276 SOILS 



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which can be irrigated by small canals, such as can 

 be built with the combined means of a number of 

 farmers, or a stock company, has already been 

 brought under ditch. These are mostly the river 

 bottoms and low bench lands. These constitute, 

 however, but a small per cent, of the great area of 

 land that it is possible to make productive by 

 irrigation. There are large enterprises that are 

 beyond the reach of private capital. There are 

 millions of acres that may be made as fertile as any 

 land on the continent, and at a comparatively 

 slight cost p>er acre, if sufficient capital could be 

 found to build the immense reservoirs and canals 

 that this reclamation entails. It cannot be done 

 by the different states, for interstate disputes con- 

 cerning water rights would arise. It is a National, 

 not a state or private problem. So it has come 

 about that there has been a strong appeal from the 

 West for government aid. This appeal has been 

 heeded. 



The Reclamation Act o) 1902. Under this Act 

 the Government purposes to irrigate, and so make 

 productive, a vast area of land now of little 

 or no value. Some authorities estimate the total 

 area which may be benefited by this Act as 

 close to fifty millions of acres, which are loca- 

 ted in parts of all the states and territories in 

 the arid and semi-arid regions. This Act provides 

 that all money from the sale of public lands in 

 the arid West shall constitute a special fund to be 

 used in the survey and construction of reservoirs 

 and canals for the reclamation of arid and semi-arid 

 lands. 



The U. S. Government has already expended 

 about ten millions of dollars, of thirty-four millions 

 appropriated, in making surveys, constructing res- 



