366 1 HE IRRIGA TION AGE. 



through its lands is essential in order to enable its lands to be re- 

 claimed by settlers, it can take such measures as it deems advisable 

 for the purpose of making the waters available to settlers. 



Large areas of lands along these rivers have already been taken 

 up by settlers, and they have been able to solve the easy problems of 

 irrigation, consisting simply in the diversion of the waters over the 

 adjoining lands, but they are not able to control the torrential flow 

 which ha's its source perhaps hundreds of miles away from those set- 

 tlements, nor have they been able to store the water so as to maintain 

 the supply during the hot season of Ju\y and August, when water is 

 essential to the ripening of the crops. The limit of reclamation and 

 settlement has been reached unless the Federal Government, acting, 

 as it can, without regard to State lines, make> a scientific study of 

 each river and its tributaries and so stores the wate:' as to prevent the 

 torrential flow in the spring and to increase the scanty flow in the 

 summer. By doing this its arid lands will be made available for set- 

 tlers, and it can, if it chooses, secure compensation by a charge upon 

 the lands. 



It is estimated that there are about 600.000,000 acres of arid pub- 

 lic lands in the West, and of this about 100,000,000 acres can be 

 reclaimed if storage is afforded. It is also estimated that the storage 

 of water will cost from $2 to $10 per acre-foot; the average probably 

 would be about $5 per acre-foot. The cheaper forms of storage would 

 doubtless be attempted first, and the more expensive forms of storage 

 would only be taken up years hence, when the pressure of population 

 and the increased value of the lands would warrant the expenditure. 



A convenient argument against the immediate prosecution of this 

 work is that we have no estimate of its ultimate cost. Our answer is 

 that if the Government had halted at the threshold of any great pub- 

 lic work for inquiry as to what the prosecution of like work would cost 

 within one hundred years, the estimate would probably have para- 

 lyzed the action of Congressional bodies. For instance, when the first 

 river and harbor bill was introduced, suppose some captious member 

 of Congress had demanded a halt until it could be ascertained what 

 the total cost over a period of one hundred years would be. I imagine 

 that the statement, verified subsequently by events, that in one hun- 

 'dred years nearly $400,000,000 would be expended on the river and 

 harbor bill would have staggered the imagination, and yet this amount 

 has been expended and the country has not felt it. 



It is impossible to forecast the future and state exactly what the 

 storage in the arid regions will cost; but assuming that 100,000,000 

 acres of land are to be reclaimed; that this land on an average will 

 require annually 200,000,000 acre-feet of water, and that at least four 

 fifths of this will be supplied by the flood stream, and that one-fifth 



