466 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



of 10 years within which reclamation had to be accomplished, the act 

 itself expiring by limitation 10 years from the date of its passage. 

 This limitation really left only eight years in which the several States 

 might avail themselves of the provisions of the act — a period altogether 

 loo short for consummating the development of projects of any mag- 

 nitude. The result was that during this period onW small projects that 

 could be completed within the time limit prescribed were undertaken. 

 Enough development was begini, however, to demonstrate the intrin- 

 sic value of the act, and steps were taken to overcome this defect, 

 resulting in the passage of another amendment by Congress, modi- 

 fying the time limitation in the original act. This important amend- 

 ment also was a rider on a general ajDpropriation bill, appearing as 

 section 3 of the act, entitled "An act making appropriations for 

 sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending- 

 June 30, 1902, and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1901 (31 

 Stat., 1133-1188), which provides as follows: 



Section 3. That section 4 of the act of August eighteenth, eighteen hundred 

 and ninety-four, entitled "An act nialviug appropriations for sundry civil 

 expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen 

 hundred and ninety-five, and for other purposes," is hereby amended so that 

 the ten years' period within which any State shall cause the lands applied for 

 under said act to be irrigated and reclaimed, as provided in said section, as 

 amended by the act of June 11, 1896, shall begin to run from the date of approval 

 by the Secretary of the Interior of the State's application for the segregation 

 of such lands; and if the State fails within said ten years to cause the whole 

 or any part of the lauds so segregated, to be so irrigated and reclaimed, the 

 Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, continue said segregation for a 

 period of not exceeding five years, or may, in his discretion, restore such lands 

 to the public domain. 



The effect of this provision in making the ten-year period run from 

 the date of approval of the segregation of the land and, in deserving 

 cases, allowing the Secretary of the Interior the discretion of extend- 

 ing this period to 15 years, was to make the operation of the law con- 

 tinuous, and thereby encourage extensive development, which there- 

 tofore for sound business reasons, could not be undertaken. 



It was therefore not until 1901, seven years after its original enact- 

 ment, that the Carey Act assumed its rightful place of affording a 

 complete and definite plan for the development of irrigration projects 

 b}^ the States, and providing adequate time for the completion of 

 larger projects and complete security for all parties concerned. Since 

 1901 the provisions of the act have been extended by separate enact- 

 ments as follows: 



By the acts of March 1. 1907 (34 Stat., 1056), and of February 24, 

 1909 (35 Stat., 644), the provisions of the foregoing acts were ex- 

 tended to the desert lands within the former Ute Indian Reservation 

 in Colorado. 



