AN UNSOLVED WESTERN PROBLEM. 



ence. A little over a year ago I made an examination 

 of an important stream in a remote section of this 

 state. Nothing had then been done to ^utilize its 

 waters. Near its mouth is a great plain of about 

 one hundred and fifty thousand acres. Three canals 

 would have sufficed for its reclamation and would 

 have practically absorbed the water of the entire 

 stream. If the water had been thus used a large 

 percentage of it would have returned as seepage and 

 passed on to irrigators below. Under present con- 

 ditions there was no means by which three large 

 canals could be constructed. The work of develop- 

 ment is a work for the individual settler. This form 

 of development has since been rapid. There are now 

 over forty individual ditches out ot that stream, and 

 before another season closes there will be more than 

 double that number. I wish anyone who knows any- 

 thing of irrigation to consider what that means, to 

 consider the enormous loss from evaporation in that 

 multitude of minor channels, the expense to which 



the state will be subjected in the division of water, 

 and the condition in which it leaves the interests of 

 the people living in states below. More than one- 

 half the water of this stream will be lost in passage 

 through those individual ditches, while under a sys- 

 tem of development which would have been pursued 

 if this state had been in possession of its resources 

 an equal percentage of the water would have passed 

 on to the ^ates below. 



If we are to have a system of water laws for the 

 arid region worthy of this country it must come 

 through the exercise of mutual concessions and a 

 disinterested recognition of the rights and possibili- 

 ties of the respective commonwealths interested. It 

 cannot succeed with imputations of bad faith and bad 

 motives as a beginning. The thing that is most 

 needed is a more general exchange of opinions and 

 views and a more thorough understanding of the 

 conditions and necessities of each section. 



THE PUBLIC DOMAIN IN ITS SOCIAL ASPECT. 



BY ARTHUR P. DAVIS. 



THE public domain, as an outlet for our home-seek- 

 ing millions, is practically exhausted, and has 

 been for several years. It may appear^that this state- 

 ment is inconsistent with the fact that about 24,000 orig- 

 inal homestead entries were made in the year 1893. 

 Many of these entries were made on newly-opened 

 Indian reservations, not previously subject to entry. 

 A large number of them are by dummies acting for 

 cattle and sheep grazers, desiring to extend control 

 over their ranges. Another large number of entries 

 has come under my observation, which are made. on 

 lands totally unfit for cultivation or for homes, where 

 water for domestic use may [be hauled many miles, 

 and where no crop can be raised, on account of the 

 rocky soil or arid climate. These lands are sparsely 

 timbered with juniper or other scrubby growths, suit- 

 able for fire-woqd, and it is to obtain this that the 

 entries are made, and when cleared they are aban- 

 doned. Other tracts, too cold for farming, are taken 

 for hay purposes, or for timber. There are other mo- 

 tives, both well and ill-considered, for filing on bar- 

 ren lands, but the fact remains that some entries are 

 still made with the bona fide intention of establishing 

 homes. The character of lands selected by those 

 whose interest is to obtain the best there is, consti- 

 tutes the surest criterion of the character of the 

 remaining portion of the public domain. 



The traveler in the mountains and deserts of the 

 West is struck with the fact that every nook and 

 corner that affords a few acres of arable land, and is 

 accessible to domestic water supply, has been seized 

 by the enterprising settler, who has gone resolutely 

 to work to wrest a subsistence from the inhospitable 

 soil and climate. It is very common to meet with 

 the melancholy evidences of failure of these pathetic 

 struggles for existence and independence on the part 

 of some unfortunate family. The deserted cabin, 

 the abandoned barley or potato patch, the decayed 

 brush fences, are mute but eloquent deponents to 

 the hopes, the privations, and the final disappoint- 

 ment of some who have returned to swell the ranks 

 of those seeking employment in the towns and cities 



In the years 1886 and 1887 a large number of peo- 

 ple, yielding to the pressure for land, and led on by 

 one or two unusually rainy seasons and the glowing 

 representations of land boomers, settled in the arid 

 belt of the great plains, west of the 98th meridian. 

 They built houses, barns and fences, and planted 

 crops. One failure did not discourage them, but 

 with a determination worthy of a better fate, most 

 of them managed to pull through somehow, and to 

 procure seed for another crop. A second failure 

 discouraged many, and some of those with least 

 faith, and who had the means, returned to more 



