OCR Text |
Show I COMMISSIONER OF IXDIAS AFFAIRS. 35. and material the di5culty of carrying some of the projecta to com-pletion with available funds will be realized. Early in the spring instructions were issued to field men to stimu-late crop production wherever possible; to confine activities to increas-ing areas under cultivation and to bringing additional lands under ditch at the earliest date, where such could be done without serious detriment to the project as a whole. This met with a hearty response, and in ,many localities the area actually cultivated increased by as . much as 50 per cent. The Wapato dam across Union Gap an the Yakima River was completed during the year at an aggregate expenditure of some-thing over $144,000. This dam consists of two dikes and two spillways, the combined length of which is 1,960 feet. When the distributing system is completed it is estimated that this project will irrigate about 120,000 acres, of which over 57,000 acres are now in actual cultivation. The total crop production during the present calendar year from this project is estimated to reach over $6,000,000. One of the most interesting and by no means unimportant features of the irrigation work is the development of underground water in the arid southwest for stock-watering purposes. This is done by means of wells and springs, and while each unit in itaeli is exceed-ingly small and the development of water for irrigation purposes in most localities out of the question owing to the limited supply, yet these units are of great value, especially to the Navajo Indians. These wells are frequently 25 or 30 miles apart, scattered over e territory 150 milea long (north and south) by 250 miles broad (east and west). With a reservation embracing over 12,000,000 acres, in many parta of which range is available for stock provided water can be found, the Navajo problem is not one of grasabutofwaterfortheir . stock. In many places one of these small wells will supply a range of 40 square miles and for a number of years past every effort has been made to increase the supply of water, especially in those locali- , ties where the available range could not be used on account of the lack of water. One of the field men reports that with the addi-tional water developed the Navajos' stock has increased more in the i past five years than it did in the preceding 500 That our efforte in their behalf are not unappreciated the following excerpt taken from a field report will show: t Pmud and thankful ownere ere they (the Kavajoe,, to know that "The Great White Father" at Waehnglan h a t last come to their rescue, by sendma men and machinery with which to develop their water remurcas. . As early aa 1910 Congress directed the construction of a pumping plant on the Colorado River Reservation with a view of tdtimately securing an appropriation of water for the irrigation of approximately 150,000 acrea of land. The funda actually made available for this |