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Show Local Farmers Are Advised on Saving Water Meeting Monday forenoon in the Mt Pleasant North ward Chapel, farmers of Sanpete county were told by the State water conservator, Professor George D. Clyde, that the s ate stands ready to advance assistance as-sistance in the financing of projects pro-jects to enlarge the water supply 'for irrigation and culinary purposes purpos-es but that "no consideration will 'b given to those projects which can be done by local people without errpense. "You farmers have a dry year 'every year in Sanpete," Professor Clyde said, "but this year far exceeds ex-ceeds anything you ever had. I have seen more snow on your Wasatch lange here than anywhere else in !the state, however, including the Uintah Mountains which I recently visited," the speaker said. As a means to conservation of the !sudd!v of water already available. yrofe-aor Clyde outlined these pro-' pro-' posed steps: : "First, you can't irrigate with too ' small streams It might bet well therefore to combine streams and shorten water turns accordingly. "Second, be careful about leaky headgates and keeping ditches and canals cleaned. Much loss occurs where several headgates in a row allow water to seep through, and obstructions in the channel also remit re-mit in great loss. "A third rule is careful attendance attend-ance while watering. Stay With your water! It is inexcusable under present, conditions to turn the water wa-ter and then leave it to go to a show or go to bed. "Fourth, be prepared to take advantage ad-vantage of the surface run-off that comes from land above yours. Often Of-ten it is possible in this way to have as much as half of your land wot.prpri when vour turn begins. "Fifth, work out a plan of compensation com-pensation whereby all water can be used close to the head of the ditch, with crops being shared In return for the sacrifice of water made This plan is now under way, I believe, be-lieve, in the Uintah basin, and allows al-lows irrigation of some lands at least, when taking a small stream a long distance does nobody a great deal of good." Professor Clyde pointed out that the water supply is only something like twenty-five percent of normal and the crop outlook in Utah as a whole only from 10 to 25 per cent of normal. To meet such an emergency emer-gency farmers must discard old methods me-thods of "irrigating on horseback" and must be willing to cooperate with each ether. The state's water supply from April 1 to October 1 is derived almost al-most entirely from 20 per cent of the state's surface which lies 8.000 feet or more above sea level. Professor Profes-sor Clyde said. This year the snow supplying on the higher levels, particularly par-ticularly here in Sanpete was not far below that of 1933 according to official measurements taken on April 1, but due to the dryness of the soil lower down, practically no water reached the streams. To aggravate the situation further, fur-ther, unusually warm weather arrived ar-rived in the early spring, necessitating necessi-tating earlier irrigation. It was foresight fore-sight of the critical situation seen to be arising that led Governor Blood about a month ago to have the entire state placed in the "drowth area" so that federal aid might be secured. : The state was then notified that it would receive $600,000 to help relieve the situation, and a part of this sum will be given to Sanpete, under certain) specified conditions. , "Money given out from this fund must be spent to meet the existing emergency," Conservator Clyde asserted. as-serted. "It was also the plan of the one's in charge of Its apportionment apportion-ment that it would be far better to give assistance as a preventative thanas. a corrective measure. It Is l?ctter from ' every 'standpoint to help the farmet riow than to give tiirii relief later. "As one man said, We need more Brigham Youngs to get the people out to help themselves where possible.' pos-sible.' " . The speaker was of the opinion, concurred in by many farmers who Wprfl nrpcpnf fV,nf fVinro !e 1n Rfln- pete as elsewhere in the state a. large amount of underground water wa-ter which might be tapped through the drilling of wells and the Installation Instal-lation of pumping machinery at carefully chosen sites. The state would listen to proposals for assisting as-sisting la the financing of such projects, ne Indicated. It would also listen to proposals for the development of stock watering water-ing holes oh the range as necessary, and this was , a move favored by Professor Clyde. ', Present at the meeting were representatives rep-resentatives from irrigation companies comp-anies in Milbum, Fairview, Mt. Pleasant, Moroni, Fountain Green, Chester, Spring City, Ephraim and Mantl. The meeting was called by President' T. W. Jensen of the Sanpete San-pete County Form Bureau. |
