THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



135 



and stone and timber act would practically amount to 

 a repeal of the irrigation law. For, without the money 

 derived from this source, the irrigation plans of the 

 Government could not be carried out, and the Octopus 

 would be able to accomplish the very object it had in 

 view when it fought the passage of the national irri- 

 gation act with such fierceness and determination. 



The true friends of irrigation and the small home- 

 maker should not be deceived by the arguments pre- 

 sented by the land-grabbing Octopus but should adhere 

 steadily to the determination to retain upon the statute 

 books the present land laws with such amendments as 

 may properly safeguard them from the raids of un- 

 scrupulous and thieving land combinations. 



the arid West, and the report is therefore of interest to 

 any one wishing to understand the subject of water 

 rights in the United States. 



Acquirement The office of Experiment Stations of the 

 of Water United States Department of Agricul- 

 Rights. ture just issued a bulletin on the Acquire- 



ment of Water Rights in the Arkansas 

 Valley in Colorado, by Hon. J. S. Greene, of Pueblo, 

 formerly State engineer of Colorado, prepared under 

 the direction of Elwood Mead, chief of irrigation in- 

 vestigations. The bulletin is written especially for 

 those who are contemplating settling in the Arkansas 

 Valley, and is intended to give them such an under- 

 standing of water rights and the conditions which 

 affect their value, that they can act intelligently in 

 acquiring a water supply. Mr. Greene has been for 

 many years a prominent irrigation engineer of Colorado, 

 has administered the laws of the State as the State En- 

 gineer, and is a landowner and irrigator under some 

 of the canals dealt with in the bulletin. He has, there- 

 fore, had to deal with the questions discussed from the 

 standpoints of the investor, the public, and the indi- 

 vidual farmer. 



Water rights are acquired from the State, in the 

 first instance, but the individual settler must usually 

 secure a right from some individual or company which 

 has built a canal for the purpose of supplying water 

 to farmers. The value*of both classes of rights de- 

 pends very largely upon physical conditions and upon 

 other rights to the streams. Mr. Greene shows this 

 connection and points out the sources of information 

 as to these conditions. Rights purchased from canal 

 owners are subject also to the conditions of the con- 

 tracts under which the water is supplied. A large 

 number of these contracts are given and discussed in 

 such a way that an intending settler can tell what 

 points he should look into before purchasing a right. 



The laws and contracts are discussed also from 

 the standpoints of the canal owner and of the public 

 welfare. The report is therefore of great value to stu- 

 dents of irrigation law and economics since it gives 

 much valuable information and its interpretation by 

 one who has studied it from every point of view. 



The conditions in the Arkansas Valley in Colorado 

 do not differ essentially from those in other parts of 



The importance of irrigating land by 

 Value of pumping water from the underflow is 

 Pumping. beginning to be recognized, and this fea- 

 ture of irrigation is growing very rapid- 

 ly. The national irrigation act has stimulated this 

 work enormously and has already increased the de- 

 mand for the irrigated lands .of the West. Experi- 

 ments show that in many portions of the arid West 

 wells sunk from eighteen to fifty feet will supply large 

 sections of land which can not be irrigated in any other 

 way, and in this manner low or seepage land can be 

 made valuable by water being forced up onto the dry 

 and unprofitable tableland. No storage reservoirs are 

 necessary and the expense of canals and irrigation 

 ditches is thereby saved. Tests have recently been made 

 at a distance of seventy-five to one hundred miles dis- 

 tant from the foothills, in which it was found that 

 water could be had in abundance along draws and dry 

 waterways at four to eight feet below the surface. It 

 is believed that the underground flow will constantly 

 increase and that this source of water will be unfail- 

 ing. 



The report of the Irrigation Congress at 

 Not a Work Ogden is out, but it will never occupy a 

 of Art. high place in literature or mechanical art. 



This report, it is naturally supposed, 

 would have been prepared by Hon. H. B. Maxson, sec- 

 retary of the Congress, but it is only after a diligent 

 search that his name was found in small type hidden 

 away in a mass of other names. The cover page an- 

 nounces that the report was "edited by Gilbert Mc- 

 Clurg," and again the proclamation is made on the 

 title page that this work is "Officially Compiled and 

 Edited by Gilbert McClurg, of Colorado Springs, Colo., 

 General Representative of the Executive Committee 

 and Director of Promotion, Publicity and Program 

 of the Eleventh National Irrigation Congress." 



A full-page half-tone picture of Mr. McClurg, who 

 is commonly referred to as Hon. Fred J. Kiesel's "one 

 thousand dollar beauty," is one of the most striking 

 objects that adorns the front pages and Mr. McClurg 

 is very much in evidence all through the book. Mr. 

 McClurg and his side partner, Mr. Willis T. Beardsley, 

 have taken five months for the preparation of this re- 

 port, the time being mainly spent in importuning mem- 

 bers of the Congress for permission to print their por- 

 traits at so much per and for contributions. 



This has been a gigantic begging game from the 

 start and in no manner reflects credit upon the Con- 

 gress. Cheap paper, cheap cuts, and cheap printing are 

 the characteristic features of the report. Extra copies 

 are sold by McClurg & Beardsley at one dollar each. 



