. THE IRRIGATION AGE 



141 



lie ownership plan, there need be no failure. On the contrary, no 

 available field of investment offers such opportunities. 



THE IDEAL, IRRIGATION SYSTEM, 



the kind which has proved successful above all others, which is now 

 fostered by the laws of many states, is what is known as farmers' 

 ditches. In other words, one that is owned by the community, the 

 canals, reservoirs and water rights being the common property of 

 those who use the water for irrigating the lands under them, with no 

 entail or annual rental except the actual cost of maintenance, which, 

 without the additional burden of providing interest on bonds and divi- 

 dends on stocks is nominal, amounting to but a few cents on each acre. 

 A community thus established, with an abundant water supply, 

 good lands, home markets and abundant and sure crops, such as every 

 careful farmer can produce with irrigation, is sure to prosper, both 

 individually and collectively. This is the class of irrigation systems 

 and communities capital will find its greatest profit in establishing. 



EXAMPLES OF PROBABLE PROFITS. 



There are some opportunities which will be expensive to develop, 

 depending upon the character of the land and accessability of the 



Spike System of Irrigating Meadowe in Spain. 



water supply, and others comparatively inexpensive. The latter are 

 not always the first undertaken, although naturally it is supposable 

 they would be, because promoters and capital do not always know of 

 their whereabouts, and the tendency is also to develop new systems 

 in the vicinity of others where it has become the fashion to irrigate 

 and where high values have been established. Engineers also like to 

 undertake the hardest jobs, because it gives them opportunity for the 

 display of skill and for profit, 



Most of the very easy opportunities, such as a farmer or bunch of 

 farmers can develop themselves on river and creek bottoms, where 

 the water can be taken from the streams at no great distance from the 

 land to be irrigated, have been taken. What is now needed is larger 

 capital to reclaim extensive valleys or wide- spreading mesas or table 



