THE IRRIGATION AGE 233 



the water to their farms, but they cannot build this reservoir them 

 selves. If it was being built they could do much of the work on it 

 and earn wages to keep them until the reservoir is completed. Then 

 they would have the water again. 



Now, it is said the reservoirs will fill up. There are various mod- 

 ern methods of keeping reservoirs clean. Land in India has been 

 irrigated for thousands of years and reservoirs have been filled up, but 

 they have methods of cleaning them, methods of sluicing them out. I 

 believe we can keep these reservoirs entirely clean. The report from 

 Mr. Schuyler (Senate Document 152, Fifty-sixth Congress, first ses- 

 sion) says they can, and he investigated that very proposition for the 

 Government. We can not reclaim any of our desert lands unless we 

 keep the water flowing. Of course there must be an aqueduct at the 

 lower part of it to let the water out. That water can be sluiced off, so 

 as to go down and keep it clean' That is the modern theory. The 

 idea that we can not maintain a reservoir is a proposition against any 

 irrigation. 



This is the most magnificent place in the United States for an ex- 

 periment. Let us know the facts before any large amount of money 

 is spent. It will require only $100,000 to make the necessary surveys 

 and secure the dam site. When that is done, the Government is not 

 committed at all. If they find that because it benefits the whites it 

 ought not to be done, it will be time enough to stop them. But to stop 

 before an investigation is made, on the theory that it might benefit 

 somebody besides the Indians, although it may be the only method by 

 which the Indians can be supplied, and I think it is, is absurd. You 

 have got to feed these Indians or irrigate their land. It may be that 

 you will think when the survey is made that it will be better to feed 

 them. That may be the result, but before you make the determina- 

 tion that it is better to feed them than to have the work done, you had 

 better hesitate, particular]y since you have undertaken it. 



You have got a partial report, and to make the report available 

 for any purpose it will require an appropriation of another hundred 

 thousand dollars. The appropriation of $20,000 went as far as it could, 

 but they could not make for that amount any survey that would be 

 complete enough for practical purposes. You have ascertained the 

 facts for $20.000, and they have done a great work, more than is usu- 

 ally done for that amount of money. They have exhibited the facts, 

 and they have come to the conclusion, as they say here, that this is 

 the only method to irrigate the Indian reservation. Let us know the 

 extent of it, what it will amount to. Then we will determine what 

 shall be done. 



I have no doubt if you should give the land which could be irri- 

 gated to a private corporation the work would be done. There is no 



