1 86 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



safe expenditure under intelligent control and yield- 

 ing thereby the greatest measure of success.'* 



" The States are highly interested in the reclamation 

 of arid lands within their boundaries and the settle- 

 ment and cultivation thereof by individual citizens. 

 The work is too vast to be undertaken by the Gen- 

 eral Government. The principal proposition in- 

 volved, reclamation and settlement by individuals in 

 small holdings, meets my strong approval, and this 

 bill seems to me to present full opportunity for the 

 practical experiment and under proper safeguards. 

 The United States retains title until reclamation is 

 accomplished and the land occupied by actual set- 

 tlers. This, if successful, is the great object to be at- 

 tained; and if unsuccessful, the United States still 

 holds the unincumbered fee." 



PLANS OF PROCEDURE. 



The essential portions of the Carey Land Act are 

 as follows: " Before the application of any State is 

 allowed or any contract or agreement is executed or 

 any segregation of any of the land from the public do- 

 main is ordered by the Secretary of the Interior, t,he 

 State shall file a map of the said land proposed to be 

 irrigated, which shall exhibit a plan showing the 

 mode of the contemplated irrigation, and which plan 

 shall be sufficient to thoroughly irrigate and reclaim 

 said land and prepare it to raise ordinary agricultural 

 crops, and shall also show the source of the water to 

 be used for irrigation and reclamation, and the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior may make necessary regulations 

 for the reservation of the lands applied for by the 

 States* to date from the date of the filing of the map 

 and plan of irrigation, but such reservation shall be 

 of no force whatever if such map and plan of irriga- 

 tion shall not be approved. That any State contract- 

 ing under this section is hereby authorized to make 

 all necessary contracts to cause the said lands to be 

 reclaimed, and to induce their settlement and culti- 

 vation in accordance with and subject to the pro- 

 visions of this section; but the State shall not be 

 authorized to lease any of said lands or to use or to 

 dispose of the same in any way whatever, except to 

 secure their reclamation, cultivation and settlement. 



"As fast as any State may furnish satisfactory 

 proof, according to such rules and regulations as may 

 be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, that 

 any of said lands are irrigated, reclaimed and occu- 

 pied by actual settlers, patents shall be issued to the 

 State, or its assigns, for said lands so reclaimed and 

 settled : Provided, That said State shall not sell or 

 dispose of more than one hundred and sixty acres of 

 said lands to any one person, and any surplus of 

 money derived by any State from the sale of the said 

 lands in excess of the cost of their reclamation, shall 

 be applied to the reclamation of other desert lands in 

 such State." 



To carry these provisions into effect in Wyoming 

 the following State legislation might be adopted; 

 First. The creation of a State department of public 

 lands, consisting of civil and hydraulic engineers 

 and practical irrigators, similar to the State Board of 

 Control, which now has charge of the waters of the 

 State, with authority to inspect, approve or disap- 

 prove of proposed irrigation works, and authority to 

 supervise them while under construction. Second, 

 to authorize this land department to make contracts 

 with construction companies or colonies for the 

 reclamation and settlement within a named period of 

 defined areas of land in the State fora specified sum, 

 the State Board fixing the price per acre for which 

 land and water must be sold to settlers. When the 

 sum specified by the contract is realized by the in- 

 vestors in the irrigation enterprise -by the sale of 

 land to settlers, the lands remaining in the tract, if 

 any, to be sold to settlers, the proceeds going to the 

 State. 



In all contracts the ownership of water to be in- 

 separable from ownership of land. 



Under such legislation, with thorough State super- 

 vision of irrigation works, substantial and permanent 

 enterprises can be secured. Naming a specified sum 

 to be paid for the reclamation of defined areas of 

 land and to be realized at specified rates per acre 

 from settlers, and the enforcement of the provision 

 making ownership of land and water inseparable, 

 makes the corporations entering the field, construc- 

 tion companies merely ; their profits increasing with 

 speedy completion of the irrigation works, and the 

 speedy colonization of the tracts reclaimed with a good 

 class of citizens. Careful preliminary engineering 

 and knowledge of the price per acre which the State 

 will charge settlers will show definitely to the pro- 

 posed investor the profit to be realized from his in- 

 vestment, and capital under these conditions can 

 readily be enlisted. 



Or, the Act might authorize the State department to 

 contract with construction companies for the recla- 

 mation of specified areas of land, segregated under the 

 Carey Act, fixing a maximum and minimum price 

 which may be charged settlers for the land and water 

 and retaining a nominal price per acre to be devoted 

 to maintaining the department having in charge the 

 control and supervision of the lands. 



These plans would allow construction companies 

 to contract with colonists for the purchase of lands 

 when irrigated ; would allow them to employ pros- 

 pective settlers upon the work of construction of 

 dams and canals, their labor to be paid, if they should 

 so elect, in land, or part land and part cash. 



The accompanying map shows bodies of lands 

 along the four great rivers of the State which can at 

 once be irrigated, reclaimed, and put under cultiva- 



