IRRIGATION UNDER THE CAREY ACT. 479 



OREGON. 



Acceptance of the terms of the Carey Act by Oregon was author- 

 ized by act of February 28, 1901. A loosely drawn, poorly admin- 

 istered law served to gi^^e Oregon a bad start with its Carey Act 

 development. A " State land board," consisting of the governor, 

 secretary of state, and State treasurer, was charged with the adminis- 

 tration of the law. There was no State engineering department nor 

 State engineer at that time; neither was there any officer charged 

 with the control of the water supply of the State, so that technical 

 advice in mattere of engineering and water supply, so absolutely 

 essential in the administration of the Carey Act, was not available, 

 even had the board desired the benefit of it. The board assumed 

 more the attitude of an irresponsible agent than anything else, acting 

 simply as an intermediary for the transaction of business between 

 the promoter and the Department of the Interior. The policy of the 

 board was to approve all projects presented to it, Avithout thorough 

 investigation, in order to get them before the Department of the 

 Interior for inspection, the assumption being that it was the province 

 of the department and not of the board to pass upon the feasibility 

 of plans, supervise construction, and in short attend to all details. 

 This was at a time when the requirements of the department were 

 much less exacting than at present, and consequently many projects 

 were contracted in Oregon that never should have been undertaken, 

 and a number of jDrojects that would have been successful had proper 

 control been exercised from the beginning were allowed to get into 

 straits from which they have been rescued with difficult}'. 



The office of State engineer was created in 1905, A ruling by the 

 Department of the Interior about the same time, construing that 

 part of the original act requiring that an ample supply of water 

 be actually fnrnishod, provided that before segregations should be 

 made or patents issue to any State there should be submitted by 

 the State engineer a statement, under oath, that the water supply 

 and completed works were adequate for the lands reclaimed. This 

 combination of circumstances, aided b}^ the appointment of a man 

 as State engineer who believed that the State in acting as agent for 

 the future settler should be — as the law intended — a responsible 

 agent, resulted in a most desirable change of policy on the part of 

 the State land board. For the first time the public, the settler, and 

 the company received equal consideration in all matters concerning 

 land reclamation. No longer were the construction companies per- 

 mitted to arrange matters looking to their own interests only. Each 

 case received close scrutiny, and every effort was put forth to see 

 that the intent of both the National and State acts were fully car- 



