10 THE IRRIGA Tl ON A GE. 



small colonies could locate on government land and construct their 

 own ditches. In reply to those who contemplate asking about Colo- 

 rado I would say that the prices of land range all the way from $5 to 

 probably $500 an acre, according to location and improvements. 

 There are hundreds of valleys in the western states where colonies 

 can be located on government land and build their own ditches. Water 

 runs to waste during the spring season in almost every stream, even 

 though old settled colonies have appropriated the summer flow, and 

 in the rivers there is an almost unmeasurable output at all seasons. 

 Such rivers as the Grand in Colorado, the Snake in Idaho, the Colum- 

 bia in Washington and Oregon, the Yellowstone in Montana and their 

 many tributaries carry millions of cubic feet down to the oceans that 

 should be utilized in irrigating vast areas now practically worthless- 

 Small colonies can control the small streams and in some instances 

 tap the large rivers, but the states and the nation will soon combine 

 capital and labor and construct canals in the several arid sections that 

 will reclaim millions of acres. Colorado has some state ditches, 

 Montana is building some and others are falling into line to fulfill the 

 terms and condition of the Carey act, by which at least 1,000,000 acres 

 may be redeemed through state control and become the property of 

 individual farmers. No one need fear to locate in the west because 

 irrigation companies have failed and district laws have been declared 

 unconstitutional. There is an unlimited and almost boundless scope 

 of country yet to be made the home of presperous irrigation farmers, 

 and the water supply is inexhaustible. Many combinations of peculiar 

 conditions have contributed to the downfall of irrigation enterprises, 

 against which farmers and capitalists could not successfully combat, 

 but conditions are changing, have changed, and better days are coming. 



