100 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ture of #05,470,000. In the eight years of actual work the Service has dug 7,000 

 miles of canals, many of which carry whole rivers. These canals placed end to 

 end would reach from New York to San Francisco and back to New York. The 

 tunnels excavated, mostly through mountains, have a length of more than 19 

 miles. The excavations of rock and earth amount to the enormous total of 77,- 

 L'nu.000 cubic yards. As much of its work is located in regions heretofore al- 

 most inaccessible, it has been necessary to build and maintain 570 miles of 

 wagon roads and 1,700 miles of telephones. The Service has in operation 275 

 miles of transmission lines, and is furnishing its surplus power and light to 

 several cities and towns. 



It has completed three of the greatest irrigation dams in the world, and 

 tlie storage capacity of its reservoirs, several of which are now full, is 10,000,- 

 oiiii acre-feet, or enough water to cover that many acres a foot deep. 



In its construction work the bureau has purchased 905,827 barrels of ce- 

 ment, and its own mill manufactured 340,000 barrels, effecting a net saving of 

 SMO.OOO by so doing. 



VAST INCREASE IN LAND VALUES 



Water is now available for 1,086,000 acres of land, upon which approxi- 

 mately 14,000 families are residing in their own homes. As a result of the in- 

 vestment already made by the Government, land values have increased more 

 lhan $105,800,000. The astonishing increase in land values resulting from the 

 reclamation of desert land is shown in a recent sale of a forty-acre farm adjoin- 

 ing the Government townsite of Rupert on the Minidoka project in Idaho. This 

 tract of land in 1904 was sage brush desert and valueless. This spring it sold 

 for $11,000. It was filed upon as a homestead, and the original entry man had 

 paid back to the Government not more than three annual instalments of his 

 water right, or less than $8.00 an acre. On several projects a single crop has 

 enabled the settler to repay all his obligations to the Government. 



The gross value of crops grown on the projects in 1911 is estimated at 

 $24,000,000. 



The growth and development of the towns on the reclamation projects 

 an- proceeding along lines which have promoted numerous communities in 

 southern California now recognized as nearly ideal centers of population. In 

 substantial business blocks, in commodious schoolhouses, numerous churches 

 and in artistic and beautiful homes, these new communities are far in ad- 

 vance of those of many older sections of the country. 



The small farms intensively cultivated and grouped about these vil- 

 lages and towns give the effect of suburban rather than rural conditions. 

 < 'heap power developed from the great dams or from numerous drops in the 

 main canals is now utilized in the operation of trolley lines which reach 

 out into the rural districts and bring the farmer in close touch with the city. 

 It turns the wheels of numerous industrial plants, and various enterprises, 

 in which the farmers are part owners, for storing, handling, and manufac- 

 1 11 ring the raw products of the farms. The same power is used in the lighting 



