IRRIGATION UNDER THE CAREY ACT. 487 



be spent during each of the first three years in reclaiming the land, 

 and that $1.25 per acre be paid the Government, 25 cents being due 

 at time of filing and the other $1 at the time of final proof, which 

 may be any time between the end of the third and the fifth years. 

 These laws served to bring about tlie development of the remaining 

 land along streams that could be reclaimed easily, and there their 

 usefulness ended. Their provisions, when put to the test, availed 

 nothing in the way of developing the broad expanse of fertile land 

 lying back from streams, and resulted in little more than extensive 

 " wild catting " and disastrous land and water speculations. The 

 passage of the Carey Act and its amendments marked the real be- 

 ginning of substantial settlement and reclamation of the vacant Gov- 

 ernment lands of the West, and the vital principles controlling soimd 

 and progressive arid-land development were for the first time incor- 

 porated in national land legislation. 



The most important feature of the act is its recognition of neces- 

 sity of common control and ownership of land and water. This 

 through wise legislation and administration on the part of the 

 States, eliminates all forms of land speculation and the evils arising 

 therefrom, and makes the owners of the land the ultimate owners of 

 the canal system. 



Another feature which indirectly has M^orked much good is the 

 requirement that there be an adequate water supply for the lands to 

 be reclaimed. This feature was not enforced as it should have been 

 in the early years of Carey Act operations, owing to the lack of 

 definite data regarding water supply. Some complications arose 

 from this condition of affairs, but these are being remedied. The 

 States that Ijad adequate water codes, notably Wyoming and Idaho, 

 experienced no such difficulty, and these States, it will be noticed, 

 have made the greatest advances. The later enforcing of this pro- 

 vision regarding water supply has had the effect, as in Oregon, of 

 securing enlightened water legislation, which has not only stimulated 

 Carey Act development, but has vastly benefited the State as a whole 

 in numerous other ways. 



State supervision in the matter of securing segregations, prosecu- 

 tion of construction, and in the settlement and cultivation of the land 

 not only favors the investor and the settler, but promotes the public 

 interest as well. Under proper administration none but successful 

 projects can be undertaken. This secures the investor, whose money 

 is expended in the construction of the project. He knows what it 

 will cost to build the system and also what he will receive for water 

 rights when the system is completed, and he knows that the State 

 will require the settler to make all of his payments promptly and in 

 full. The settler secures land cheap, and purchases his water right 

 at moderate rates on long-time contracts. His water supply is 



