reclamation and settlement, one million acres of the public land or such portion thereof as has been demonstrated by actual survey to be susceptible of irrigation. The land commission of the state participating in this privilege is made responsible for the projects undertaken. The adequacy of the water right, the character of the works, the financial standing of the undertaking company, are all passed upon and the prescribed specifications accepted in a written contract before the lands covered by the project may be offered for sale or advertisements issued. The lands are sold by the state officials in tracts of from twenty to one hundred and sixty acres, at a rate fixed by each state and to bona fide settlers.2 Persons filing on these lands must furnish proof of at least thirty days residence and the cultivation of one eighth of the tract before receiving clear title. Furthermore, they must have signed a contract with the water company agreeing to purchase the water right at a specified charge per acre. Ten years is allowed for the water right payment, but this obligation may be anticipated or passed on with the title in case the holding is sold to a later incumbent. The settlers are purchasing not water only but the irrigating system. The price put upon this perpetual possession varies according to the exigencies of construction from twentyfive to fifty dollars per acre, estimated on the supposition that, all the lands being taken up, the returns will cover the cost of the works and a fair profit on the investment. The capital once recovered, the promoting company proceeds to a new venture, leaving the settlers owners of the works. The water rights are converted into water stock, and a water-users' association is organized in which the farmers hold stock in proportion to their respective acreage. This coöperative company, like the irrigation district, is responsible for the maintenance of canals, the distribution of water, and for any repairs that may prove necessary.

Idaho inaugurated the Carey Act system with signal success, and the sage brush plains of the Snake River Desert were brought under cultivation with marvelous rapidity. The example of Wyoming and Idaho was followed by Montana, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, California, and New Mexico. The achievements of irrigation under the Carey Act have been highly gratifying to its sponsors, and the guarantees provided have given to this class of irrigation securities a recognized financial status. The farmers' water right * Oregon makes no charge for the land but requires the cultivation of one fourth the area.

contracts, secured by a first mortgage on the land, are deposited as security for bonds issued in the ratio of one and a half to one, the annual payments are collected by the representatives of the bondholders and applied, year by year, to meet interest and the ten annual payments on the principal; but the value of the irrigation system as appraised by the state engineer is the ultimate security. Notwithstanding these precautions, a Carey Act project may fail to fulfill its obligations, in case it is unable to market bonds sufficient to complete the works, or the difficulties of construction prove unexpectedly great, or untoward floods carry away the dam and costly repairs are necessitated. It is evident, furthermore, that the ultimate source of revenue is the earning capacity of the lands under the project. If these are not rapidly taken up, or if the conditions of soil and climate are such as to render tillage unremunerative, water right payments will not be forthcoming, and the only asset recoverable may be a discredited irrigation system and the underlying lands. The recent collapse of the Conrad Land and Water Company, and the Big Lost River Irrigation Company, which went into the hands of receivers with outstanding bond issues of $150,000, and $1,355,000 respectively, are cases in point.

National interest in the reclamation of arid lands culminated in the Reclamation Act (1902) whereby the proceeds of public land sales, in excess of the educational obligations already assumed, are devoted to the reclamation of agricultural lands in seventeen arid and semi-arid states. The Reclamation Service was organized under the Department of the Interior, and surveys and engineering estimates were undertaken by some of the ablest hydrographic experts the country afforded. The location of projects has been somewhat determined by the requirement that the major portion of the funds arising from the sale of public lands should be expended ultimately in the development of irrigation in the state from which they were derived, but it has proved impracticable to observe this rule. The state of North Dakota, which ranks first in order of land sales, falls to the thirteenth place in point of expenditure. Oregon, which stands second in receipts, ranks eleventh in amount of expenditure, and the discrepancy is hardly less marked in the case of Washington, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. Arizona on the other hand, which has received

3

Section 9 of the Reclamation Act stipulating such distribution of funds was repealed June 25, 1910.

the largest appropriations for irrigation works, ranks thirteen on the score of income. Need and not revenue has become perforce the criterion of apportionment. During the eight years of its existence, the Reclamation Service has undertaken and brought to the stage where the lands are open to registration thirty-one projects; $60,000,000 has been expended, 1,000,000 acres of arid land have been brought under cultivation, and $1,500,000 has been paid on water rights. According to the provisions of the Reclamation Act, entry on the lands redeemed must be made under the Homestead Law, and for tracts of not less than ten nor more than one hundred and sixty acres, as shall be determined adequate for the support of a family by the engineers in charge of the particular project. The acreage charge for perpetual water right varies with the cost of construction, but averages less than the Carey Act charge because the government makes no allowance for profit and loss. The charges are to be paid in ten annual instalments, the first of which must be paid on filing. The settler must prove that half his land is under cultivation, and all of the annual water right payments must be met, before he can get his entry patented. No commutation of the five years' residence is permitted under the Reclamation Act.

Opposition to the Reclamation Service on the part of irrigation promoters has been widespread and persistent. This government venture is quite naturally regarded by men with capital to invest as an unjustifiable infringement on the field of individual initiative. But the legitimate field of private enterprise is largely preëmpted already. There were approximately 20,000 acres of land under irrigation in 1870 and 1,000,000 in 1880. The census of 1890 showed 3,631,381 acres with an artificial water supply, and that of 1900, 7,263,273. The rate of increase has been declining, in part because the limit of our resources in the way of land and water is in sight and ditch building has outrun settlement, and also because, as the snares and pitfalls of irrigation investments come to be understood, capital is less easily obtained. Only the reassuring propositions of the Carey Act saved this type of business from complete collapse after the panic of 1893. Further, much of the reclamation work remaining to be done is beyond the scope of private enterprise. The federal government alone is able to undertake construction on the scale necessary to convert the great interstate watercourses such as the Missouri, the Big Horn, the Yellowstone, the Snake, the Grand, the Green, and the

Colorado, to their highest efficiency as irrigating systems; some intra-state resources, such as the Salt River, present engineering problems of first magnitude, while the task of conserving flood flow in reservoirs is barely broached. These latent possibilities, moreover, dominate large areas of public land, the national heritage which the government is bound to place at the disposition of the people. The maintenance of a policy calculated to preserve to the republic the type of citizen farmer created by the Homestead Act, may be urged on weighty political and social as well as economic grounds. In view of a long future, whose prosperity is dependent on the well-being of the plain people and the normal development of farming communities in regions hitherto waste, the government can afford to wait decades for returns on capital invested, water right charges can be gauged by what the settler can afford to pay, and considerable lee-way allowed before cancelation of entry. A private company would be ruined by so generous a policy.

We have had sufficient experience of irrigation under the two Congressional enactments to enable us to reach certain conclusions as to the economic problems arising in this new field of agricultural experiment. It has become quite clear that the irrigated farm is not a poor man's proposition. The process of converting the desert into a garden may appear like legerdemain in "before and after" photographs, but in actual experience it is a slow, laborious and costly affair. The land is the least expensive factor in this situation. The indispensable water right is purchased at from ten to ninety dollars per acre; the annual cost of keeping up the canals amounts to from one to three dollars per acre, while the grading of the soil and the construction of laterals and ditches calls. for a considerable additional outlay. The Reclamation Service recommends that a man undertaking to homestead under one of its irrigation projects bring with him $2000 to lay out in buildings, stock, and living expenses for the first year or two while the tract is being cleared and graded and made ready for crops. It takes some years to determine what crops are best suited to each variety of soil and climate and for what products a profitable market can be had. On several of the government projects, the Department of Agriculture maintains an experiment station, but even more important to the economic success of the farmers is the service of the project engineer. As soon as the work of construc

tion is accomplished, the hydrographic engineer is succeeded by a man experienced in the problems of soil and climate, the duty of water and the possibilities of cereals, fruits and vegetables; who has, moreover, sufficient knowledge of human nature to fit him to deal patiently and wisely with the mistakes and discouragements of the novices in irrigation with whom he has to deal. The government has sent some of its best trained men to oversee these reclamation experiments.

The relative merits of the two methods of irrigating the public land now authorized by the federal government may be studied on Snake River, where an area of one million acres is being brought under irrigation, half by private companies operating under the Carey Act, and half by the two government projects of BoisePayette and Minidoka. The settlers under the Twin Falls Land and Water Company are largely men of some property who have been able to secure their patents within the minimum term, while keeping up water payments of twenty-five dollars per acre and developing their holdings into flourishing little farms. After securing title to his homestead, the Carey Act farmer may mortgage the land for money with which to make permanent improvements, or, if climate and environment prove unsatisfactory, he can sell to advantage, assigning his water contract to the purchaser, who assumes the unpaid instalments. Nearly all the Twin Falls settlers have "proved up", and there has never occurred a cause of failure to meet the annual charges, nor has a single contract been forfeited

for arrears.

The Minidoka Project illustrates the virtues and defects of the government method as compared with those of a private company. The long-term residence prescribed by the Reclamation Act is a serious obstacle to enterprising men, far outweighing the fifty cents an acre charge for the state lands, and homesteaders who have means to meet the cash payment gravitate to Twin Falls, notwithstanding the superior quality and lower cost of the government water-works. The charge for perpetual water right at Minidoka, determined by the bare cost of constructing and maintaining the irrigating system, is $22 and $30 per acre. farmers do not come into possession of the works, as under the Carey Act, and this seems, at first blush, an injustice; but community management has its difficulties and dangers. Under the Reclamation Service, the water-users' association must pay for the maintenance of the canals and the distribution of the water, but

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