102 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



wastes of the middle west. Contiguous, 

 and available to these same arid lands are 

 cachement basins and reservoir sites cap- 

 able of impounding the summer rains and 

 winter snows which a kind Providence 

 sends upon the just and unjust alike, suf- 

 ficient for the thorough irrigation and rec- 

 lamation of these lands. Many of these 

 reservoir sites have been located by the 

 government under act of congress of Oct. 

 2, 1888. 



We have asked the general government 

 to appropriate money and appoint commis- 

 sions, and under their supervision, to ex- 

 pend this money so appropriated, to make 

 available these reservoir reservations. We 

 have represented, that by this course thous- 

 ands of happy homes will be made on 

 what are now desert wastes, inhabited only 

 by the rodent and the reptile. To all of these 

 reasonable demands, the national congress 

 has paid no attention. By recent decisions 

 of the Interior Department, the act of 

 March 3, 1891, relating to reservoir res- 

 ervations, has been declared defective and 

 inoperative, so that these reservations can- 

 not be utilized as was intended, and there- 

 fore these waters are running to waste, 

 creating floods and inundations in the set- 

 tled valleys below, and the lands which 

 should receive the benefit are still waste 

 places. As the general government does 

 not show a dispositioin to put into opera- 

 tion the laws now enacted and make avail- 

 able these reservations, let the coming ses- 

 sion of the Irrigation Congress recommend 

 that these reservoir reservations, segre- 

 gated and set aside by Act of Oct. 2, 1888, 

 be turned over to individuals, companies 

 or corporations, under the proper restric- 

 tions, who will submit plans of their pro- 

 posed work, and who will put in the nec- 

 essary capital to impound these waters and 

 subserve the general purpose for which 

 these segregations were made, and thus 

 carry out the real intent of the govern- 

 ment. Private capital is abundant and 

 anxious for good investments. Irrigation 

 enterprises, based upon sufficient water 

 and good land upon which the water can 

 be placed, are considered good investments. 

 The "dog in the manger" principle, upon 

 which these reservoir reservations are now 

 held by the general government, is work- 

 ing untold injury to thousands of people 

 who make up our best communities and 

 who. if opportunity was offered, would set- 

 tle up our desert lands, build school 



houses, churches, and erect happy 

 homes. 



Should our national congress take this 

 view of the present situation of these res- 

 ervations, private capital will set the initia- 

 tive, construct reservoirs upon certain of 

 them, thereby illustrating in an object 

 lesson the feasibility of the enterprises, 

 after which, when the government gets 

 ready to act, the remaining reservations 

 can be withdrawn and the proper author- 

 ity take it up. 



This character of work appears to me 

 to answer the query at the head of this 

 article. There are other equally good 

 propositions which might be enumerated 

 for the coming Congress, but I fear I have 

 already too far trespassed upon your space 

 to give them this time. I will only add, 

 that our experience shows the necessity 

 of immediate practical national legislation 

 to redeem our arid lands and gi\e an im- 

 petus to the agricultural interests of the 

 great middle west of greater importance 

 to us than the great question of 16 to 1 

 now so much agitated. 



J. S. VAN DOEEN, 



Bluewater, N. M., Sept., 1896. 



I AM, after an experience of eleven years 

 on this portion of the American Desert, 

 convinced that the land laws governing 

 the settlement of the Mississippi valley, 

 ought not to apply here. I am sure that if 

 settlers could have taken 640 acres each 

 on long tim3, at say, 3 per cent, interest, 

 we would have a considerable population 

 now, if the pre-emptors had had ten to 

 twenty years to pay in and no proving up 

 and mortgaging in less time. 



I am in favor of a classification of the 

 western lands into first, second and third 

 class irrigable, owing to their fertility and 

 ease of irrigation, and the non-irrigable 

 classed same way, their value being 

 settled by their grazing value. The taker 

 of an irrigable claim to have a dry section 

 or two as well. 



The object being to give men land 

 enough to make a living on and acquire it 

 at a low price, on long time and low inter- 

 est. Better give the public lands to the 

 states as they are admitted to be states. 

 Secondly, I decidedly favor the opening 

 of the Indian reservations, providing 

 bountifully for each Indian family in land. 

 Thirdly, If the lands cannot be turned 



