468 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



THE CAREY ACT STATES. 



The States and Territories that have accepted the terms of the 

 Carey Act. in the order of the date of acceptance, are: Wyoming, 

 MoMana, Idaho, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and New 

 Mexico. AVyoming and Idaho have accomplished most of the de- 

 velopment that has taken place, their combined segregated area 

 up to date exceeding 4:.000.000 acres. The principles of law and 

 l^ractice that have developed in these States, coincident with and as 

 an integral part of this vast work of reclamation, form the basis 

 for a most interesting and elaborate study. The changes which 

 the original laws of these States have undergone since their first 

 enactment are almost as great as the changes wrought in the virgin 

 desert by the reclamation made possible under the act. 



Three of the States mentioned, after having found that their first 

 laws were wholW inadequate to cope with the situation presented, 

 have repealed their original enactment and adopted new laws founded 

 on the principles develo^Ded in other States. Failures and errors 

 as well as successes have marked the devious development of Carey 

 Act legislation and administration in each of these pioneer States. 

 The progress of developing legislation and rules of administration 

 has kept pace with reclamation, however, until now a thorough 

 working code of laws and definite and comprehensive rules and regu- 

 lations exist in most of the States, the effects of which, in their rela- 

 tion to development taking i^lace, are in a way far more important 

 than the Carey Act itself. The Federal act, it is true, made possible 

 the extensive development of desert land, but to the States fell the 

 onerous burden of initiating, prosecuting, and completing these de- 

 velopments. The laws and ruling under which this has been accom- 

 plished are, therefore, worthy of presentation. 



Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and Colorado were the first States to 

 accept the terms of the Carey Act, each of them enacting special leg- 

 islation accepting the grant in 1895. Oregon enacted its first legisla- 

 tion in 1901, Nevada in 1909, Arizona in 1909, and New Mexico in 

 1909. 



As the existing laws of most of the States have been patterned 

 after the original enactments of Idaho and Wyoming, which were 

 nearly identical, it will be sufficient to present the salient features of 

 the laws of those two States as illustrating the principles involved in 

 most of the other State laws. "NAHiere unusual features have been 

 enacted, these will be pointed out in the discussion of the different 

 State laws : 



IDAHO. 



Idaho, the State making the gi-eatest progress, accepted the terms 

 of the Carey Act in 1895, at the first ses'^ion of its legislature after 

 the passage of the Carey Act, passing at that time a carefully drawn 



