184 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Smithsonian Institute and to the editor 

 of MeClure'Sj asking for further infor- 

 mation regarding this mammoth. 



To clear up the misunderstanding the 

 editor of the magazine presented in the 

 February number an article called ' ' The 

 Truth About the Mammoth," prepared by 

 F. A. Lucas, of the National Museum, 

 together with an explanatory note by the 

 editor. 



Should go The West would long since 

 With the i i j i i . 



Land. have had working examples of 



national irrigation and government con- 

 struction of reservoirs, had it not been for 

 western opposition. This statement has 

 been made by Hydrographer Newell of 

 the Irrigation branch of the Geological 

 Survey and by others who have been con- 

 nected with irrigation development, sur- 

 veys, etc., for a long period of years. It 

 was thought at first that vast fortunes 

 were to be made out of dam sites, the 

 construction of reservoirs by private 

 capital and the selling of water-right to 

 settlers. But the experiences of the last 

 ten or twelve years have shown that 

 private capital in storage reservoirs is not 

 generally a good investment. Bight here 

 comes in the question of title of water, 

 and whether the rights to the water 

 should go with the land. Irrigation 

 investments have proven safe, and money 

 can now be found for investment, only in 

 projects organized as co-operative canal 

 companies, or where the title of the land 

 and the necessary water is united, while 

 under the water-right system it is impos- 

 sible to longer secure the investment of 

 intelligent capital. 



The difference between the two plans is 

 very clear. Under one, the farmer owns 

 the land and the company sells the water- 

 right. This is the system which has 

 almost invariably turned out disastrously. 

 Under the other system, the owner of the 

 land also owns a share in the water 

 property, so that the ownership of land 

 and water is united. This is the suc- 

 cessful system. So with proper manage- 



ment, the co-operatire system can be suc- 

 cessful as far as it goes; bu it is neces- 

 sarily limited in extent. 



At this point national irrigation comes 

 in. Some have conceived the impression 

 thnt national irrigation contemplates the 

 building or ownership by the government 

 of all reservoirs and irrigation works. This 

 is erroneous. No one proposes such a 

 policy. The national irrigation move- 

 ment contemplates the construction of re- 

 servoirs, etc., by the government, only 

 when such work is beyond the scope of 

 private enterprise or private capital, while 

 at the same time national irrigation would 

 operate along the same lines as co-opera- 

 tive irrigation, that is, it would mean land 

 and water ownership in one, only the 

 water ownership would be a public instead 

 of an individual ownership. 



Siberia To the average person Siberia 



irrigation, is associated with the idea of 

 Nihilism, political prisoners and intense 

 cold, and little, if any thought is given to 

 its agricultural pursuits and possibilities. 

 Siberia is a vast country and while portions 

 of it especially those to which political 

 prisoners are banished have a severe and 

 rigorous climate, there are millions of 

 acres of fertile land well adapted to the 

 growth of grains. Irrigation is practiced 

 here to some extent, but in many plaefes 

 the winters are so long and cold and the 

 short summers so hot that the streams from 

 which the irrigators depend for water, are 

 dried up. "Necessity is the Mother of in- 

 vention" and the following method, de- 

 scribed by the National Irrigation Associ- 

 ation, has been devised to secure water for 

 irrigation purposes. 



"The farmers of certain districts con- 

 struct each year storage reservoirs, and in 

 the summers use the contents, reservoirs 

 and all, for the support of their crops. 

 They do it in this manner : During the 

 winter they collect great drifts of snow in 

 the bottoms of deep, shaded valleys, rol- 

 ling it down the sides in immense snow 

 balls and there pressing and compacting 



