THE IKRIGATION "AGE. 



241 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION OF 

 THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANU- 

 FACTURERS, ADOPTED AT ANNUAL 

 MEETING, MAY 15. 



To the Board of Directors and Members of the National 



Association of Manufacturers: 



Your standing Committee on Irrigation begs to 

 report as follows : 



The past year has been chiefly remarkable in irri- 

 gation circles for the opening of the first government 

 irigation project in the country. This is known as the 

 Truckee-Carson project in Nevada and consists of 300 

 miles of canals which distribute water to 50,000 acres 

 of land, as a result of an expenditure of approximately 

 $2,000,000. When this project is completed 400,000 

 acres will be irrigated at a capital cost of $9,000,000. 



The Eeclamation Service has investigated a large 

 number of projects in all the sixteen states and terri- 

 tories affected by the Eeclamation Act of June 17, 1902. 

 As a result the Eeclamation fund, estimated at about 

 $28,000,000, has been apportioned as follows : 



State. Name of Project. 



Arizona Salt River 



California Yuma 



Colorado Uncompahgre 



Idaho Minidoka 



Idaho Payette-Boise 



Kansas Garden City 



Montana Huntley 



Montana* Milk River 



Montana (two-thirds) Lower Yellowstone 



Nebraska and Wy- 

 oming North Platte .'.,.. 



Nevada Truckee-Carson 



New Mexico Hondo 



New Mexico Carlsbad 



New Mexico Rio Grande 



North Dakota (one- 

 third) Lower Yellowstone 



North Dakota Pumping Plants ... 



Oregon Klamath 



Oregon Umatilla 



South Dakota Belief ourche 



Utah Strawberry Valley. 



Washington Okanogan 



Washington Yakima 



Wyoming Shoshone 



lores Irrigable. 

 . 160,000 



85,000 

 . 100,000 



60,000 



60,000 

 8,600 



30,000 



40,000 



100,000 



120,000 



10,000 



20,000 



33,000 



100,000 



18,000 



60,000 



25,000 



9,000 



40,000 



76,000 



Allotment 



$3,850,000 



8,000,000 



2,500,000 



1,300,000 



1,300,000 



260,000 



900,000 



1,000,000 



1,200,000 



3,330,000 



3,000,000 



240,000 



600,000 



200,000 



700,000 

 1,000,000 

 2,000,000 

 1,000,000 

 2,100,000 

 1,250,000 



500,000 

 1,750,000 

 2,250,000 



1,153,600 $35,230,000 

 * For Dam in St. Mary Will not irrigate any land. 



Work has actually commenced on the following 



projects : 



State. 



Arizona f 



California 



Colorado 



Idaho 



Idaho 



Montana 



Montana 



Nebraska and Wy- 

 oming 



Nevada 



New Mexico 



New Mexico 



South Dakota 



'Oregon and Cali- 

 fornia 



Wyoming 



Name of Project. 



. Salt River 



. Yuma 



. Uncpmpaghre 



. Minidoka 



.Payette-Boise 



. Huntley 



.Lower Yellowstone. 



Acres Irrigable. Allotment 

 . . 160,000 $3,850,000 



. North Platte . . 

 . Truckee-Carson 



. Hondo 



. Carlsbad 



. Bellefourche 



.Klamath 



. Shoshone 



85.000 

 100,000 

 60,000 

 60,000 

 30,000 

 60,000 



100,000 



120,000 



10,000 



15,000 



60,000 



100,000 

 75,000 



3,000,000 

 2,500,000 

 2,600,000 

 1,300,000 

 900,000 

 1,900,000 



3,500,000 



2,740,000 



280,000 



600,000 



2,100,000 



2,000,000 

 2,250,000 



It is anticipated that these schemes will exhaust 

 the funds at the disposal of the Eeclamation Service for 

 at least ten years, and consequently the government will 

 not be enabled to undertake fresh work for that period 

 unless other funds are placed at its disposal. At the 

 present time Congress does not seem disposed to make 

 any further provision for irrigation work and it would 

 probably be useless to attempt to influence an appropria- 

 tion for this purpose until the work already undertaken 

 by the government has been carried to completion and 

 the experiment of the Eeclamation Act has proved suc- 

 cessful. In this connection it might be pointed out that 



the government work, excluding two small projects of 

 uncertain area, affects a total area of 1,153,600 acres. 

 In 1890 there was a total of 4,115,000 acres of irri- 

 gated land in the United States; ten years later this 

 has increased to 7,300,000, and in 1902' to 9,481,841; 

 thus nearly ten million acres has been brought under 

 water by private enterprise before the Eeclamation Act 

 was passed. 



How far this private enterprise has been stopped 

 or checked by the passage of the Eeclamation Act and 

 the commencement of government work, your committee 

 has been unable to definitely ascertain. There seems 

 to be no doubt, however, that the withdrawal of large 

 acres of irrigable land from settlement under the terms 

 of the new act must have prevented certain private 

 projects being carried out. At the same time were the 

 government to leave these lands as freely open to settle- 

 mnt as they have been in the past it is quite possible 

 that when the time came to actually commence opera- 

 tions and attempt to irrigate the land it would be found 

 private speculators had absorbed the public domain and 

 possibly tapped the water supply in such a manner as 

 to impede or even to totally prevent the carrying out 

 of the government schemes. Cases have indeed already 

 occurred in which this has happened, and the result 

 has been that the Eeclamation Service has withdrawn 

 vast areas from settlement, so vast indeed that com- 

 plaints have reached your committee from persons in 

 the West that the cause of irrigation and Western de- 

 velopment has been hampered thereby. If some scheme 

 could be devised whereby the rights of the public and 

 individuals might be alike safeguarded, it would, appear 

 desirable. Possibly this end might be reached by allow- 

 ing settlement subject to the approval of the Secretary 

 of the Interior and by allowing natural water sources 

 to be tapped by private individuals, also subject to the 

 secretary's approval. In this manner it would be possi- 

 ble to make sure that nothing was done by any private 

 individual to the detriment of the public welfare. At 

 the same time private enterprise would not be stifled 

 as in some instances, at least, it is likely to be at present. 



There is little doubt that the officials of the Eecla- 

 mation Service are actuated by a genuine desire to fur- 

 ther the cause of irrigation and that any mistakes they 

 may have made have been due rather to overzeal than 

 to lack of interest. The work they are doing is a great 

 work and one which in its most important features, at 

 all events, could not be carried out by any other exist- 

 ing body. The private irrigation schemes to which 

 reference has been made are mainly, if not entirely, 

 located within single states and most of them affee* 

 comparatively small areas of land. Many of the govf* 

 ment schemes are of an interstate nature, or at least 

 are such as will raise questions of interstate water 

 rights and out of twenty-three projected schemes six- 

 teen will exceed $1,000,000 each in cost. It would thus 

 appear obvious that there is room for the government 

 to work side by side with the private individual, leav- 

 ing to private enterprise the development of the smaller 

 areas and restricting its attention to such vast schemes 

 as the Truckee-Carson project, which are obviously be- 

 yond the comparatively limited resources of the sparsely 

 populated states. 



The successful irrigation of the arid and semi-arid 

 West will, as it is gradually brought about, entirely 

 alter conditions in that portion of the country. It is 



