362 Presidential Addresses 



policy that exactly as care is to be taken of the 

 harbors and along the lower courses of the rivers, 

 so in their upper courses care is to be taken by the 

 Nation of the irrigation work to be done in connec 

 tion with them. 



Under that act a beginning has been made in 

 Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, and the 

 Territory of Arizona. There is bound to be disap 

 pointment here and there where people have built 

 hopes without a quite sufficient warranty of fact 

 behind. But good will surely come at once and 

 wellnigh immeasurable good in the future from the 

 policy which has thus been begun. In Colorado 

 two-thirds of your products come from irrigated 

 farms, and four years ago those products already 

 surpassed fifteen million dollars. With the aid of 

 the government far more can be done in the future 

 even than has been done in the past. The object 

 of the law is to provide small irrigated farms to 

 actual settlers, to actual home-makers; the land is 

 given away ultimately in small tracts under the 

 terms of the homestead act, the settlers repaying 

 the cost of bringing water to their lands in ten 

 annual payments; and lands now in private owner 

 ship can be watered in small tracts by similar pay 

 ments, but the law forbids the furnishing of water 

 to large tracts, and the aim of the government is 

 rigidly to prevent the acquisition of large rights 

 for speculative purposes. The purpose of the law 

 was, and that purpose is being absolutely carried 

 out, to promote settlement and cultivation of small 



