IRRIGATION UNDER THE CAREY ACT. 



By A. P. Stover. 

 CONDITIONS LEADING UP TO THE PASSAGE OF THE CAREY ACT. 



The history of irrigation development in the arid States is divided 

 into three natural epochs. The first covers the period of early de- 

 velopment during which individual and corporate effort accomplished 

 the successful reclamation of the most easily developed bottom lands 

 along the streams. Keclamation during this period was accomplished 

 in practically every instance by the owners of the land, the ownership 

 of the land and of the water being vested in the same individuals. 

 Because of this ideal condition of ownership and control, as well as 

 the fact that only the simplest and cheapest form of ditch construc- 

 tion was employed, practically every enterprise undertaken proved 

 a sound financial success. Great profits accrued from this union of 

 cheap water and cheap land. The successful development which took 

 place during this first ei^och was the lure that led naturally to the 

 unsuccessful, not to say disastrous, attempts at development consti- 

 tuting the second epoch. 



Promoters and investors realized the great profits being reaped 

 from the small irrigated ranches and farms along the river bottoms, 

 but were wholly unfamiliar with the primal causes of these successes. 

 Naturally they came quickly to the conclusion that if such develop- 

 ment was so handsome an investment on so small a scale without the 

 employment of any semblance of business methods, large canal sys- 

 tems, built to supply large areas of vacant Government land, would 

 most certainly be a very profitable investment. What could be more 

 simple than to have settlers take up the fertile lands under some of 

 the existing Government land laws and then secure from the canal 

 company the necessary water for irrigation at a price for a w^ater 

 right and for maintenance that would yield a handsome profit on the 

 company's investment. Settlers were land hungry and would take 

 up the land rapidly. Water was the prime essential to its develop- 

 ment and the settlers w^ould be forced to take water from the canal at 

 almost any price the company might name. Such an investment 

 surely was one of promise, because it seemed so fully safeguarded on 

 all sides. As a result, the second epoch, extending from the early 



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