262 



THE IEKIGATION AGE. 



A writer in a Colorado paper recently 

 Reclamation gave a good description of the beginning 

 a Reality. of reclamation work by the Government 

 and concluded by saying: "The artist 

 who can create upon his canvas, the writer who can por- 

 tray in words, or the dreamer who can imagine the re- 

 sult of the transformation of the vast mountain and 

 plain section of the United States as it will come to 

 pass during the next half century, does not live. 



"Fifteen miles east of Eeno, Nevada, with the 

 noonday sun beating back upon a little company of men 

 from an expanse of silica as boundless as it is barren, 

 the floodgates of the Truckee-Carson irrigation canal 

 were opened on Saturday for the first time. The work 

 of watering the arid West was begun. Though merely 

 informal ceremonies marked the event, the day opened 

 an era of progress and development for the sixteen 

 States included in the reclamation district, that will 

 bring a greater change during the life of men now liv- 

 ing than ever has been created in an equal district in 

 an equal period of time by the hand of man. The recla- 

 mation act, which now bears its first fruit, unquestion- 

 ably means more development of American agricultural 

 resources than has been brought about by any other 

 legislative enactment in the country's history with the 

 exception of the homestead law. 



"Engineers estimate that by this act it will be pos- 

 sible and practicable to reclaim one hundred millions of 

 acres of land now useless. The completion of this work 

 will increase the crop belt of the country by twenty-five 

 per cent. It will make two and one-half millions of 

 forty-acre farms, and offer a good living for twenty 

 millions of persons. 



"The Truckee canal project, put into use recently, 

 is thirty-one miles in length, running from Derby, Ne- 

 va-da, on the Truckee river, to Leetville, Nevada, on the 

 Carson river. The construction of this canal will re- 

 sult in the reclamation of fifty thousand acres of land 

 immediately. During the next two years the extension 

 of the system will take in two hundred and fifty thou- 

 sand acres more and the Truckee-Carson system will 

 then include twelve hundred miles of ditch. Later on, 

 in the course of the next ten years, further extensions 

 will be made until the whole area of the valleys of the 

 Truckee and Carson rivers shall have been converted 

 into fertile land. 



"The value of the reclamation project to the coun- 

 try lies in the practicability of the scheme. The lands 

 are open to settlement under the homestead law ex- 

 actly as are Government lands where irrigation is un- 

 necessary. For the title to the water right the Gov- 

 ernment charges $26 per acre, or $1,040 for a forty-acre 

 tract. The payments extend over ten years and, as 

 title will not lapse until two payments have been passed, 

 the homesteader will have a chance to tide over a hard 

 year. No interest will be charged on deferred payments 



but it is likely that inducements will be offered for 

 early settlements. When the ten years have elapsed 

 the irrigation system will be turned over to a water 

 users' association to be organized under the direction 

 of the Secretary of the Interior. Perpetual government 

 regulation of the system is secured by the retention of 

 the title to the sources of supply in the Government. 



"Speculation as to the possibilities that lie in this 

 work of reclamation might be carried on indefinitely. 

 It is wihin the range of reason, however, to say that 

 it offers more for the solution of the tenement house 

 problem, other phases of the slums problem, the pub- 

 lic health problem, the immigration problem and of 

 sociological problems in general than is to be expected 

 from any other source now in sight. 



Between the Government and the Harri- 

 Railways man lines, the Union and Southern Pa- 

 Assist, cific, and the Oregon Short Line, the 

 great arid plains west of the Missouri 

 Eiver are rapidly being reclaimed by irrigation. Con- 

 gress has appropriated millions, which is being spent 

 upon the river beds and ditches which are to carry water 

 to the dry districts, and to this the Harriman roads 

 have added almost $1,000,000 more. When this work 

 is all completed, this whole vast area, which always has 

 been unproductive, will be turned into a fertile field, 

 capable of producing grains or other food products, 

 sufficient to sustain millions. 



It will be of the greatest benefit to the Harriman 

 lines to hare this waste land made fertile, as they are 

 the only roads which enter the territory, and therefore 

 will get the full benefit of the immense tonnage which 

 will be developed. The money appropriated by the rail- 

 way company is being spent only on that land which is 

 contiguous to the Harriman lines. 



In one district of Southern California the South- 

 ern Pacific has loaned $300,000 to the corporation 

 formed for the purpose of building irrigation ditches to 

 develop the plant. 



Officers of the interested railroads are accompany- 

 ing the congressional committees which are now on a 

 tour of that region, and every district, whether it be 

 little or big, is being thoroughly inspected. 



The committees are made up largely of western 

 members of congress, who are interested in the devel- 

 opment of the country. It is believed that this money, 

 which is being spent will result in transforming these 

 vast plains, which have never yielded a dollar's worth of 

 produce, into a garden spot, where cereals and fruits 

 will grow in abundance. Already in places where irri- 

 gation has been secured good results have been achieved. 

 The plan to reclaim the country is one upon which E. H. 

 Harriman has worked for many years, and he is taking 

 the greatest interest in the work, realizing that the life 

 of the West means life to the Harriman lines. 



