THE HISTORY OF IRRIGATION 463 



the reclamation act. The real problems and possibilities 

 of irrigation are being brought home to our national 

 leaders by this work as would be possible in no other way. 

 It is a great act of endless service to the country.- 



FIG. 173. Major J. W. Powell, who, as director of the 

 United States Geological and Geographical Surveys, 

 was one of the first to understand and teach the value 

 of the arid and semi-arid parts of the United States. 



It was fitting that the Interior Department should be 

 entrusted with the execution of the reclamation act, for 

 it was the Geological Survey that among government 

 agencies first studied the beginnings of irrigation in the 

 far West, and spoke hopefully of the reclamation of the 



