326 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



from a western man and an engineer who had made 

 surveys or built canals and reservoirs or one who had 

 actually invested in irrigation works. As THE AGE 

 has already stated, Mr. Newell has never performed any 

 such work and is not able to view irrigation develop- 

 ment from the aspect of the practical engineer or con- 

 structor. Those who have read "Influences in the 

 National Irrigation Program" understand how he se- 

 cured his place and to whom he owes it today, and such 

 persons will not be surprised to read his indiscreet re- 

 marks made for publication in the Omaha Bee. 



i The aim of THE IRRIGATION AGE is to 



Irrigation encourage the further development of irri- 

 Problem. gation. When we contrast the progress 

 which has been made in arid America 

 with conditions there two decades ago, we are justly 

 proud of our share contributed. But irrigation is an 

 evolution. A century hence and there will be problems 

 unsolved. We can not, therefore, rest content, but rmist 

 press onward and onward with the work. 



Colorado claims, perhaps justly, io lead in the 

 law and practice of irrigation. Its agriculture is 

 already vastly more important than its mines. And yet 

 T. C. Henry, its most prominent votary, publicly asserts 

 that there is present need and opportunity to employ 

 fifty million dollars in outright and auxiliary construc- 

 tion, including storage, in that State alone. He says 

 the lands there which have a full supply of water are 

 in local demand at $100 per acre and that until the 

 million or more acres now "under ditch" but partially 

 supplied, are supplemented or new systems built, it is 

 unnecessary and unwise to invite immigration unduly 

 lured by glowing results of Southern Colorado canta- 

 loupes, Northern Colorado potatoes or western slope 

 fruit. We know that such is the situation in parts of 

 California and Arizona, as well as Oregon and Idaho. 

 How shall the demand be met? How shall the capital 

 be secured? The need is urgent and large sums separ- 

 ately and collectively are required. The Government, 

 through the Reclamation Act, is helping greatly. But 

 of the 80,000 acres for instance, proposed to be re- 

 claimed by the Gunnison Tunnel project, fully four- 

 fifths are private lands and under canals, some of 

 them in operation for the past twenty years. In that 

 case, therefore, it is supplementary supply mainly 

 which is needed and which the proposed $2,500,000 

 Government outlay is to meet, and if completed within 

 the five years estimated, the territory so "reclaimed" is 

 a mere spot in a remote section of that State. This en- 

 terprise is likely to consume the Colorado allotment 

 for ten years. If the present and increasing land hunger 

 is to be appeased, clearly large private capital must be 

 employed. 



It is useless now to discuss the causes which led 

 to the losses and disappointment in irrigation enter- 



prises a decade or two ago, in the pioneer period, as it 

 would be profitless to rehearse the story of the panic of 

 '93 or of Chicago in '57. It is enough to know, how- 

 ever, that owing to imperfect local laws and because 

 of the burnt child's dread of fire, outside capital will 

 no longer undertake these large projects and chance 

 the sale, or risk the rental of water for its return. The 

 great increment which has come to irrigated land has 

 not been fairly shared by the men whose capital and 

 enterprise made such increment possible. It seems to 

 us that the solution for further and immediate consider- 

 able development lies through the irrigation district 

 laws enacted by several of the arid States. As our 

 readers generally know, this law, is analogous to the 

 Illinois Drainage District Act. The territory to be 

 improved or reclaimed is organized into a district, 

 quasi-municipal, like a school district, and bonds voted 

 to construct or improve on a lien on all .the lands irri- 

 gated, principal and interest collectable and paid 

 throjfgh taxation, like other bonds. By this plan the 

 affairs of the district from its initiative are in the 

 hands of those directly interested. It is asserted that 

 nine-tenths of the attendant friction and antagonism 

 grows out of administration even when the parent 

 company itself is a large land owner and therefore in- 

 cited to wise and economic effort. 



Difficulty is being experienced in marketing such 

 bonds. The scattered owners of the lands to be re- 

 claimed are, of course, themselves unable to take up 

 such large holdings, nor is there an available supply of 

 capital in the neighboring towns and cities; hence in 

 eastern or middle west money centers must the quest 

 be made. Here, however, a knowledge of the subject 

 of practical irrigation is as yet confined to the very 

 few, and such securities are almost wholly new to the 

 investing public. Here, too, the separate and virgin 

 factors of land and water have little value apart, until 

 brought together by the very outlay through the bonds 

 made in advance. 



The ordinary showing of considerable taxable prop- 

 erty like a city ig, necessarily lacking at the start. The 

 situation is somewhat similar to the homesteader when 

 he applies for a loan before he has "proved up." His 

 land being unpatented and therefore untaxed, he can 

 make ho showing by the tax list, and still the basis for 

 the loan may be as substantial as otherwise. We be- 

 lieve the whole plan of irrigation development and 

 administration embodied in the District Law is almost 

 ideal. We believe, also, that the security such bonds 

 offer has great intrinsic merit. Even a school district 

 could not exist if its territory were still arid, and yet 

 its bonds are sought for at a low interest bearing rate, 

 while the irrigation bond, the primary security, may be 

 difficult to market at a higher rate. We are confident 

 this anomaly will not long continue. 



The various local cities through their banks, Boards 



