1904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



549 



The Reclamation Servjce will push 

 the surveys and examinations as rap- 

 idly as possible in view of all the con- 

 ditions, and it is hoped that a feasible 

 project can be worked out and con- 

 structed at an early date. 



New 



Supervising 



Engineer 



Mr. H. N. Savage, of 

 the United States Re- 

 clamation Service, re- 

 cently has been made supervising en- 

 gineer for Montana and Northern 

 Wyoming, including the entire drain- 

 age basin of the Yellowstone River. 



Mr. Savage is a graduate of the 

 New Hampshire College of Agricul- 

 ture and Mechanical Arts, and of the 

 Thayer School of Civil Engineering, 

 and since 1888 has served in the capac- 

 ity of engineer, designing and direct- 

 ing construction works for various 

 corporations, notably the Hydraulic 

 Mining and Irrigation Company in 

 New Mexico ; National City and Otay 

 Railroad Company, California ; San 

 Diego, Pacific Beach, and Lo Jolla 

 Railroad Company, and San Diego, 

 Cuyamaca and Eastern Railroad Com- 

 pany ; Semi-transcontinental Railway 

 from El Paso, Texas, to the Pacific 

 Coast ; Otero Irrigation District ; con- 

 struction, repairs and additions, in- 

 creasing capacity of Sweetwater dam ; 

 and as Material Contractor's engineer 

 for United States Government jetty 

 under construction at entrance of San 

 Diego Bay. On August i, 1903, he 

 was appointed consulting engineer in 

 the Reclamation Service. 



X. 



A Try for The leading papers in 



Graft the East lately have 



been giving considera- 

 ble space to exposing a conspiracy 

 which is alleged to exist and which 

 has for its purpose the proposition to 

 take the great national work of irriga- 

 tion out of the hands of experts and 

 make it a political job. It is pointed 

 out that the politicians in the West 

 have only just awakened to the fact 

 that the reclamation fund is a very 

 juicy sort of a pie and that they over- 



looked a good thing, indeed, when they 

 passed a law which practically made 

 the Secretary of the Interior sole dis- 

 tributor of these millions. They are 

 beginning to see wonderful possibil- 

 ities in this fund, and at the next ses- 

 sion of Congress it is said will intro- 

 duce bills to curtail the power which 

 the Secretary now enjoys, and open 

 the way to the disbursement of this 

 great fund in a manner more accept- 

 able to the politicians whose eyes are 

 now cast so longingly upon it. 



How will the idea of a political en- 

 gineer in charge of the work and a 

 political commission distributing the 

 fund strike the people of Montana, for 

 example? What are this state's pros- 

 pects should such legislation be enact- 

 ed? 



Up to date this state has contrib- 

 uted $1,759,000. The opportunities 

 for irrigation development in the state 

 are so numerous and inviting that 

 on two projects alone the sum 

 set aside by the Secretary exceeds by 

 several hundred thousand dollars the 

 entire amount contributed by the state. 

 Conditions are the same in Arizona, 

 California, Colorado, Idaho, Nebras- 

 ka, Nevada, New Mexico, South Da- 

 kota, Utah, and Wyoming, in which 

 states and territories the requirements 

 of the works projected are in excess of 

 the funds contributed by them. The 

 exceptions are North Dakota, Oregon, 

 Washington, and Oklohoma, wherein 

 the funds received exceed the cost of 

 the proposed works. In two of these 

 states Oregon and Washington- 

 projects are now being investigated 

 which, it is believed, will require larg- 

 'er amounts than their contributions. 

 There remain then but two North 

 Dakota and Oklahoma wherein the 

 prospects are not good for the early 

 disbursement of the full sum received 

 from the sale of public lands in each. 

 Both Oklohoma and North Dakota lie 

 party in the humid and semi-arid belts. 

 Over a large portion of each irriga- 

 tion is not essential to agriculture, and 

 in some years, notably the past four, 

 irrigation has been quite unnecessary 

 in North Dakota. It can readily be 



