462 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



eighties to 1893, the year of financial panic, Avas an era of corporate 

 canal building. 



During this period practically every AVestern State witnessed costly 

 and extensive canal construction. A few enterprises here and there 

 were in the hands of men Avho realized that the control of the land 

 was as essential as the control of the water and that without such 

 complete control no safe investment was possible. These men con- 

 fined their operations to the irrigation of lands in private ownership, 

 and, when equally as cautious along other lines, were in the main 

 very successful. The majority, however, regarded lack of formal 

 control over the lands to be irrigated as of no serious consequence, 

 as desert land was valueless without water, and it was not believed 

 that anyone would take up this land Avithout taking water also. So 

 strong and convincing were the arguments presented in favor of 

 every phase of the undertaking that the largest projects were easily 

 financed and surveys and construction made possible. 



On most projects construction had barely commenced and on some 

 surveys hardly had been well started before the potential value of 

 the lands to be irrigated was fully realized and the rush to secure 

 desirable tracts began. Some few persons applied for land in good 

 faith, but the majority used their rights purely for speculation. The 

 latter realized that the lands, which they could secure for practically 

 nothing, would become very valuable property when the canal sys- 

 tems .were completed and water made available, and that their par- 

 tially perfected rights could then be relinquished to bona fide settlers 

 at a handsome figure. In short, the land speculator and land grabber 

 were abroad in the land. To the canal company all were " real " 

 settlers, and the future seemed promising indeed. All went well until 

 the canal was completed and water ready for delivery. Then, and 

 not until then, could the speculator be distinguished from the actual 

 settler. To the consternation of the canal company, the speculators 

 constituted a large majority, and for the first time it was realized 

 that a condition had been allowed to develop which spelled ruin for 

 the enterprise. The speculator, with no idea of purchasing either 

 water or a water right, "held down his claim," awaiting the day 

 Avhen some real settler would pay the price he asked for his relin- 

 quishment. With so heavy an investment in canals and structures 

 and only a comparatively small part of the area under the system 

 jdelding revenue, pressure was brought to bear on the companies to 

 force payment of interest and' installments on the bonded indebted- 

 ness. The inevitable crisis was reached in the year 1893, and the 

 second epoch of irrigation development in the West came to a close. 



Investors, with this forcible demonstration of the dangers arising 

 out of separate control of land and water deeply impressed upon 

 their minds, began to seek means to prevent this condition of affairs. 



