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Show ftJew hngatmn Era Bawms in Utah With dpper Basin Accon1 d Keeping Score of Rice Deliveries ' Lt.-Col. Hubert G. Schench, of Palo Alto, Calif., records the latest percentage of the rice delivery quota on a symbolic bridge erected in downtown Tokyo to spur crop collections. Moving across the bridge is a figure representing the Japanese farmer. Its progress across the bridge from the counlrjside to the city indicates collections collec-tions to dole for this year. Early Years Of Toil Bring State Under The Ditch ENCYCLOPEDIA Britannica says: "Irrigation of the western regions of the United States began be-gan in the Great Basin of Utah when the Mormon pioneers in 1847 diverted the waters of City Creek upon the parched soil of the Salt Lake Valley." To this Mack C. Corbett, of the Reclamation bureau's regional region-al office in Salt Lake adds, "Whether or not the Mormon pioneers can truly claim this 'first' certainly theirs was one of the first instances of modern irrigation ir-rigation by Anglo-Saxons. "Certainly in the; words of Dr. John A. Widstoe, it represented represent-ed the first building of 'communities 'commun-ities of modern, civilized people under the ditch, comparable or superior to those in the rainfall regions from which they came.' "But," continues Corbett. "in the last analysis, more importance impor-tance attaches to what has become be-come of all these beginnings. "The State of Utah is now a comonwealth of some 600,000 persons who enjoy living conditions con-ditions comparable to the finest fin-est of present day civilization. 111- NOT without the greatest sacrifices, sac-rifices, toil and bitter disappointments disappoint-ments was Utah's progress in irrigation ir-rigation made possible. Yet by the turn of the century, more than 1000 miles of hand-hewn cnals had been ' dug 6nd'most" of the lands irrigated in Utah were under the ditch. "The Federal government since 1906 has aided Utah's irri-gationists, irri-gationists, but chiefly in stabilizing stabil-izing the water supply to lands previously irrigated. "As irrigation moves on, Utah reclamationists are looking in desperation to the Colorado river basin for a new water supply, and arc seriously considering improvements to conserve existing ex-isting water supplies." With the Upper Colorado River Riv-er Basin Compact drafted at Vernal last July approved by the commissioners of the five states at Santa Fe, New Mexico on October Oc-tober 11, awaiting legislative and Congressional approval, Utah irrigation appears to be on the border of a new era. For one of its major purposes is: "to secure the expeditious agricultural agricul-tural and industrial development of the Upper Basin, the storage of water and to protect life and property from floods." |