198 THE IRRIGATION AGE 



elation, are perhaps the most useful agents at your command for this 

 purpose. Use and support them to the full, and see to it that in every 

 city, town and village, East and West, the people understand the vital 

 interest of the whole nation in the protection and wise use of the for- 

 est and the stream. 



IRRIGATION RESOURCES. 



"Exclusive of Alaska and outlying possessions," said Mr. F. H. 

 Newell, Hydrographer of the Geological Survey, in speaking of what 

 'is possible in the United States in the way of irrigation reclamation, 

 "one- third of the whold United States is vacant and at the disposal of 

 Congress. For the most part it is open to homestead entry and set- 

 tlement, and much of it consists of land possessing great fertility ex- 

 cept for the lack of water. In different sections are to be found moun- 

 tain masses from which come perennial streams whose waters are now 

 used to some extent to moisten the parched lands. At intervals there 

 occur local storms or floods inundating large tracts. There is availa- 

 ble water for the reclamation of a considerable portion of this arid 

 land if it could all be saved and put to use. 



"Work has been undertaken by individuals and by corporations to 

 construct ditches, canals and reservoirs to supply the lack of moist- 

 ure. As a rule the smaller works taking water from perennial streams 

 have been not only successful, but sources of great profit to the own- 

 ers; the larger works, however, almost equally without exception, 

 have proven financial failures and their owners have become bank- 

 rupt. The great works, built in the hope of securing a certain and 

 permanent revenue drawn from the farmer, have impoverished the 

 owners, and the latter unwillingly have become benefactors of the 

 public. 



"The lesson is being slowly but certainly taught that reclamation 

 on a large scale cannot be made a source of profit except under extra- 

 ordinary combination of circumstances. The great storage reservoirs 

 and canals are comparable in one sense to lighthouses and harbor im- 

 provements; they are necessary and worth far more than they cost, 

 but under the existing state of civilization they cannot be made to con- 

 tribute exclusively to the welfare of the builders. The indirect gain 

 or unearned increment of value is so widely diffused that the general 

 public reaps the larger reward. 



"We are confronted with a situation," concluded Mr. Newell, 

 "where there is a vast amount of fertile land to be reclaimed and con- 

 siderable quantities of water to be conserved and brought to this thirsty 

 land. By such action millions of homes can be created and the com- 



