FARM IRRIGATION 277 



ervoirs and digging canals. The reservoirs are built 

 chiefly for the purpose of storing flood water that 

 it may be turned into the streams at low water. 

 Additional money for this work will be derived 

 from the sale to settlers of government lands in 

 these states and territories after it has been brought 

 under ditch. This land is to be divided into farms 

 of not less than 40 or more than 160 acres, which is 

 enough to support a family of five. Only actual 

 settlers can taxe advantage of the privileges of this 

 Act; there is no room for speculators. Those who 

 settle upon these homesteads are required to repay 

 the government, in ten annual instalments or less, 

 the extent of their indebtedness, which is the pro- 

 portionate cost of supplying their land with water. 

 The cost of construction is repaid by the sale of the 

 land reclaimed. The money will then be used by 

 the government for developing similar enterprises 

 in other sections. 



There are already under construction, or def- 

 initely in view, fourteen irrigation projects which, 

 when completed, will water about a million and a 

 half acres of land. These projects are not in a 

 few states, but in all of them; there is a com- 

 prehensive scheme for irrigating the entire area 

 of arid land that it is practicable to irrigate. Small 

 systems, called "units," are to be established here 

 and there as may be most expedient, with a view to 

 future additions and development, until a vast 

 area is watered by one great system of reservoirs, 

 rivers and canals. 



It was a notable event in the history of American 

 agriculture when the first irrigation system to be 

 opened under the Reclamation Act the Truckee- 

 Carson Project, in western Nevada was formally 

 opened on June 17, 1905, in the presence of a large 



