546 



CONSERVATION 



states and territories wherein the irri- 

 gation works are situated and is bound 

 by these laws in respect to the appro- 

 priation and use of the waters therein. 



The Government, as I have said, has 

 invested $50,000,000 in reclamation 

 works, and bv such investment has suc- 

 ceeded in irrigating over a milhon 

 acres of arid lands ; and it may be like- 

 wise stated with fairness that more than 

 $50,000,000 have been added to the 

 value of these lands. With the addi- 

 tions which are contemplated in the 

 completion of irrigation works now un- 

 der construction and those contem- 

 plated, the increase of values will more 

 than proportionately continue., and the 

 consummation of the revolving fund 

 brought about bv the return of the cost 

 of construction of present works will 

 enable the Government in the course of 

 years, where feasible projects exist, to 

 increase beyond calculation the wealth 

 of the irrigable regions and the con- 

 tinual expansion of opportunities for 

 settlement and for homes ; the end to be 

 reached only when irrigable lands cease 

 to be available. Lands that may be 

 considered under present methods non- 

 irrigable, in the development of me- 

 chanical and electrical capacity for rais- 

 ing water onto higher levels may be 

 economically irrigable in years to come, 

 so that no one can to-day define the 

 limits of possibility, as they are not 

 the limits of conceivability. 



This fact has been well illustrated in 

 the history of the public domain, as it 

 has not been many years since the arid 

 and semi-arid lands of the West were 

 considered worthless and denominated 

 "desert lands." Thousands of acres of 

 these lands, considered non-irrigable, 

 and valuable only for grazing, are now 

 being entered and utilized for dry 

 farming as authorized by the act of 

 Congress known as the "enlarged 

 homestead act." 



Any one who has visited one or more 

 of the reclamation projects now in op- 

 eration and sees, on the one hand, the 

 desert covered with sage brush and bar- 

 renness, and, on the other, the water 

 Mowing over the fertile soil, producing 

 heavy crops of grain, or orchards in 

 fruit, appreciates to the fullest extent 

 the benefits of irrigation. 



The people of the West, therefore, 

 who are familiar with these wonderful 

 results in irrigation, are highly appreci- 

 ative of the importance of the Recla- 

 mation Service, but the great difficulty 

 which that service encounters is in fin- 

 ishing the projects now undertaken as 

 against the clamor for a diversion of 

 the funds to new fields. In this respect 

 the service has suffered in not carrying 

 to completion a less number of projects 

 than it is now engaged in constructing. 



I cannot conceive of anything which 

 will contribute more to the permanent 

 wealth and prosperity of the reclama- 

 tion states and territories than the con- 

 tinued construction on the broadest 

 possible scale of irrigation works. 



The danger, which the Government 

 is undertaking to overcome, is the es- 

 tablishment of small irrigation project^ 

 in localities where by such establish- 

 ment the larger opportunities are de- 

 stroyed, thus preventing enormous 

 areas of lands from ever acquiring the 

 use of water. It is quite true that many 

 small projects capable of being financed 

 by men of limited means can be carved 

 out of larger possibilities, but to en- 

 courage them means the loss of the 

 large possibilities. For lack of funds 

 the Government is at present often re- 

 quired to surrender possibilities in 

 water appropriation which means an 

 enormous loss in future development of 

 irrigation w^orks. and I fear this is not 

 fully appreciated. It is for this reason 

 that at times private enterprises are 

 disposed to contend that the Govern- 

 ment is obstructing their interests, 

 while from the larger view their in- 

 terests are obstructing greater possibili- 

 ties for larger areas of irrigable land. 

 I may mention here what has frequentlv 

 occurred to me as a source of advan- 

 tage both to the states and the Federal 

 Government, and that is the securing 

 from the various states of uniform leg- 

 islation in the matter of the appropria- 

 tion of water and its beneficial use, and 

 also legislation looking to the control 

 and conservation of all available water- 

 power. 



This Congress could accomplish no 

 greater work beyond the stimulation of 

 interest in the development of irrigation 

 than to secure uniform water regula- 



