UNPROFITABLE IRRIGATION 



WORKS. 



No. VIII. 

 T. S. VAN DYKE. 



Can irrigation works be built at a profit today? 



In spite of all thecfailures and the tendency of so many to the 

 cities I still believejthat irrigation works can be made to pay a certain 

 and sufficient profit on their reasonable cost. 



But it is quite as certain that this cannot be done in many of the 

 ways that have paid in the past. The day when the plethoric eastern 

 purse was looking for stock in water companies is among the mile- 

 stones of the past, and so is the day when settlers could be inveigled 

 with sonorous names and handsome pictures in a prospectus. The 

 photograph is of little more use today than the alleged word-painting 

 of the years gone by, the charming townsite lures scarce a lingering 

 glance, and the new hotel has as little effect on the desired "sucker" 

 as the dividend paid out of the sales of stock now has on the investor. 

 Investors have lately developed a singular curiosity about what they 

 are to get for their money; while even the man who is willing to live 

 in the county in place of starving in the city, wants to know whether 

 he is to wrestle alone with the desert for years or whether he is to 

 have company in the operation. Neither do men want to be told 

 what fine sugar beets the land will raise if there is no factory to sell 

 them to, and little they care about canaigre or ramie unless there is 

 some way to handle the product for them. 



Many of the old time methods must be changed. Many good settle- 

 ments have been made by plenty of good land and sure water at a reas- 

 onable price and these will succeed even under the adverse conditions 

 of today provided certain conditions are complied with. To try to cover 

 them all would be silly but there are a few of such general application 

 that they are worth considering. 



First the land must be on or very near a railroad. The day is 

 past when people will go very far from one as the first settlers did in 

 many of the best settlements of California, Arizona and other parts of 

 the arid west. It is useless to argue. There is nothing to do but 

 comply. If your project is very far on one side let it alone until there 

 is a more crying demand to get out of the city and into the country. 

 And even then be careful how you spend too much money and set your 

 prices high in hope of getting it back. 



