THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



231 



MANLESS LAND FOR LANDLESS MAN. 



C J. BLANCHARD, Statistician U. S. Reclamation Service. 



There never was a time in our history when the 

 hunger for land was greater than it is at present. The 

 Golden West, with its millions of acres yet untouched 

 by plow, is the Mecca of homeseekers. It is perhaps 

 the last opportunity in this country for the home-build- 

 er whose means are limited. Our Nation's greatness 

 has its foundations in the home of the man whose feet 

 are firmly planted on his own land. There is no na- 

 tional stability in a citizenship bred and reared in tene- 

 ments. Patriotism, loyalty and civic pride are not bred 

 and fostered in the crowded centers of the cities. The 

 destiny of the Nation is overshadowed in the provisions 

 made in the prosperity and attainment of its citizens. 

 An assurance that the great men of our people shall re- 

 side in homes of their own is the insurance that our 

 future will be one of stability and progress. 



The great need in the present time, as we see it, is 

 for a proper classification of our public domain, in or- 

 der that reliable information concerning the opportuni- 

 ties for home-builders in all parts of the West may be 

 made public. There is much complaint at the present 

 time that our knowledge of these -lands with respect to 

 soil, climate and adaptability to agriculture is so lim- 

 ited that inquirers are not able to secure satisfactory 

 information to enable them to make choice of location. 

 For one hundred years we have been administering the 

 most valuable estate any Nation ever possessed without 

 any appreciation of its value. Our chief purpose ap- 

 parently has been to get rid of its as quickly as possible 

 without regard to the future when millions of our peo- 

 ple will be clamoring for homes. At one time the 

 property of the Nation embraced 1,800,000,000 acres; 

 today it has been reduced to less than 400,000,000 acres. 



The remaining public lands occupy two distinct ag- 

 ricultural regions, differing materially in climate, soil 

 and crops. West of 'the Missouri Eiver lies a vast region 

 extending westward to the foothills of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains and from the Panhandle of Texas northward into 

 Canada. It is known as the Great Plains. For many 

 years the vast region has been utilized as a public com- 

 mon. Countless cattle and sheep have had free access 

 to it and have overgrazed it. Its administration is still 

 one of the most vexing problems before Congress. 



Beyond the Rocky Mountains lies the true desert, a 

 land of mysterious silence; a land of potential great- 

 ness, awaiting the magic kiss of canal-borne water to 

 wake to teeming fecundity. 



In many parts of it Nature has placed in juxtapo- 

 sition all the natural elements except rainfall required 

 for a fruitful, prosperous country. Its climate is health- 

 ful and salubrious; its valleys and plains possess a soil 

 of inexhaustible fertility, and from the forest-clad moun- 

 tains, with summits in regions of perpetual snow, count- 

 less streams rush downward to both oceans or flow into 

 desert sinks and there evaporate. How to overcome the 

 absence of moisture from the clouds and thus bring the 

 region to its proper state of development is today a prob- 

 lem of paramount importance. Its successful solution 

 will provide a safety valve against the impending dan- 

 ger of congestion in the cities of the East. 



The future of our desert empire is, in a measure, 

 predicated by the marvelous achievements of the 

 pioneers. With a courage born of conviction and fos- 

 tered by the hope which dwells perennial in the breast 

 of the Argonaut of the sage-brush country, they have, 

 within the past few years, wrested from a region long 

 regarded as absolutely worthless, a crop-producing, 

 home-supporting area of inexhaustible fertility, greater 

 in extent than the cultivated lands in Massachusetts, 

 Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey, 

 Rhode Island, and Vermont, and capable of supporting 

 a larger rural population. More than $120,000,000 

 have been expended in irrigation- works in the West, 

 and 70,000 miles of canals now carry the life-giving wa- 

 ters to 10,000,000 acres, which each year produce crops 

 valued at more than $250,000,000. 



As good American citizens, we owe it to ourselves to 

 extend our knowledge of this splendid country. There 

 is an inspiration in the breadth and vastness of this 

 sleeping empire in the West, and a sublimity in the 

 lofty mountains whose summits are clothed in perpetual 

 snow. One breathes optimism and grows in mental 

 breadth and strength in contemplating scenery which 

 has no counterpart in the world. 



The economic value of national irrigation cannot 

 be measured in dollars and cents. The desert made 

 habitable offers the boon of health to him who erects 

 his dwelling upon it. You cannot fix the possibilities of 

 this land of silence and sunshine. We know that the 

 influence of its far-flung horizons and its true perspec- 

 tive are potential in character-molding and building. 

 Instead of the dead level of mediocrity, which prevails 

 in modern city life, the desert offers the uplift of un- 

 measured distances, the perpetual sunshine, and the in- 

 dividual home, with the broader freedom of action 

 which comes with life in the open. There is a constant 

 inspiration to industry, a stimulation to endeavor, in 

 the superabundant life which springs from the bosom of 

 the desert when water is applied. The transformation 

 which follows irrigation is so remarkable that we are 

 prone to believe Aladdin and his lamp have really ap- 

 peared. 



It is generally conceded that the passage of the 

 National Reclamation Law gave an impetus to irrigation 

 development throughout the arid West. It encouraged 

 private enterprise, and gave stability and value to irri- 

 gation bonds as investments. It quickened many enter- 

 prises which have languished for years, and promoted 

 the taking up of projects by corporations on a larger 

 scale than ever before attempted. Instead of retarding 

 or restricting legitimate private enterprise, the attitude 

 of the Federal Government has been to step aside in 

 all cases where it was made evident that such corpora- 

 tions undertake and complete the work under plans 

 which would properly protect the people. 



Aside from protecting its interests in the works al- 

 ready undertaken or laid out for the future, there has 

 been non interference with corporations or individuals. 

 As a matter of fact few, if any, of the projects taken 

 up by the Service were attractive to private capital. 



