THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



335 



borhoods. They are entitled to all success in their 

 beneficent enterprise. Some of our wisest statesmen, 

 of a not very remote past, had but little conception of 

 the possibilities which many of you have opened up 

 to our country and our civilization. We may well be- 

 lieve that, with our larger experience and greater light, 

 we have as inadequate a conception of the vast possi- 

 bilities of this western section of the country as many 

 of our predecessors had of the large development which 

 has already been accomplished. The growth of irriga- 

 tion thus far is largely due to individual and corporate 

 enterprise. It has been carried on by our people for 

 many years in a more or less satisfactory way, but it 

 has not been until recently the subject of national 

 consideration. No one can appreciate the magnitude 

 and the possibilities of the reclamation service in which 

 the national government is engaged and which you 

 are met to encourage, who has not looked upon what 

 irrigation has already accomplished. Go into the val- 

 leys of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, 

 New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, 

 Wyoming, and so on, and some conception can be gained 

 of the wondrous possibilities of the future by what 

 has already been done. Fruits, vegetables, grains and 

 grasses of almost every variety are produced in pro- 

 fusion upon lands which but a few years ago seemed 

 to the casual observer absolutely valueless and beyond 

 the hope of cultivation. I have observed in many 

 places, to employ the language of Whittier, 



orchards sweep 



Apple and fruit trees fruited deep 

 Fair as the garden of the Lord. 



"Irrigated lands are made to yield manyfold more 

 than the best unirrigated lands and the certainty of 

 good crops seems to be assured. There is a guaranty 

 against the blighting effects of drouth, and the intelli- 

 gent husbandman is certain of a bountiful yield as the 

 fruit of his industry. The desert is fast disappearing 

 before the magic touch of American genius, thrift and 

 pluck. What a few years ago seemed to be impossible is 

 now being accomplished. It has been demonstrated that 

 there is no investment which has yielded better or surer 

 results than money spent in the construction of feasible 

 irrigation works. It is estimated that some ten mil- 

 lions of acres are now irrigated through individual 

 and corporate effort and that the value of our agri- 

 cultural products has been thereby increased in the 

 sum of more than an hundred and fifty millions of 

 dollars pier annum. It is also estimated that this 

 annual increase is in excess of the total cost of irriga- 

 tion works through which it is made possible. 



"When we consider, in addition to the large money 

 value of the increased annual yield through irrigation, 

 the many incidental benefits resulting from, the mag- 

 nitude and importance of the subject of national irri- 

 gation can be more fully appreciated. 



"The government has not entered upon the subject 

 of irrigation hastily and without the utmost considera- 

 tion. The matter has been thoroughly debated nnd 

 considered in its physical and economic aspects. When 

 it was first suggested it was regarded by those who 

 had given it only a superficial consideration, as im- 

 practicable and as involving a tremendous and unneces- 

 sary drain upon the national treasury. The fact was 

 that individual and corporate enterprises had carried 

 the work forward as far as it could reasouabl" do :-o. 



The larger and more difficult propositions awaited the 

 action of the national government. 



"The existing irrigation law was put upon the 

 statute books in 1902. The law is founded upon an 

 entirely rational and defensible theory. It is entirely 

 just and equitable. None better has been enacted by 

 the congress of the United States in recent years,. 



"It provides substantially that the money arising 

 from the sale of public lands shall be set apart in a spe- 

 cial fund to be vised exclusively for irrigation purposes. 

 The money so derived is to be expended in the estab- 

 lishment and construction of irrigation works iiud is 

 to become a charge upon the land benefited, and is to 

 be repaid to the government by the land owner in not 

 more than ten annual payments. It is returned to the 

 reclamation fund and is to be again used in the in- 

 auguration and development of new irrigation projects. 

 In short, the fund becomes an endless chain extending 

 its bessings to future years. Not a dollar comes out of 

 the pockets of the taxpayers of the country to promote 

 this great work. It is estimated that the amount to the 

 credit of the reclamation service at the close of the 

 fiscal year 1908 will be $41,441,572.95. 



"Irrigation by the national government has been 

 undertaken so recently that its beneficent results have 

 not yet been felt. The secretary of the interior has 

 authorized the construction of many projects in the 

 states of California, Idaho, Colorado, Kansas, Mon- 

 tana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South 

 Dakota. Utah, Washington and Wyoming and in the 

 territories of Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. 



"The first allotment for such construction is about 

 $41,441,572.95, and when this expenditure is made it 

 will bring under irrigation nearly 1,200,000 acres. It 

 will be observed that the cost of the work now au- 

 thorized is equivalent to the estimated amount of the 

 reclamation fund in 1908. This will not, however, 

 complete the work. It will require some sixty mil- 

 lions of dollars in addition to finish the projects now 

 undertaken, and when they are completed the total 

 amount of land irrigated will be 3,200,000 acres. 



"The secretary of the interior has under considera- 

 tion additional projects in Arizona, California, Colo- 

 rado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Okla- 

 homa, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, which 

 will cost about $109,000,000, and which, when com- 

 pleted, will bring under irrigation 3,070,000 acres. It 

 will thus be seen that when the government completes 

 the work it will render arable nearly 6,300,000 acres, 

 at a cost of a little more than $200,000,000. 



"To prosecute the work which it has undertaken 

 and which lies before it, the government will have in 

 hand, as heretofore observed, nearly forty-one and a 

 half million dollars in 1908, an amount sufficient to 

 cover the first unit of cost of projects authorized, and 

 for thereafter prosecuting the work it will have the 

 proceeds derived from the future sales of the public 

 domain and the return from the land theretofore irri- 

 gated. 



"It was the purpose of the authors of the reclama- 

 tion act that irrigation undertaken by the national 

 government should not be entered upon for ihe benefit 

 of mere speculators It was their purpose that the 

 public domain and the proceeds arising from its sale 

 should be appropriated absolutely and entirely for the 

 benefit of homeseekers. The law wisely provides that 



