June 21, 2007

Nevada's Online State News Journal

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[From The History of Nevada, edited by Sam P. Davis, vol. I (1913), pp. 756-770]

Nevada History:

756            THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

CHAPTER XL.

WATER SUPPLY AND IRRIGATION.

BY F. L. PETERSON.

Since the greater part of agriculture in the State of Nevada is absolutely dependent upon irrigation for crop production, or the artificial application of water to the soil, the question of water supply is of vital importance, not only to those engaged in agricultural pursuits, but to the entire population of the State, and a knowledge of the extent, character and distribution of this supply, and means for the best distribution of the same, becomes a matter of interest to every citizen.

To many the thought has never occurred as to why the State of Nevada is so arid, and the following description of the State will not be amiss at this time. The only source of Nevada's water supply is the snow that falls upon her own mountain ranges, together with some additional moisture from the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevadas in California, the southeastern part of Oregon and the northeastern part of Utah. The precipitation that occurs in the form of rain is so light and so scattered that dependence upon it to make up what is lacking in atmospheric humidity is practically negligible.

In topographic configuration Nevada is peculiar. All the main mountain ranges have a general northerly and southerly trend, so that in conformation Nevada can be likened to a wash-board. The following description of the topography of Nevada is taken from the Monograph on Lake Lahontan by Israel C. Russell: "In crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, between the Mexican boundary and the central portion of Oregon, one finds a region, a high plateau, bounded by the Sierra Nevada on the west and the Rocky Mountain system on the east, that stands apart in marked contrast to the remaining portions of the United States. The traveler in this region is no longer surrounded by the open, grassy plains and heavily tim-

WATER SUPPLY AND IRRIGATION         757

bered mountains of the Pacific Slope, or by the well-rounded and flowing outlines of the Appalachians, and the scenery suggests naught of the boundless plains east of the Rocky Mountains. He must rather compare it to the parched and desert areas of Arabia. To the geographer the most striking feature of the country stretching eastward from the Sierra Nevada range to the Rocky Mountains is that it is an area of interior drainage. For this reason it is known as the Great Basin. No streams that arise within its borders carry their contributions to the sea. All the snow and rain that falls within its rim is returned to the atmosphere either by direct evaporation from the soil, or after finding its way into some of the lakes that occupy irregular depressions, to sink, or be lost by deep percolation. . . . The area thus isolated from oceanic water systems is 800 miles in length and about 500 miles in width at its widest part, and contains close to 208,500 square miles of territory. The southern part of this region includes the Colorado Desert and Death Valley, and much of the arid country in California and Nevada. The central portion of eastern Oregon and northwestern Nevada are the northern limits of the Great Basin." The entire State of Nevada is not within the confines of the Great Basin. A considerable portion of southeastern and northern Nevada are out of the limits and have streams that drain into rivers discharging into the sea. The Muddy and Virgin Rivers in southeastern Nevada, and the Salmon, Bruneau and Owyhee in northern Nevada, drain into the sea through the Colorado and the Columbia systems.

In very recent geological times, but now passed away, an ancient body of water known as Lake Lahontan covered a number of valleys of northwestern and central Nevada. Into this lake drained the rivers in Nevada that are in the Great Basin—the Humboldt, Truckee, Carson and Walker. The confluence of these waters made a large and very irregular shaped lake, having an approximate area of 8,422 square miles, and in the deepest part, the present site of Pyramid Lake, it had a depth of 886 feet. The extreme southern limit of this lake was but a few miles from Hawthorne, Nevada, the extreme northern limit was the Honey Lake Valley in California. The western edge reached into the Truckee Canyon a few miles west of Wadsworth and the most eastern point was at Golconda, Nevada. This

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lake had two flood stages and did not overflow. After the second flood stage the waters evaporated to complete desiccation, and left a number of existing lakes which we now know as Humboldt Lake or Sink, North Carson Sink, Pyramid, Winnemucca and Walker Lakes, in Nevada, and the Honey Lake in California. This is sufficient history of Lake Lahontan for use in connection with the description of the Great Basin and the topography of Nevada.

Owing to Nevada's location to the east of the lofty Sierra Nevada mountains, which lie between it and the ocean, whence come the rain-bearing clouds, and which intercept the clouds, robbing them of most of their moisture, the precipitation over the greatest part of the State is small. In the agricultural valleys the precipitation varies from three to twelve inches. The average precipitation of the State as ascertained from the U. S. Weather Bureau gives 9.81 inches as the average annual, while during the year 1912 Spooners Station, on the eastern edge of the Lake Tahoe drainage, received 32.49 inches precipitation as the maximum and Mina received the minimum of 2.49 inches. Thus to the natural barrier of mountain ranges on the western edge of the State is due the fact that Nevada is arid. The rainfall that a region receives is a silent though potent factor, controlling an almost infinite series of results in its physical history and topography. In a humid region the hills have a flowing outline, erosion is rapid, and the whole scene has the beauty and softness of a garden. In an arid land like the Great Basin all this is changed. The mountains are rugged and angular, and for the most part unclothed, except for a scant covering of brush, though some small, favored sections carry a little timber. The drifting of the snow into the deep canyons of these lofty ranges, and the later melting and run-off, is the source of the irrigating water for the Nevada farmer.

Physical conditions, the light rainfall, the rapid evaporation of moisture, the aridity of the soil, pushed the pioneer farmer into the valleys. He would have gone there anyhow. Here the soil was moistened by the annual overflow of the streams, or was moist by sub-irrigation. Here were the natural meadows, and here grew up, and simply—the stock farm. Farm life in the early days of the Overland Trail had to take the lines of least resistance. This was the first stage of Anglo-Saxon irrigation in Nevada and occurred from 1847 on.

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"Irrigation on the American continent is older than historical records. Even modern irrigation is comparatively old. It began seventy years before the English colony landed at Jamestown, when the Spanish explorers gained a foothold in the valley of the Rio Grande. They built churches which still stand and planted gardens which still flourish; but in watering their gardens they taught nothing new to the inhabitants. The Spanish explorers as they rode up in the valley of this river in the first half of the sixteenth century found Pueblo Indians irrigating the thirsty soil as their forefathers had done for centuries before them, and as their descendants are still doing."—Mead Irrigation Institutions. Little is known of early irrigation in Nevada. It is stated that the Spanish missionaries in 1795 crossed the San Bernardino desert and practised irrigation in the extreme southern portion of the State, to which region they gave the name of Las Vegas, meaning "the meadows." In this section were flowing springs, but the agriculture established in this region was not a very permanent one. On the east side of the range of mountains from Las Vegas a Mormon community was established about 1870 which practised irrigation from the Muddy River. From 1847, the date of first Anglo-Saxon irrigation in the arid west, in Utah, till about 1860, there was but very little irrigation carried on in Nevada, except on the well-defined Overland Trail. From 1860 to about 1900 marked the era of the small stock and wild hay farmer. The second step in Nevada's irrigated agricultural progress was the trend towards the general farm. This necessitated the enlarging of the canals and the securing of a greater quantity of water and a more stable supply than the pulsating rivers gave. This era commenced when the United States Government commenced the Truckee Carson project about 1901-02.

Water Supply and Stream Systems.—The melted snows from the mountain ranges, finding their way down the canyons, form several large rivers, and numerous small streams, which, tho' inconsiderable in themselves, in the aggregate form no mean water supply. Most of the streams have their source high among the slopes of the mountains and descend rapidly towards the valleys. Their downward course is seldom an entirely uninterrupted one, however, except in the case of the small streams issuing from the abrupt slopes of the

760      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

mountains to the southward of the upper Humboldt River. Usually at one point or another they traverse upper valleys, sometimes the beds of ancient lakes of greater or less extent, where frequently a portion of the water is used for irrigation of forage and other crops. Leaving these the streams enter rocky defiles or canyons to emerge upon lower valleys, and, receiving tributaries on the way, they finally pass through the foothill region and out upon the fertile plains. At about this point a change usually takes place in the character of the channel, which, from a rocky torrential or gravelly stream bed with rapid fall, becomes a more or less shifting channel, in which the stream often divides and sub-divides in low water, and finally loses itself on the plain, or, if it is a larger volume, forces itself far out to join some lake, or sink. Practically every river in the Great Basin in Nevada follows out this general description.

The sub-surface waters of the State have their source of supply in the same initial source as the surface waters. A portion of the melting snow must pass into the ground or soil of the mountain top. The structure of the mountains is such that the waters that enter beneath the strata at various points are carried beneath the surface under an impervious strata to appear at the surface of the plain many miles away. The water obtainable from beneath the surface of the ground within the State of Nevada, although relatively small in amount when compared with that of the surface streams, is important from the fact that dependence must necessarily be placed on this where running waters cannot be had. In many portions of the State water in considerable quantity can be found near enough the surface to warrant its being pumped by means of horse, gasoline or electric power for irrigation of considerable tracts of land. In some localities the formation of the earth's surface is such that water rises to the surface and overflows as a natural spring, or is obtained as an artesian flow by drilling. Artesian water occurs very frequently in the State, but the most defined channels are located in the vicinity of Las Vegas, Clark County. Smith, Carson, Eagle and the Truckee Valleys have quite a number of flowing wells.

Prior to 1894 the measurement and investigation of the water sup-ply of the principal drainage areas in the Great Basin was only carried on at intermittent times. Since that time, however, the measure-

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ments have been carried on with a good deal of vigor and we are in the possession of much valuable data of the four principal rivers of Nevada. The longest record by the U. S. Geological Survey is upon the Humboldt River, then the Truckee, Carson and Walker. These four streams comprising the principal rivers of the State furnish water for more than three-fourths of the present irrigation, and the drainage basin, physical characteristics and utilization of each are described in the following paragraphs, in rather general detail, together with the crops grown and other information.

Humboldt River Drainage.—The Humboldt River is one of the longest and most important streams in the west, both on account of the volume of its water and of the area of agricultural land along its course. It differs from many of the streams of the west in that its drainage basin of 13,800 square miles lies wholly within a single State. There are eight of the United States that have a smaller area than the drainage basin of the Humboldt. Delaware and Maryland have a combined area of 14,260 square miles, and Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut have a combined area of 14,555 square miles. The area of the watershed of the Humboldt comprises about one-eighth of the area of the entire State of Nevada. The length of the Humboldt as one would drive from its mouth to source is about 350 miles. Its length, if measured by following the water in its flow, would not be far from 1,100 miles, due to the tortuous course of the river on the floor of the various valleys.

The Humboldt River has its source in Elko County, in the northeastern part of the State, and flows in a generally southwesterly direction through the southwest part of Elko County, the northern parts of Lander and Eureka Counties, and through the southeastern part of Humboldt County, and thence empties into the Humboldt Lake, or Sink, at the lower end of the Lovelock Valley.

The course of the Humboldt lies through a succession of valleys and canyons separating the valleys. The valleys vary from a few hundred feet to several miles in width. The soil in these valleys is largely alluvial and quite subject to erosion during the floods of early spring and summer, the soil being so light that considerable quantities of it are carried down the stream and deposited on the lands of the lower valleys during the irrigating season. From Golconda to the

762      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

Sink the Humboldt flows on the floor of the ancient Lake Lahontan in a very tortuous course.

The Humboldt Valley is divided into several distinct divisions or districts. The eastern, or upper division, lies within the counties of Elko and Eureka and consists of a number of small basins, each drained by a creek, except the two larger divisions, which are called the North and South Fork Valleys. The drainage from this division has cut what is known as the Palisade Canyon through the range of mountains that separate the upper from the central valley, or as the latter is termed, the Battle Mountain Valley. To the western end of this central valley is the Emigrant Canyon, through which the Humboldt emerges onto the Golconda Valley. Passing through the Golconda Valley the Humboldt passes through a narrow canyon opposite the old railroad station of Oreana and emerges for the final 18 miles of its length upon the Lovelock Valley before passing into the Humboldt Lake.

The Humboldt Wells, which are sometimes spoken of as the source of the Humboldt River, are located in a natural meadow a short distance below the town of Wells, Nevada. They number about 150, and new ones are reported from time to time. They vary in size from a few feet to several rods across. During a portion of the year no water flows from these wells, the water standing a few inches from the surface. In the latter part of the year the water level commences to rise and a stream flows from the meadow. The main sources of supply of the Humboldt is the snow on the lofty East Humboldt, Ruby, Independence and Diamond Ranges, together with the lower ranges that have an earlier run-off.

The availability of the Humboldt for power purposes is small, owing to the very slight fall of the main river. However, a few places present fall enough to turn the wheels operating small electric generators and one flour mill. On the streams tributary to the Humboldt in the upper section, however, several excellent opportunities exist. Possibly the best stream for future development is the South Fork.

The possibilities of storage of flood waters on the Humboldt are many. The basin of the Humboldt offers several ideal reservoir sites. At present the Pacific Reclamation Company at Wells.

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has a reservoir at Metropolis, to store the flood waters of Bishop Creek. The Humboldt Irrigation Company have just completed two reservoirs opposite Humboldt House which when completed to the maximum elevation will store about 40,000 acre feet of flood water, for use in the Lovelock Valley in seasons of shortage.

The crops grown under irrigated agriculture in the valley of the Humboldt are extremely varied. The upper valley, in the vicinity of Elko and to the east, produces as its largest crop, natural wild grass hay, and a smaller amount of timothy and alfalfa. Some of the grains are also grown. The valley of the North Fork has native grass hay and pasture as its largest crop. The bottom lands from Cluro to Golconda, which comprise the central section or the Battle Mountain Valley, and on which is located some of the largest ranches on the river system, produces wild hay and pasture as its largest crop. Some grain, the usual quota of garden truck and some alfalfa, are also produced. The valley from Golconda past Winnemucca produces native grass, hay and pasturage, alfalfa, some grain and considerable garden truck. The Lovelock Valley is one of the largest and most important valleys of the Humboldt, and of the State as well. The Humboldt in this section has cut a channel on the floor of the valley 15 to 35 feet deep, necessitating the use of canals several miles in length to get water onto the lands. Due to this natural obstacle the Lovelock Valley has had to develop the most comprehensive irrigation system on the Humboldt, the balance of the valleys irrigating to a very large extent by wild flooding, secured by tight dams across the river, backing the same up for several miles in several instances. The principal crop on the Lovelock Valley is alfalfa, hay. Thousands of cattle and sheep are shipped into these valleys during the winter and fed for market. Honey is an important by-product here, several carloads being shipped every season. Wheat, barley and oats have a considerable area devoted to them and are very heavy producers. Sugar beets grown for the first time in 1912 made excellent yields and contained an extremely high percentage of sugar.

Although opportunities for reclamation and betterment of existing irrigation practice are many, the most of the necessary work would be very great, due to the engineering features to be overcome.

Truckee River Drainage.—The Truckee River is the most northerly

764      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

river on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevadas emptying into the Great Basin, and the ancient bed of Lake Lahontan. The Truckee River comprises the main river and several tributaries, all having their chief supply in mountain lakes. The Truckee River itself is the natural outlet of Lake Tahoe, a beautiful mountain lake lying at 6,225 feet above sea level, with an area of 124,000 acres or 193 square miles. The total length of the Truckee is about 110 miles and its total fall from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake, where it empties, is about 2,350 feet. The area of the drainage basin of the Truckee River at a point 18 miles north of the town of Wadsworth, where a gaging station of the U. S. Geological Survey used to be maintained, is 2,310 square miles.

Issuing from the northwest side of Lake Tahoe, the Truckee flows almost due north to the town of Truckee, California, where it turns east and enters Nevada. At Wadsworth, Nevada, the Truckee turns north again and discharges into Pyramid and Winnemucca Lakes, brackish bodies of water without outlets. From Lake Tahoe to Verdi, Nev., a distance of about 35 miles, the country is heavily timbered with fir and pine; below Verdi, a few barren stretches alternate with the three fertile valleys—the Verdi Valley, the Reno or Truckee Valley, and the Wadsworth Valley. The Truckee River emerging from the Wadsworth Valley enters the Pyramid Lake and is then lost to the beneficial use of agriculture.

The Truckee and the Humboldt Rivers were along the line of the Overland Trail to California in the days of '49 and irrigated agriculture in Nevada dates back to that time. From what can be learned, active irrigation of any considerable area did not take place till about 1855 to 1860. Small farms sprang up where conditions were favorable and the farmer disposed of his produce to the people who were traveling to California.

In its descent of 2,350 feet in 110 miles the Truckee affords many opportunities for the development of electrical power. Within 28 miles west of Reno, are located five power stations, generating as follows: Farad, 1,500 kilowatts; Fleish, 2,000 kilowatts; Verdi, 2,400 kilowatts; Washoe, 1,500 kilowatts, and the sub-station on the outskirts of Reno, 750 kilowatts, a total maximum output of 8,150 kilowatts, or 10,920 horse-power. These plants are under one man-

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agement and is at present the largest power development in Nevada. Several opportunities exist below the town of Reno in the Truckee Canyon, one plant of which is projected to be built during the coming year.

The trend towards the general farm and the improvement of irrigation conditions throughout the State commenced about 1901 with the commencing of the Truckee-Carson Reclamation Project. At a point about five miles above Derby, Nev., is located the diverting dam of the before-mentioned project. By means of a canal over 30 miles long the waters of the Truckee are delivered into the Carson River at a point above Lahonton Dam. From here the waters are taken down the Carson River, and then applied to the fertile plains of the Carson Sink Valley in the vicinity of Fallon. The first unit of lands embraced to be irrigated under the Truckee-Carson project numbered 100,000 acres, but this area exhausts the natural flow of the two rivers during the irrigating season, and the lands subject to entry have been withdrawn till the Lahontan storage reservoir can be completed. The Lahontan Dam is located about seven miles south of Hazen, Nev. This dam across the canyon of the Carson River will create a lake about twenty-three miles long and from a quarter to five miles wide, and a storage capacity of 300,000 acre feet of water. The Lahonton Dam is to be an earth-fill dam with concrete cut-off wall, to have a width on the foot of 625 feet, maximum elevation of 125 feet and a length of 1,700+ feet, and is said to be the second largest dam of its type in the world. The flood waters of the Truckee will be stored in this reservoir as well as the flood of the Carson.

The products of irrigated agriculture under the Truckee River system are extremely varied. The Verdi Valley produces alfalfa, potatoes, grains, apples, pears, small fruits and garden supplies. The Reno Valley produced alfalfa, timothy, onions, celery, sugar beets, native grass hay, small fruits and garden truck. The Truckee-Carson project in the Carson Sink Valley produces everything that the Reno Valley does, with the addition of cantaloupes, sweet potatoes, beans and a larger sugar beet area. Hon. Lem Allen, one of the pioneers of Nevada and a resident of the Carson Sink Valley has

766      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

manufactured syrup from cane grown on his ranch. The Wadsworth Valley produced everything that the Reno Valley does.

The furrow method of irrigation is the largest practised method of irrigation under the Truckee River system. The land has such slope that irrigation by flooding, except in favorable instances, cannot be practiced.

Carson River Drainage.—The Carson River basin includes that area which lies south of Lake Tahoe and between the Walker and the Truckee Rivers. Carson River is formed by its East and West Forks, which rise in the extreme eastern part of California, in a rugged and mountainous country, heavily timbered with fir and pine, on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The general course of the two forks is northeastward to the point of their union near Gardnerville, Nev. From this point the river flows in a generally northerly direction to about three miles east of Carson City, thence eastward through a barren and rugged chain of hills, onto the Dayton Valley and the Carson Sink Valley. The Carson River is about 120 miles long, falling about 1,900 feet in this distance. The drainage area of the Carson River at Empire, Nev., is 988 square miles.

In contradistinction to the Truckee drainage, the Carson basin contains no lakes, but is derived entirely from snowfall and run-off from the high mountains. Though there are no lakes, many ideal reservoir sites are available near the headwaters and along the main river. During the early spring and summer months the Carson is a swollen stream, but in the later summer months there is barely enough water to supply the irrigating demand. By building reservoirs in the mountains this condition could be greatly improved, and the waters of the two forks so controlled that the daily average flow would be greatly increased. The distribution of the water during the irrigating season is in the hands of a water commissioner, who distributes the water in accordance with adjudicated rights to its use, and even though the supply gets short at times, everyone gets along fairly well.

Good power sites are available along the banks of both Forks, but at present are wholly undeveloped. Several farms, however, have

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their own individual hydro-electric power units for lighting and for power.

Irrigated agriculture under the Carson River occurred in the vicinity of Genoa about 1850, and consisted of grass pasture, some orchard small fruits and garden truck.

The products of irrigated agriculture under the Carson River system are as varied as those under the Truckee. Several fertile valleys lie along the course of the Carson, but much land is unutilized on account of the scarcity of water late in the growing season. The Carson Valley is one of the best farmed and most prosperous valleys in the State, for in addition to the irrigated products of alfalfa, timothy, grains, orchard, small fruit and vegetables, dairying is carried on to a very large extent. The Dayton Valley is famous for its production of potatoes, which is its largest crop, in addition to onions, alfalfa and orchard.

Walker River Drainage.—Walker River rises on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada range in two main branches, whose basins are separated by a group of mountains known as the Sweetwater Range. The East Fork of the Walker River receives the drainage from the eastern slope of the Sweetwater Range and from the western slope of the Walker River Range. The West Fork flows at the base of the main Sierra Nevada Range. From the union of the two forks near Yerington, Nev., the river flows sluggishly northward, passing through the fertile Mason Valley to a point east of Wabuska, where it turns to the east and the southeast, and sixty miles beyond enters the Walker Lake. The length of the Walker is about 120 miles, in which distance it falls about 1,600 feet. The drainage basin of the Walker contains 2,420 square miles.

The basin of the Walker contains three important valleys, in addition to other small open areas; Antelope Valley on the West Fork, Smith Valley, a fertile table land presenting ample opportunities for reclamation, also under the West Fork, and the Yerington or Mason Valley, which takes its irrigation water from both Forks. Only recently the water rights of the Mason Valley have been adjudicated. The minimum flow of the Walker is not sufficient to supply the de-

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mand during summer months, although excellent reservoir sites near the headwaters of both Forks are available to store the flood waters that go into the Walker Lake, only to be lost to agricultural use. The snowfall in the winter is ample to assure a supply of water for the reservoirs.

The irrigated agriculture of the Walker River valleys is very diverse. Mason Valley, containing about 250 square miles, has not all of its fertile land under cultivation, due to the low flow of the river at the latter part of the irrigating season. As a general rule the land holdings are large, alfalfa the principal crop and stockraising the chief industry. Potatoes are a special crop and of fine quality. Wheat, barley, oats, apples, peaches, small fruits and garden truck comprise the crops grown. The crops raised in the, Smith Valley are the same as those in the Mason. The Carey Act project of the Walker River Power Company proposes to impound the flood waters of the East Fork and to carry the stream by a high line canal to reclaim a large area of fine sage brush land and to develop as an ultimate load 30,000 electrical horse-power.

Small Stream Systems, Northern Nevada.—In addition to the large river systems above described, in the State, innumerable cultivated areas of land occur wherever the flow from a spring or small stream occurs. The total irrigated area of lands falling under this classification in the State is close to 100,000 acres or about one-seventh of the irrigated area of the State. The Steptoe Valley is traversed by Duck Creek from the north and Steptoe Creek from the south. Native grass hay, alfalfa, fruit and grain are the products of irrigated agriculture. In the White River Valley in east central Nevada the White River has a length of about 75 miles and has a run-off of about 28,000 acre-feet per annum. The Salmon, Bruneau and Owyhee empty their contents into the drainage basin of the Columbia, though a considerable area is irrigated by them in Nevada.

Southern Nevada; the Muddy River.—The Muddy River system is located in the extreme southern point of Nevada and belongs to the drainage system of the Colorado, which in turn empties into the Gulf of California. Contrary to popular opinion, this section of Nevada is not in the Great Basin, though the divide passes very

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close to this region. The Muddy River has its source in constantly flowing springs in the Arrow Canyon. From the source of supply the Muddy River flows southerly through the Meadow Valley Wash and thence through the Muddy River Valley, past the town of St. Thomas, and thence empties into the Rio Virgin, about twenty-five miles above the confluence with the Colorado. The normal annual flow of the river is about 28,000 acre-feet. The very constant daily discharge of the Muddy is at times augmented by storms, when the river attains considerable size. The Muddy Valley is in the subtropical section of Nevada. The products of irrigated agriculture are grapes, figs, cotton, cantaloupe, asparagus, vegetables, grains and alfalfa. The scarcity of the water supply has limited the occupancy of all the fertile land in the valley to about 5,000 acres.

Las Vegas Valley, Artesian.—Across the range from the Muddy Valley is located the broad stretch of country known as the Vegas Valley. Aside from the Vegas spring and the other spots made fertile by small mountain streams, this region was once believed to be an unconquerable desert. It is in this valley that the early Spanish missionaries are said to have established a limited irrigation when they were building their chain of missions on the Pacific Coast.

In 1906 the first artesian well was drilled, developing an artesian flow at a depth of 300 feet. Since that time, and particularly since two years ago, a number of well drilling outfits have been at work and the number of flowing wells have been increased to over 50. The range of crops grown under artesian irrigation in the Las Vegas Valley is practically the same as the Muddy Valley, and on the best lands enormous yields of grapes, cantaloupe, lettuce and early garden stuff in January, and fruits both large and small. Cotton is grown on a small scale in this vicinity every year.

The great problem in Nevada is not one of land, but one of water. There is good land enough to sustain many times the population, but the use of it is limited by arid conditions. With the proper Conservation of the flood waters, and a better knowledge of the correct application to crops, the irrigated area of Nevada could be doubled.

Irrigation Census in Nevada.—The following figures for the State

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of Nevada are taken from the thirteenth census of the United States during 1909 and show the total approximate land area of the State as 70,285,440 acres. Of this area 701,833 acres were irrigated during 1909, or approximately one per cent. of the land area of the State. In the data collected, showing the relation to works supplying water for irrigating purposes, the figures show a total length of canals of 3,151 miles, having 1,939 miles as main canals, with a combined discharge of 17,579 cubic second feet. The number of independent irrigation enterprises are 1,347. In the acreage irrigated classified as to source of supply, 661,762 acres are irrigated by streams; 906 acres supplied by small lakes; 187 acres from wells; 38,840 acres from springs, and 138 acres from reservoirs. The only reservoirs that are treated as independent sources of supply are those which are filled by collecting storm water from water courses that are ordinarily dry.