IRRIGATION UNDER THE CAREY ACT. 463 



The theory of irrigation investment Avas sound, but the speculator 

 had to be eliminated where Government land subject to entry was in- 

 volved in the scheme of reclamation. 



It was absolutely essential, in order to insure future irrigation in- 

 vestments, that there be provided some means of vesting the control 

 of the land in the company building the canal system. To change 

 existing laws or boldly enact new laws was out of the question, and it 

 was necessary to secure national legislation by more subtle methods. 



Whether or not the need for such legislation was felt more keenly 

 in Wyoming than in other States is not known, but it remained for a 

 number of investors of that State to start the movement that resulted 

 in the passage by Congress in 1894 of the " Carey Act," named for 

 its introducer. Senator Joseph M. Carey, of Wyoming. This act not 

 only marked the beginning of State and Federal aid in irrigation 

 development, but with its subsequent amendments it has had a more 

 far-reaching effect in producing material development in the arid 

 West than has any other single act of national legislation bearing 

 upon the question of public lands or irrigation. 



The third epoch of irrigation development, therefore, covers the 

 period from the passage of the Carey Act in 1894 to the present time — 

 a period nuirked by the beneficial effect of national and State aid in 

 eliminating speculative abuses and in reestablishing the principle 

 developed in the first epoch, that joint ownership and control of water 

 and land are absolutely essential to economic irrigation development. 



THE CAREY ACT AND ITS AMENDMENTS. 



The modest manner in which this important piece of legislation 

 was secured presents a strong contrast to the far-reaching develop- 

 ment it eventually made possible. This act, which has made possible 

 the successful reclamation and settlement of millions of acres of 

 desert land, was passed by Congress August 18, 1894, as section 4 of 

 "An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Gov- 

 ernment for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895, and for other 

 purposes" (28 Stat., 372-422), and was in fact merely a rider on a 

 general appropriation bill. This was the case not only with the 

 original act, but three of its important amendments were passed in 

 the same indirect manner. 



The text of the act is as follows: 



Section 4. That to aid the pnblie-land States iu the reclamation of the desert 

 lands therein, and the settlement, cnltivation, and sale thereof iu small tracts 

 to actual settlers, the Secretary of the Interior, with the approval of the Presi- 

 dent, be, and hereby is, authorized and emix)wered, upon proper application of 

 the State, to contract and agree fi'om time to time with each of the States la 

 which there may be situated desert lauds as defined by the act entitled "An 

 act to provide for the sale of desert land in certain States and Territories," 



