UNITED 



LAMATION 



Rights of 

 Settlers 



In further consideration 

 of rights of settlers to 

 payment by the United 

 States for improvements made by 

 them on unsurveyed public lands, the 

 Assistant Attorney General in an opin- 

 ion approved by the Secretary of the 

 Interior, April 12, 1906, states as fol- 

 lows: 



. . . that settlers upon public 

 lands appropriated by the Govern- 

 ment for the use in construction and 

 operation of irrigation works, who 

 have made a bona fide settlement and 

 have continued to comply with the 

 law as to residence upon and cultiva- 

 tion and improvement of the land set- 

 tled upon, are entitled to be compen- 

 sated for their improvements, al- 

 though they have not placed t heir 

 claim of record because of the unsur- 

 veyed condition of the land. But the 

 bona fide character of the settlement, 

 and the acts of the settler should be 

 clearly established before allowing 

 compensation, when the settler has not 

 indicated his purpose and intent by 

 placing his claim of record, whether 

 from the unsurveyed condition of the 

 land or from other cause." 



Interest in 



American 



Irrigation 



The work of the Nation- 

 al Government in re- 

 claiming its western 

 arid areas is attracting the attention 

 of other nations. There is a growing 

 demand from Canada and South 

 American governments for informa- 

 tion regarding the development of irri- 

 gation projects and the methods fol- 

 lowed by the United States in obtain- 

 ing and compiling stream measure- 

 ments and in making topographic sur- 

 veys. 



One feature of the preliminary work 

 of the U. S. Reclamation Service 

 that of making a diagnosis of the soil 

 for the purpose of obtaiing the quan- 

 tity of salts it contains has called forth 

 inquiries from distant India. The ir- 

 rigators in Bunna Valley in the Pun- 

 jab province have been having serious 

 trouble owing to the swamping and 

 deterioration of the lower valley lands. 

 The streams draining the Salt Range 

 on one side of the valley carry quanti- 

 ties of salt in solution, and consider- 

 able areas have been ruined by this 

 means. Similar conditions exist in 

 some parts of our western country, 

 and the engineers have devised means 

 for successfully overcoming the diffi- 

 culties. All of the Government pro- 

 jects in such localities are provided 

 with sufficient drainage systems which 

 serve to carry off the harmful minerals 

 in the water. When the topography 

 of the country is such that the salts 

 cannot be carried by means of ditches 

 into the river, they are led into depres- 

 sions and evaporated. 



The accumulated salts have a com- 

 mercial value which may make their 

 removal profitable. A plan similar to 

 the above has been suggested by the 

 Reclamation Service to the India en- 

 gineers as one which might tend to 

 ameliorate conditions at Bunna. 



Floods in 

 Arizona 



The Reclamation Serv- 

 ice is having its share 

 of trouble with floods in 

 the Salt River Valley, Arizona. Two 

 unusual floods occurred in March, 

 causing considerable damage to pri- 

 vate property in the Valley and some 

 delay to the Government work. 



