THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 119 



The farmers in many localities are prejudiced against stock 

 corporations and prefer to operate their canals under mutual agree- 

 ment. In Wyoming, for example, it is doubtful if one in fifty of the 

 community ditches are incorporated. As trouble sometimes arises in 

 regard to collection of assessments, a law has been enacted in that 

 state the object of which is to compel the payment of such^assess- 

 ments in case of unincorporated community canals. The same 

 aversion to corporations in connection with irrigation is noticeable 

 in greater or less degree in the other states. 



Although opportunities for participation in the development of 

 new enterprises under the community system still exist throughout 

 many parts of the arid region, they are becoming more rare with the 

 advance of time. This is particularly true with reference to those 

 localities in convenient proximity to the more important towns and 

 cities, where lands and water rights under such organizations can 

 now generally be acquired only through purchase. 



THE CORPORATION CANAL. 



Throughout all parts of the arid region there are found areas of 

 superior land in the form of high plateaus or mesas, located some- 

 times at considerable distances from the more important streams, 

 usually occupying positions of great evolution above the latter, and 

 frequently separated therefrom by high rocky bluffs or ranges of 

 hills and mountains. The exceptional fertility of many of these 

 lands, together with their wonderful uniformity of surface, render 

 them especially attractive to the irri gator. They are the best lands, 

 but their location is frequently such that to secure the proper 

 elevation dams have to be built to raise the water at the head, and 

 the canal must wind its way for many miles through rock canyons 

 and along precipitous cliffs, and be carried across ravines and chasms 

 in pipes or flumes, whose design and construction require the best 

 engineering talent and experience. The expense thus incident to the 

 construction of the works is frequently so great that neither the 

 individual nor the community can successfully undertake its exe- 

 cution; hence they await the coming of national aid. The agency 

 through which many of these comprehensive, difficult, and expensive 

 works of irrigation have been accomplished is the institution known 

 as the land and irrigation corporation, which has been the successor 

 to the individual community enterprises in the development of the 

 agricultural resources of the arid West. The latter successfully held 

 the field so long as the propositions open to consideration were 

 simple, inexpensive, and readily available. In the development of 

 these they proved to be admirably adapted to the requirements of the 

 situation, but as the simple problems were solved first, operations 

 became more difficult and expensive with the increasing magnitude 



