its capacity has been increased somewhat." It now carries five thousand inches. The Tenem Ditch was commenced in 1873, and by 1875 had been built. This was to irrigate West Kittitas Valley. Water was first let into the ditch in 1873 and the head gate put in that year.

On page 157 of the History of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas Counties is given the earliest coöperative efforts in the Yakima country, the "result of raising forty bushels of wheat to the acre near Moxee Bridge, was the starting of an irrigation enterprise by a species of farmers' coöperative company. The promoters were Messrs. Goodwin, Stollcop, Vaughn, Mayberry and Simmons. Work was begun by these men during the spring of 1868, the intake being located a mile above the mouth of the Naches River. The ditch was a small one. It had to be constructed under difficulties by men who were not blessed with an abundance of capital, and its progress was slow. By the early '70s it was turned to good account for farming near its head, though it was not completed to Mr. Goodwin's place until several years afterward. In later times it was greatly enlarged and improved and became what is known as the Union Canal."

Mr. Lesh, in his State Horticultural Report, 1892, makes 1874 the date when the Union Gap Ditch was first used, and speaks of its being six miles long, seven feet wide, one and five-tenths feet deep and costing $2,000.

The next was that of the Shanno Brothers, but we are not sure of the time, for 1871 and 1872 are both given. Mr. Splawn gives the earlier date. This ditch brought water out of the Wide Hollow Creek, or as Mr. Splawn gives it, "from a branch or slough of the Ahtanum Creek," to their homestead located on the sage flat between Yakima River and Ahtanum Creek. The first ditch did not prove successful, so they decided to build a larger ditch. They began work on this in 1873 and its source was the Naches. The ditch was eighteen feet across at the bottom, carrying water eighteen inches deep. Its length was eighteen miles. Water reached Oldtown, or Yakima City, in 1875. "This was the first ditch of large size and public utility to be constructed in the county. While the ditch later known as the Union Canal was sooner started, it was of slower growth, and did not develop into an important factor in the agricultural progress of the country until some time afterward." (History of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas Counties, p. 178.)

This marks the close of irrigation as an individual affair, for from the time the curtain of history rose in Egypt, irrigation has tended to coöperation of the handful of dwellers upon a small creek to the millions of dwellers upon a water system such as the Nile. Our

streams were made common property, conserved by the state for the benefit to the greatest number.

From 1880 to 1890 activity increased, but with it came conviction that irrigation is too big an undertaking for one individual or groups of individuals without support from either state or nation, and already a few of our far-seeing leaders advocated the Federal Government's building and controlling projects such as our present decade has made a reality. Wherever there was an available water supply, the farmers had begun to make use of it for irrigation, especially such plants as are injured by the long summer drougts, and the "garden" of which Dr. Burbank spoke was beginning to emerge. Governor Moore, in his Report of 1889 to the Secretary of the Interior, voiced this sentiment when he says: "In Yakima and Kittitas Counties considerable areas have been reclaimed by irrigation and are proving of enormous value. The introduction of water by the individual or private company is too expensive. It is hoped that within a few years the National Government will have devised and carried into effect a comprehensive system of water supply for this and other arid regions of the West, and thus solve the problem of providing homes for the homeless. In 1883 construction work on the Northern Pacific Railroad was begun and twenty-five miles were built that year. In 1884 it was extended to North Yakima. This proved a great factor in settling the country, and thus gave impetus to the development of irrigation."

During this period was built the canal of the Ellensburg Water Company, commonly called the "Town Ditch." Construction on this canal began, according to Judge Kauffman, in 1885. According to the United States Census Report of 1890, seventeen miles had by then been completed at a cost of $45,000, irrigating two thousand acres and each shareholder getting one-half miner's inch of water in 1889. "This," says B. F. Reed, in his magazine article, "was the first canal of any size constructed in the egg-shaped Kittitas Valley." It was enlarged and lengthened in 1890. It now covers fifteen thousand

acres.

In that county was also built, in 1889, the Westside Irrigation Canal, a canal fourteen miles long, twelve feet wide, and estimated to irrigate thirty thousand acres. This company was composed of irrigators who were the water users.

In 1885 was incorporated the Ellensburg Water Company, with a capital stock of $40,000, subscribed by the farmers and real estate men, to construct the largest canal in the county, the water to be taken from the Yakima River. After ten miles were completed the work

was suspended until 1891, when it was extended ten miles farther. S. T. Packwood was its president for several years.

The Moses agreement, 1886, opened up the Okanogan country, which brought in many settlers, and in 1887 a great many ditches were taken out from the various creeks flowing down to the Okanogan River; also many ditches were taken out in the Methow. "Irrigation in this country was in full swing in 1888," says Judge Brown. "The irrigation was, until about 1904, for alfalfa; for there was no railroad transportation, so cattle and sheep were fed and sent out on the hoof, but with the big fruit land boom, commencing about 1904, came the great revival and expansion of irrigation and the great rise in the prices of irrigated land.”

The more slowly developed counties had their pioneer days durin the '80s. In Douglas County, Harry Thompson irrigated a quarter-acre berry patch in Brown's Canyon with water brought from a spring on a hill. Early stock raisers on East Foster Creek irrigated gardens in 1886. One, Platt Corbaly, came in 1884 and planted an orchard on a hillside, which necessitated considerable irrigation; he found that much water is lost in open ditch. Many other instances of small beginnings were cited by Anton Gritsch, pioneer of Douglas County, but to mention all would be of little value, even if time permitted. While these were being built, coöperation was not far off. In 1885, six or eight neighbors divided up the water and flumed it. Near Orondo, Frank Hunt, Doc Smith and his brother brought down water from the Badger by an eight-inch pipe line laid extending the length of the canyon. In Chelan County, in the early '80s, Dutch John diverted water from the Stelmilt, and during those years the "Settlers' Ditch" was built near Wenatchee. This was a coöperative enterprise, built by the settlers for their special benefit.

Less irrigation was developed in Klickitat. It was carried on in the lowlands along the Columbia. Water from springs was used higher up, and we find windmills were used to pump water to the higher lands. The largest project during this period was the Cameron Ditch from White Salmon, begun in 1886. The ditch was four miles long and six feet wide at the bottom, and cost $3,000. This was built by irrigators for their own use.

In Spokane, Lincoln and Stevens Counties irrigation was carried on in a small way, but increased steadily, as the benefit derived warranted the expenditure of considerable sums. It was done where water is easily gotten or where its farmers were "accustomed to irrigation." The more progressive recognized that by putting abundant water on the land they increased greatly the yield, and a second or

even a third cutting of forage plants was possible. In Stevens County, on the western edge of the Colville region, along the banks of the Columbia, is a succession of terraces where irrigation is generally necessary. Water is taken from the small creeks which flow into the Columbia. In Walla Walla County irrigation was carried on along the Snake, Columbia, Walla Walla and the Touchet Rivers, "wherever water can be brought out by small ditches, water wheels or force pumps."

The greatest progress along these lines was in Yakima, undoubtedly because here irrigation was most needed, and the results the most apparent, for the rainfall at Fort Simcoe is ten and six-tenths inches; Pleasant Grove, ten inches; Kennewick, six and six-tenths inches, while the eastern part averages: Colville, seventeen and twotenths inches; Dayton, twenty-six and seven-tenths inches; and west of the mountains, one hundred and ten inches. According to the Agriculture Bulletin of 1910, twenty-inch precipitation is "approximately the dividing line between the sections in which irrigation is necessary to the maturing of crops and those in which it is not necessary."

After 1870, the influx of white settlers was rapid, and after 1880 the small ditches came to be enlarged and considerable tracts were irrigated. The Ahtanum and Wide Hollow ditch was built in 1879, taking its water from the north side of the Ahtanum Creek. Its length as given by D. E. Lesh was, in 1889, ten miles, and it was five feet wide, irrigating “about 250 acres." The Fowler ditch was built in 1884, and has since been extended through Union Gap, and is now known as the Lombard and Horseley ditch. It takes its water from the Yakima River and runs to the east side into the Moxee Valley, and by 1889 was eight miles long and watered fifteen thousand acres.

The Moxee Company's ditch was built in 1888-1889, and nearly crossed the valley north and south, watering all the company's land. The company consisted of Gardiner Hubbard, of Washington, D. C., and William Ker, Esq. Outside capital marks a new era in irrigational undertakings. The ditch was eighteen feet wide, contained three feet of water and supplied thousands of acres.

In Governor Squire's Report for 1884, he says: "A corporation for the purpose of irrigating the lands of the Moxee Valley, which is about twelve miles by five miles, known as the Yakima Farm and Ditch Company, was organized some time ago. This ditch will cost about $40,000, and irrigate twenty thousand acres."

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer early in 1889 says that the only extensive work is that by the Selah Valley Ditch Company. It is

twenty-four feet wide at the bottom, three and a half feet deep of water, its intake is up in the Naches River about thirty miles, and irrigates twenty thousand acres just north of North Yakima. Besides these larger projects were the many lesser enterprises too numerous to mention. The greatest of all the projects commenced in the period was the Sunnyside Canal, but this properly belongs to the 1890-1900 period, in that the earlier companies were made up of land-owners who combined for the purpose of more efficiently and cheaply obtaining water for their own lands i. e., the stockholders were local men, the capital was local, and the purpose was improvement of their respective lands. In 1889 outside capital was attracted by apparent opportunities for profitable investments in irrigation projects, whose purpose it should be to sell water as a commodity, and make their profits on the large amount of water they had to sell.

A good summary of this period is found in the Secretary of State's Report for 1892. He says: "On June 1, 1890, of 11,237 farms found in thirteen counties, or nearly two-thirds of the whole number in the state of these farms 1,046, or nearly one-tenth, contained irrigated areas. The number of irrigators was 1,046, the total irrigated acreage in crops was 48,199 acres, and the average value of products per acre was $17.90. And the counties using irrigation are: Asotin, 320 acres; Columbia, 139 acres; Douglas, 1,016 acres; Franklin, 44 acres; Garfield, 229 acres; Kittitas, 25,212 acres; Klickitat, 1,702 acres; Lincoln, 239 acres; Spokane, 80 acres; Stevens, 1,350 acres; Walla Walla, 2,809 acres; Whitman, 530 acres; Yakima (including Benton), 15,129 acres."

In 1890, in the number of irrigators, this state stood at the foot of the list, having a few less than the Territory of Arizona; and also the smallest acreage of the eleven leading irrigation states. In value of lands irrigated the state occupied an intermediate position, while in average value of products it stood high.

The '80s stand out as an experimental stage in artesian wells, by individuals, state and county. In Governor Watson C. Squire's Message and Report to the Legislature, 1885-1886, he says in speaking of Yakima: "Hundreds of small ditches have already been constructed and the good results are apparent." And in his report to the Secretary of the Interior for 1885 he says of Douglas County: "This is the finest and largest body of unbroken land, and would be settled more rapidly if water could be obtained. Artesian wells have been sunk sixty to one hundred feet, one two hundred and twenty-five feet, and failed to get water. . . The people desire that Congress make an appropriation to be applied to sinking one or two wells on the