THE IBEIGATION AGE. 



109 



WILL MAKE WASTE LANDS GARDENS. 



Mr. William E. Curtis Writes About Irrigation Projects for the 

 Record-Herald, Chicago. 



No achievement of his administration gives Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt more thorough satisfaction than what 

 is termed "the reclamation law" enacted by Congress 

 on June 17, 1902, in response to the recommendations 

 of his first annual message. He esteems it one of the 

 wisest and most beneficial pieces of legislation of re- 

 cent years and is confident that it will promote the 

 public welfare quite as much as the Morrill act, which 

 dedicated a great part of the public lands to the edu- 

 cation of the people, or the homestead law, which did 

 more than any other measure to build up the great 

 West. The reclamation law is intended, without ex- 

 pense to the taxpayers, to make the arid regions of 

 the West capable of cultivation. It applies the pro- 

 ceeds from the sale of public lands to the construction 

 of irrigation systems and reservoirs to supply them, 

 which are to be sold at cost price on ten years' time 

 to the people who enjoy the benefits created by them. 

 The money thus refunded is to be used again and again 

 and still again in extending the irrigation system un- 

 til every acre of the arid regions is watered and fit for 

 human habitation. 



The reclamation fund has grown very rapidly, 

 much more rapidly than any advocate of the law ex- 

 pected. During the first year about $4,000,000 was 

 turned into the treasury. On the 30th of June, 1904, 

 it amounted to $11,276,289.87, and by the end of the 

 current fiscal year it will reach, if it does not exceed, 

 $15,000,000. 



Surveys have been completed for thirteen great 

 irrigation projects in as many different States, contem- 

 plating the reclamation of 1,131,000 acres of desert 

 land at a cost of $31,395,000, or an average of $27.26 

 per acre. The land thus improved will be sold to the 

 public at that price in ten annual installments and 

 thus the entire amount of money expended will be 

 refunded to the Government. 



RECLAMATION PROJECTS APPROVED. 



State. Projects. Acreage. 



Arizona Salt Riyer 160,000 



California . . . Yuma 85,000 



Colorado .... Uncompahgre 100,000 



Idaho Minidoka 70,000 



(Huntley 40,000 



Montana .... J Fort g^^, 30;000 



Nebraska . . . North Platte 100,000 



Nevada Truckee-Carson 100,000 



New Mexico . Hondo 10,000 



N. Dakota . . Fort Buford 61,000 



Oregon Malheur 75,000 



S. Dakota . . . Bellefourche 60,000 



Washington . Palouse 80,000 



Wyoming . . . Shoshone 160,000 



Cost, 

 $3,200,000 

 2,975,000 

 2,500,000 

 1,820,000 

 1,200,000 

 900,000 

 3,500,000 

 2,600,000 

 280,000 

 1,450,000 

 2,250,000 

 1,920,000 

 2.800,000 

 4,000,000 



1,131,000 $31,395,000 



The President is also greatly gratified at the rapid 

 progress that is being made by the irrigation bureau. Six 

 of the projects in the above list have been begun ; con- 

 tracts have been let, and thousands of laborers are al- 

 ready employed in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, 

 Nevada and New Mexico. The other propositions will 

 be undertaken as rapidly as possible. 



In Nevada work commenced as early as September, 

 1903, in building a dam in Truckee River to take -the 

 flood waters from the mountains and the overflow of 

 Lake Tahoe and dump them into Carson River. Another 

 dam will be built in Carson Kiver to store these waters 

 until they are needed in the dry season, when they will 

 be distributed by means of canals and ditches over an 

 area of about 100,000 acres, mostly desert land belonging 

 to the Government. The cost of this improvement will 

 be $2,600,000, or $26 an acre, and the land improved is 

 now subject to homestead entry in tracts of forty, eighty, 

 120 or 160 acres, according to its situation. About 20,- 

 000 acres can be cultivated during the coming summer. 

 It is expected that the waters will be turned on in April 

 and settlers are going in very rapidly. 



The law allows enough land to each settler to sup- 

 port a family. No cash payments are required; no 

 commutations, but the settler must actually live on it 

 and cultivate it for five years and pay $2.60 an acre 

 each year for ten years, when he will receive a title to 

 the land and own the water rights without additional 

 payments. Private land which receives the benefit of 

 the water must pay at the same rate $2.60 per acre for 

 ten years. After ten payments the owner of the land 

 will have the water rights free of cost for all eternity. 

 The land is good for alfalfa, sugar beets, potatoes and 

 all the root crops and fruits of the temperate zone. It 

 is only twelve hours from San Francisco by rail, fifty 

 miles from the capital of Nevada, and is surrounded by 

 mining settlements in every direction. 



Part of the land reclaimed will be the old Forty- 

 Mile Desert, or Carson's Sink, which was a horror of 

 early emigrants the worst spot on the overland trail ; 

 and was lined the entire distance with the bones of 

 men and animals. Thousands of poor creatures died 

 there from thirst and exhaustion. Farmers who plow 

 there now turn up in almost every furrow gun barrels 

 which were driven into the earth to mark graves and 

 have since been buried deep in the drifting sands. As 

 an illustration of the perversity of nature, the engineers 

 who have been laying out the proposed irrigation sys- 

 tem have found an abundance of cold, pure water a few 

 feet below the surface wherever they have made borings. 

 All of this desert will be redeemed and when the pres- 

 ent proposition is finished the works will be extended 

 to the Humboldt and Walker rivers, which will bring 

 several hundred thousand acres more under irrigation 

 and make a paradise of what is now the most desolate 

 spot in Nevada. These rivers carry plenty of water 

 from the mountains, but it disappears as soon as it 

 reaches the sand. The engineers propose to catch it be- 

 fore it reaches the "sinks" and store it in reservoirs, 

 to be tapped when needed. 



Down near Phoenix, Arizona, the engineers under 

 Dr. Newell are building one of the greatest dams in the 

 world. It is to be 270 feet high, 210 feet wide, 165 

 feet thick at the base and 20 feet thick at the top. This 

 enormous structure extends across a narrow gorge where 

 the Salt River has burrowed its way through the moun- 

 tains, and it will create an artificial lake thirty-two miles 

 long, five miles wide and 200 feet deep. More than a 

 million dollars has already been spent in preliminary 

 surveys and construction; the foundations for the dam 

 have been laid, and bids for the masonry work will be 

 opened on the 8th of February next. The entire cost 

 of this reservoir will be $3,200,000, and it will reclaim 

 an area of 160,000 acres of desert around the capital 



