460 IRRIGATION PRACTICE 



Soon after 1890, the era of the irrigation speculator 

 ended. The development of irrigation continued un- 

 diminished, but along safe and legitimate lines. Legis- 

 lation by state and federal governments (such as the 

 Carey Act) encouraged sane irrigation progress. Western 

 Canada, lying under the same general conditions as 

 western United States, joined vigorously in the movement, 

 constructed canals and opened fertile lands for settlement. 

 Finally, the greatest irrigation experiment of modern 

 days was officially declared successful when the Congress 

 of the United States in 1902 passed the great reclamation 

 act. 



The irrigation structures existing in the United States 

 in 1910 irrigated nearly 14,000,000 acres, and could irri- 

 gate nearly 20,000,000 acres. All this has been done 

 since 1847; and the work, still going on, is far from 

 being finished. 



264. The Union Colony of Colorado. This colony, 

 which in 1870 founded Greeley, Colorado, is next to the 

 Utah settlement the most important in the history of 

 American irrigation, for it also established the practice 

 on a community scale and demonstrated the essential 

 correctness of the methods of the Utah pioneers. The 

 colony was organized on the cooperative plan by N. C. 

 Meeker, who had earlier in life belonged to cooperative 

 settlements and who had also become familiar with the 

 Utah method of settlement. The members of the enter- 

 prise were men and women of a high order of intelligence 

 and ideals, who carried onward the cooperative spirit. 

 The early success of the colony, upon which the later 

 success rests firmly, may be credited to the union feature. 

 It has been observed that all irrigation enterprises in 

 which many families draw support from one ditch or 



