[Illustration:  Plate No. 36.—­Torpedo-Boat Destroyer in Government Drydock at Navy Yard, Puget Sound, Kitsap County.]

[Illustration:  Plate No. 37.—­Steamship Dakota in Government Drydock at Navy Yard, Puget Sound, Kitsap County.]

[Illustration:  Plate No. 38.—­A Kittitas County Apple Tree.]

WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT.

The work of reclaiming the arid lands has been wonderfully accelerated and widened in scope by the national government.  The projects of the reclamation service now include practically all of the available waters of the Yakima valley for irrigating the lands therein.  In Yakima county alone there are probably [Page 41] 260,000 acres now under ditch, and probably 50,000 more will be reclaimed this season.  This is probably not more than half the lands in the county capable of irrigation.  The fact that the general government is in control of these projects insures as wide and just a distribution of the available waters as possible.  The cost of irrigation, which is from $50 to $60 per acre, is paid by the owners of the land in ten annual payments.  There is also an annual charge for maintaining the canals from $1.25 to $1.50 per acre.  These projects of the government cover the lands in Benton and Kittitas counties also—­both of these counties being in the Yakima valley.  The government is also engaged in managing an extensive project in the southern part of Okanogan county, where probably 50,000 acres will be reclaimed.

There is a large acreage in Franklin and Walla Walla counties, about the junctions of the Snake and Columbia rivers, to which Pasco is central, which is arid.  The government has once turned this project down, but is now reconsidering it, and it is reported that these lands will soon be put under ditch by the joint action of the government and the Northern Pacific railway, which owns a large portion of the lands.

Meanwhile private enterprises are reclaiming extensive tracts in Klickitat county, and in fact nearly all the counties bordering on the Columbia and Snake rivers in eastern Washington.  It is probable that there are more lands capable of irrigation in the state than can be irrigated with available waters.  This fact adds to the importance of the question of what to do with arid lands when no water can be put upon them.

METHODS OF IRRIGATION.

There are three methods in use in supplying water to the arid lands.  The first and the one most generally adopted for obvious reasons is the gravity system.  The waters are impounded in lakes or artificial reservoirs and carried thence in large main canals, winding about the hills so as to secure a low uniform grade.  Once established, no other force is needed but the usual flow of the water.

[Page 42] Another method resorted to when the gravity system is impossible is to pump the water from the big rivers into smaller reservoirs leading to the canals, the pumps being kept busy only during the months in which the water is needed.  This method is quite successful, but requires a somewhat larger annual expenditure.  It is being used in some extensive projects, the water being taken out of the Columbia river.