470 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



filed in his office. The State engineer is required also to report upon 

 the feasibility of the project as a whole. A certified check of not less 

 than $250 nor more than $2,500 is required, to be held as a guarantee 

 that the contracting party will duly execute a contract with the State 

 in case the approval of the Secretary' of the Interior is secured and 

 the lands segregated. 



If the proposed project is reported favorably by the State engineer, 

 the board then applies for the segregation. This being granted, the 

 State and the contractor enter into a contract which contahis complete 

 plans and specifications regarding the construction and supervision of 

 works, and specifies the price, terms, and conditions under which 

 water rights, and eventuallv the canal svstem, will be turned over to 

 the settlers. The contractor gives a bond equal in an amount to 5 per 

 cent of the estimated cost of construction for the faithful performance 

 of his part of the contract. 



The requirement that the contracting party submit maps, plans, and 

 estimates with his request for withdrawal in theory has been an oner- 

 ous one, as it necessitates the expenditure of considerable money and 

 time by the investor before the lands are made secure from speculative 

 entry by withdrawal. Judicious action by the board in not adhering 

 strictly to the letter of the law and requiring only that general feasi- 

 bility be shown prior to the execution of the contract, has done much, 

 however, to helj^ the investor proceed under this unbusinesslike pro- 

 vision. The act of Congress of March 15, 1910, providing for tem- 

 porary withdrawal for one year pending surveys and investigations, 

 when incorporated into the State's law. will remove this objection. 

 The Idaho law, as do also the laws of many of the other States at the 

 present time, contains another pro^dsion that might be improved so as 

 to ease the burden of the investor. This provision limits the awarding 

 by the board of any contracts requiring a greater length of time than 

 five years for construction of works. This period is too short for 

 large j^rojects, especially in this day, when unavoidable delays in 

 large construction, due to labor and other troubles, are so frequent. 

 The investor, under this law and under the terms of the contract be- 

 tween him and the State, acts simply as a construction company that 

 builds the irrigation system under the State's supervision. Although 

 the State evades all responsibility to settlers for failure of contrac- 

 tors to live up to their contracts and refuses by statute to obligate 

 itself to pay for any work or construction under any contract, at the 

 same time it exercises the closest inspection of all work and requires 

 absolute honest endeavor on the part of the promoter in the construc- 

 tion and settlement of any project, thereby fostering not only the 

 interest of the settler individually but the interests of the State as a 

 whole. It also guards the interests of the investor, requiring equally 



