312 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



FAKE IRRIGATION DITCHES AND RESERVOIRS. 



A correspondent of the Washington Star has the 

 following to say concerning methods employed to cheat 

 the Government: 



Among the various land frauds that have recently 

 been brought to the notice of the Interior Department 

 there is a new one in relation to the desert land act. 

 This act provides that a settler putting land under ditch 

 can take up 320 acres. Desert land, within the meaning 

 of the act, it is declared, is about as productive as the 

 top of a dining table until there is water on it, and then 

 it will usually raise phenomenal crops. Some of the 

 very best fruit and vegetable crops in the United States 

 are raised off desert land under irrigation. Turnips 

 weighing twelve pounds and peaches that are too big to 

 bite into are not at all uncommon under irrigation. So 

 the one time worthless desert land is not a bad thing to 



have retained a jack rabbit, much less a gallon of water. 



The ditch was a furrow scratched by a plow along- 

 side the site of the "reservoir." The cost of the whole 

 construction was not over $10, and the only reason that 

 the work was done at all evidently was the mistaken idea 

 on the part of the claimant that the work was enough 

 to save him from the penalty of perjury if the case 

 was investigated. 



This sort of "reclamation" has been done on a large 

 scale, farmers on adjoining tracts swearing to each 

 other's affidavits that the reservoir building has been 

 done. These claims come in to the department, and 

 unless an inspector happens to be available to go di- 

 rectly to the ground, it is said they stand a good chance 

 of being favorably reported on as genuine claims. 



In contrast to some of this fake work the Interior 

 Department has innumerable pictures showing genuine 

 work that has been done in the arid region. As samples 



_j 



Diriftion of rater 



SIDE VIEW or WHEEL 



V/W OF WHEEL. LOOKING OOlVV 57VT. 

 Section 



Fig. 14. Kind of Wheel in Payette Valley, Idaho. 



own, especially when there is a chance of either the Gov- 

 ernment or a private company furnishing a ditch for it. 



Land frauds of all sorts have been abundant in the 

 West, some of them supposed to be perpetrated with the 

 connivance of the land office and others that it is hard to 

 detect unless an inspector of the department actually 

 gets on the ground. The latter sort have been perpe- 

 trated and attempted extensively in connection with 

 the desert land. The Interior Department has recently 

 received a picture of one of the fake "reservoirs and 

 ditches" under which the thrifty settler proposed to add 

 320 acres to his domain. 



The "reservoir" was described as "a stone embank- 

 ment" inclosing a natural reservoir site, while the 

 "ditch" was large enough to bring sufficient water to ir- 

 rigate the land under the reservoir. The picture shows 

 Mr. Chadwick, one of the department's inspectors, stand- 

 ing in the middle of the reservoir, which would not 



of private enterprise that really comes within the mean- 

 ing of the desert land act, another picture shows the 

 upper stretch of the New York Canal near Boise Canyon, 

 Idaho, and a great sweeping reach of a ditch constructed 

 by 'the Crow Indians on their agency in Montana. The 

 Indian ditch is designed to bring about 35,000 acres 

 under cultivation. 



When it is considered that most of the land between 

 the 100th meridian and the Rocky Mountains has to be 

 irrigated to raise crops, and that when once it is irrigated 

 it is among the most valuable land in the country, it can 

 be seen just what the opportunity is for such frauds 

 and how they will pay if successfully carried through. 



The latest reports to the Interior Department on 

 this subject showed that there was up to date about 

 8,000,000 acres of land "under ditch" in the United 

 States, and that it was producing crops valued at $100,- 

 000,000. 



