78 



I HE IEEIGA1ION AGE, 



gion have demonstrated that irrigation 

 makes better flavored products and more 

 than double the yield. In this sense the 

 application of moisture by hand has be- 

 come a science. This science dispels 

 droughts, and makes crops annual suc- 

 cesses. At best the rain dependence is 

 only an uncertain substitute for independ- 

 ent soil moisture by irrigation. Gardens, 

 small frurt orchards and vineyards are es- 

 pecially benefitted by irrigation, even 

 though there be an abundance of rain for 

 general field crops. The scienrific appli- 

 cation of water just at the exact time 

 needed solves the long mooted problem of 

 woether or not the garden pays for any ex- 

 cept the professional market garden. 



National George H. Maxwell says in 

 *' his editorial comments in the 

 National Irrigation: "There ts only one 

 way by which the national government can 

 be assured that its appropriations will ful- 

 fill their purpose of promoting homebuild- 

 ing and that is to reserve every acre for 

 which water is made available by national 

 reservoirs or canals, for actual settlers who 

 will go on the land and reclaim it and 

 make it their permanent home. 



But this is what the advocates of "na- 

 tional aid io irrigation" who* are not in 

 harmony with the National Irrigation As- 



sociation oppose and are attempting to 

 prevent. 



The Mandell bill in the last session of 

 congress, and the State Engineers' Bill 

 prepared by Engineer Bond, of Wyoming, 

 make no reservaiion of the lands for actual 

 settlers, and should either bill become a 

 law, the moment it was known that a res- 

 ervoir or a canal was to be built to pro- 

 vide water for any government land, the 

 last acre of land that could be irrigated 

 from it would be gobbled up by speculators 

 under scrip or desert land locations. This 

 would be done long before any actual set- 

 tlers could by and possibility locate their 

 homes upon it. The result would be "na- 

 tional aid to irrigation" to be enjoyed by a 

 few spectators who would thus defeat the 

 whole purpose of congress and divert a 

 great national movement to their selfish 

 personal gain. If they could do this they 

 would destroy the national irrigation move- 

 ment. 



If one single appropriation were made 

 for national irrigation works, and the 

 lands irrigable therefrom were all absorbed 

 by speculators instead of going to home- 

 builders, the national irrigation policy 

 would be set back ten years. The confi- 

 dence of the poeple of the East in the 

 whole movement would be destroyed. 



