THE AREAS THAT ARE AND CAN BE IRRIGATED. 397 The CHAIRMAN. Have you any information as to how it is in Nebraska, on the Platte? Mr. WEST. It is the same all along the Republican Valley. As you get on the divide or high land the condition seems to be that you get usually into water, although it is not so in all cases. Senator JONES. You say that a $700 pump discharges about a cubic foot a second? Mr. WEST. Yes. Senator JONES. What is the size of the discharge-pipe? Mr. WEST. The pump I speak of discharges right at the box. Senator JONES. Have you measured the discharge capacity of the pumps? Mr. WEST. Yes. Senator TELLER. You mean to say, I suppose, that these people using the pumps are getting this subterranean water? On Mr. WEST. This gravel is very coarse, in places as large as your fist. That lies together irregularly, and there are great spaces or cavities between the pieces. As we pump the tendency is to throw this stuff out and open up great channels, and then there is a rush in of water. the Albert Howard well, which is 70 feet deep and gives 22 feet of water for irrigation, there are two pumps for the 200 acres, and the water is lowered about 11 feet in pumping twelve hours per day. That leaves 11 feet to draw on. The amount of water underneath in these gravel beds seems to be enormous. Where we have found 12 feet of water in that stratum we have not put in any pumps yet that have pumped it dry. At Platteville, about 20 miles south of here, they have 60 feet of that gravel stratum, and nearer to Denver they have 50 or 55 feet in different locations. The CHAIRMAN. If you will in condensed form give the results of your operations, the cost, and the amount of land irrigated, and also any information you may have as to water that is underground, down about the Platte, the Arkansas, or any other stream, we would be glad to have that information. Mr. WEST. There are one or two other facts I would like to state concisely. One is that we have sold a number of those pumps for places where the streams run very sluggishly (2 to 4 feet per mile) and where it is impossible to take out ditches. In other cases, for instance in Bear River, in Routt County, the condition there is that of a great difference (12 feet) between high water and low water in the streams. There the valleys are narrow and the people are not able to take out large ditches. For that reason their ditches are too small and are built for high water. When that water drops, their ditches are left dry, and their crops have to dry up for want of water. That is the condition of many localities, particularly in the parks and mountains. On Bear River they have coal that they can put right into a wagon without any cost of hauling. The CHAIRMAN. In your statement give us an explanation of raising of the water up from a distance of 4 or 5 feet. It may be useful. Mr. WEST. You mean the fuel expense for different elevations? that Mr. WEST. Yes. It might be well for me to state also that we have had letters from Arizona, New Mexico, western Kansas, western Texas, Utah, Montana, and elsewhere, giving indications that there are localities where it is impossible to irrigate except by raising the water by mechanical power, and where they have regular rivers of water under ground. The CHAIRMAN. You can condense all of that information that will be of use. When received it will be placed in evidence. FURTHER STATEMENT OF GEORGE H. WEST. In Greeley we have given much attention this season to elevating the underground water to the surface for irrigation. This idea had its inception in the lack of water to mature our crops under the old irrigating. canals in this section. In the year 1888 the loss on the potato crop tributary to this city was estimated at $250,000, this year at $300,000, from lack of water solely, the crop being perhaps three-fourths made and then burned up. This loss occurred with an abundant supply of water under every ranch in the valley at from 4 to 30 feet from the surface in coarse gravel. Much study has been given to this matter and the machinery used is cheap, simple, durable, and economical. The pumps commonly used in Colorado are of the class called steam vacuum pumps, operated with steam-boilers, requiring no engine, and lifting the water by vacuum or atmospheric pressure through automatic condensation of steam in the two pump cylinders alternately. They are of two kinds, one making the atmospheric lift only, say, 22 feet here, and the other the same lift of water into the pump, thence forcing it above 150 feet higher, by steam-pressure in the cylinder. Being without plungers or pistons, muddy water, sand, and gravel do not interfere with their operation. On a simple vacuum lift they can be operated with less than 1 pound steam-pressure and discharge their nominal capacity with 5 to 10 pounds steam-pressure and on a lift of only 4 to 12 feet with from 25 to 30 pounds steam-pressure the discharge is about doubled. Figuring on a pump of nominal capacity of 450 gallons a minutes, being 1 cubic feet per second, or 50 miners' inches, the theoretical discharge is as follows: One pound of coal in an average boiler should convert 1 gallon of water into steam. Water at the altitude of Greeley-4,778 feet-is converted into steam at about 202 degrees. Steam occupies here relatively 1,993 times the space of water. Allowing 493 parts steam for waste, and also that the water displaces the steam in the cylinders space for space, we should get 1,500 gallons of water for every pound of coal used and every gallon of water converted into steam. In actual practice we have done about one-half of this, discharging 1 cubic foot of water per second 20 feet high with 35 to 40 pounds of good soft coal per hour. The ranchmen in actual use, often use consume 50 per cent. more coal than this. The accompanying sketch (No. 1) is a section (one-half) of a deep well (Albert Howard's) on the bluff north of this city. There are two pumps in this well, set on top of the curb just above the water level, both operated by one steam boiler. Mr. Howard has irrigated 200 acres of land with this plant at an expense of $2 per acre for fuel and labor for the season's irrigation. This well is 68 feet deep, 46 feet from the surface of ground to water, and with 22 feet depth of water. The discharge is 2 feet above the surface of the ground. These pumps, operated twelve hours per day continuously, lower the water 11 feet, and the average lift is 53 feet. A 60-horse-power horizontial steam boiler is used, consuming about 14 tons of inferior slack coal in twelve hours, costing $1.50 per ton. The water-bearing strata is coarse gravel. These pumps discharge about 1,400 gallons per minute, being about 3 THE VACUUM PUMP AS USED FOR IRRIGATION. Sketch No. 1-Represents Albert Howard's well and pump on the bluff 2 miles north of Greeley, Colo. Length of square curb is 48 feet; length of round curb 25 feet, of 2 inch plank by hoops of iron bolted through each plank. The 2 inch plank are bolted on the outside of the iron circles. There is one-half an inch of space between each piece of timber, through which the water finds its way freely into the well. There are two pumps in this well, only one being shown in this drawing. The water stands fevel with the top of the round curb in this well when the pumps are not running. Water-bearing gravel and sand indicated by the dotted work. 399 |