THE IRRIGA T10N A GE. 281 



ful ones. I can count at least twenty in which trouble of any kind is an 

 unknown factor; and in the very few where there has ever been any fric- 

 tion it has come from extravagance or political quarreling, having noth- 

 ing to do with the system. All these are safely out of the woods whereas 

 I do not know a company operated on any other plan that can be said to 

 see clear daylight ahead with certainty. 



Nothing is more impossible than the formation of one of these com- 

 panies after the land once gets into many hands. If there is no rainfall 

 settlers cannot live and if there is rainfall enough to enable them to exist 

 the cry of "no irrigation required" will be raised the moment you pro- 

 pose to sell them water, and in any event you will have so many trying 

 to gamble on your work without risking a cent themselves. 



This was one of the causes that led to the passage of the Irrigation 

 District law, now generally recognized as a failure. It should not have 

 been a failure, but neither should human nature. The author of each 

 meant well enough. It was supposed that those who hang back expect- 

 ing others to make them rich without their lifting a finger could be com- 

 pelled by a tax to contribute to the cost of water. There is no way to do 

 it and when you strike such a community take the next train. No one 

 yet ever made a cent by building water works for such people and no 

 one ever will make anything. 



It is plain that in the above case of the land owner's company the 

 works were built out of the enhanced value of the land. The difference 

 in the value of the land wet and dry bridged the period of waiting for 

 settlement and paid interest on the capital that otherwise could not have 

 been met. The land was bought at from ten to thirty dollars an acre 

 and sold at from fifty to a hundred and over. The difference really came 

 out of the tenderfoot who was happy in his bargain. It went where it 

 should go, into the works, and no one was robbed. It is this difference 

 that the land owner will try to pocket for himself if the land is in many 

 hands and years of time will not prove to him that it is one of the most 

 foolish of all forms of trying to get something for nothing. 



With this fund to cover the time of waiting for settlement a com- 

 pany starting with any reasonable amount of capital can succeed even 

 though settlers do not come very fast. But there is a limit to this wait- 

 ing. In Southern California settlement has in about all cases been rapid 

 enough to carry the project through. But there are other states and ter- 

 ritories where this has not been the case. Attempts to colonize with a 

 number of families in one organization are frequent and much large talk 

 is indulged in by many of the number of families they can place on the 

 land. But the delivery of the goods is often a very different matter. 

 And if there are many real estate agents about at the time of their ar- 

 rival the colonists are liable to be scattered to the four winds before the 

 day of their arrival is spent. I know one colony of about two hundred 

 imported from England some years ago, and herded with great care en 



