively large sums in irrigation work. The shortage of rainfall in th northwest during the past year seriously se-riously affected all irrigation projects,' both Indian and white, and particular ly those having no stored waters. For-' tunately the Blackfoot reservoir, which supplies Ihe Fort Hall project, proved sufficient to meet needed demands, de-mands, although the stored supply was drnwn down to a very low stage. The; distributing system on this reservation, reserva-tion, as originally designed and built years ago, is not sufficiently large to meet the demands now made upon it, and frequentlv water is served through these canals beyond their safe carry ' ing capacity. An enlargement of the entire system, while needed to supply the added demands, will prove almost as expensive as the construction of a new project. If present prices for farm products continue, however, ev n for a few years, the expense would be Justified. The present carrying capacity capa-city of the distributing system at this point is about one-half as large as it . .-hould be to meet prospective de- mands upon it, and it is a matter of regret re-gret that the original designs for this system, made years before my incum-bency. incum-bency. were not large enough to serve ihe areas that can and should be Irri-1 gated " |