82 



MONTANA wn 



presupposes that the extensive areas must be developed in single projects 

 so that notwithstanding- the reatively great expense in the construction of 

 works an individual irrigated farm would not be placed out of the reach of 

 the average farmer. 



The provisions of the Reclamation Act are extremely general, and the 

 operations under the act have, of necessity, grown from small beginnings 

 and have been subjected to extreme tests both as to their legal and prac- 

 tical application. 



The w^isdom of the framers of the act is shown in the fact that there 

 have been relativelv few amendments, and these have been principally to 



Dam on Poplar River Unit, Fort Peck Project. 



correct certain manifestly inappropriate restrictions wdiich were inserted in 

 the law, chiefly as a matter of expediency to secure its pas- 

 Helping sage. The motive underlying the Reclamation Act is one wdiich 

 Small Farm- is fundamental to the growth and maintenance of a democradc 

 ers to Ob- form of government, namely, the providing of opportunities for 

 tain Homes, citizens to obtain homes upon small farms and to derive a liv- 

 ing therefrom. Under irrigation it is possible to practice inten- 

 sive agriculture "to the highest degree, and thus to produce the most valu- 

 able and certain crops, tinder good administration, it follows that in irri- 



— Montana land was made to be farmed. 



