UNPROFITABLE IRRIGATION 

 WORKS. 



NO. V. 



BY T. S. VAN DYKE 



The most wild-eyed declaimer against capital will admit that under 

 our present social system it is entitled to reasonable interest on any 

 investment to serve the public. In California the constitution, sup- 

 posed to have been framed to suit the "sandlot" mob, provides that 

 this shall not be less than seven per cent and allows it to run as high 

 as eighteen. California has as choice a collection of high kickers on 

 the privileges of capital as the world can show, yet in twenty years 

 there has been no fault found with this clause of the constitution, no 

 offer to change it and in every case where rates have been fixed under 

 it there has been a general demand that they be fair to the company. 

 It is therefore fair to assume that nowhere would five per cent inter- 

 est be considered high for the risks involved in irrigation works but 

 that much more would generally be allowed. 



A new irrigation system costs one million dollars. Five per cent 

 on this is fifty thousand a year. The running expenses would be at 

 least ten more, under the most rigid economy; and the maintenance 

 fund, if the plant is one that can easily depreciate, will be much more. 

 These are always allowed for in fixing the rates and it is common, and 

 often just, to add in a sinking fund. But let us leave out the latter 

 and the maintenance fund and say the amount to be raised the first 

 year from tolls on the water is sixty thousand dollars. 



How much land is going to take water the first year under such 

 prospects? Are you, dear reader, going to irrigate until you have 

 some idea of how many others are to join in to reduce the burden? 

 How many acres have you ever seen irrigated under a new ditch the 

 first year under the most rapid rate of settlement the most rapid part 

 of our rapid country has ever yet seen? Did you ever know five thou- 

 sand acres to use water the first year? Did you ever know three thou- 

 sand? Is not two thousand above the average even where the rates 

 are fixed at less than three dollars an acre and generally at less than 

 two by a special contract that is perpetual? 



Under such circumstances who is going to improve the second 

 year or the third? Call up your boy who has just finished his primary 

 arithmetic and he can soon give you the answer. It is plain that any 

 such principle as making annual rates pay a reasonable interest on 

 the works kills instanter the prospects of both parties and is as bad 

 for the irrigator as for the company. The rates must be set low or 

 there will be no settlers. It is for the interest of both parties to have 

 them fixed forever. It is as plainly for the interest of both that most 



