THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



31 



Government Reclamation Service to Date 



Edmund T. Perkins, Engineer in Charge, Chicago Office 



The National Reclamation Act, and the 

 work of the Reclamation Service under it, have 

 become familiar topics to most of the readers 

 of the IRRIGATION AGE through the large 

 amount of publicity which has been given 

 through its columns to this work of the Gov- 

 ernment within the past few years. It is be- 

 lieved, however, that a statement at this time 

 of the progress made on the various projects 

 and the work of the recently-established Set- 

 tlement Bureau in Chicago will be of sufficient 

 interest to justify its publication. On June 

 17, 1902, the Reclamation Act was made a 

 law by the signature of President Roosevelt, 

 stance of this act was that all moneys received from the 



Main Canal, Mesa Project, Arizona. 



sale and disposal of public lands in Arizona, California, 

 Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, 

 New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South 

 Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, beginning with 

 the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901, including the surplus 

 of fees and commissions in excess of allowances to regis- 

 ters and receivers, and excepting five per centum of these 

 amounts which is set aside for educational and other pur- 

 poses, be set aside and appropriated as a special fund in 

 tne treasury to be known as the "reclamation fund," to be 

 used in the examination and survey for and the construc- 

 tion and maintenance of irrigation works for the storage, 

 diversion, and development of waters for the reclamation 

 of arid and semi-arid lands in the said states and terri- 

 tories. 



The public lands so reclaimed are subject to home- 

 stead entry, and there is absolutely no charge for the land 

 itself, though the settler must pay to the United States, 

 in not more than ten annual installments without inter- 

 est his proportion, according to the number of acres he 

 owns, of the amount expended by the United States in re- 

 claiming his land. 



Acting under the authority of the Reclamation Act 



and using the funds which are made available 

 by it, the Reclamation Service has expended 

 nearly fifty million dollars in the building of 

 irrigation works in thirty localities in the west. 

 Some of the projects, viz.: the Garden City 

 in Kansas, the Carlsbad, Hondo, and Leasburg 

 in New Mexico, and the Huntley in Montana, 

 have been completed and are in successful 

 operation. Others, such as the Minnidoka in 

 Idaho, the Truckee-Carson in Nevada, the 

 North Platte in Nebraska, the Umatilla in 

 Oregon, the Okonagon in Washington, and 

 the Fort Shaw unit of the Sun River in 

 are nearly finished, and water is being de- 

 livered to a portion of the irrigable lands. On the Salt 

 River project in Arizona, the Yuma project in Arizona- 

 California, the Shoshone project in Wyoming, and 

 investigation, and the construction of the necessary dams, 

 canals, etc., will be begun immediately upon the comple- 

 tion of the larger projects, the construction of which have 

 to date consumed most of the funds. The work is being 

 planned in such a way that no time will be lost, and all 

 parts of the country will share in the prosperity which 

 invariably follows the construction of a Government irri- 

 gation project. 



Perkins. 



Montana, 



Onion Patch, Fallon, Nevada. Note the Irrigation Furrows Between 

 the Rows. 



The statistician of the Reclamation Service, Mr. C. J. 

 Blanchard, estimates that more than fifteen million dollars 

 have already been added to the wealth of the west through 

 the crops raised on reclamation projects. This does not 

 take into account the enormous addition to land values 

 which is the direct result of the reclamation work. 



The year 1909 is really the first in which notable re- 

 . turns have been made. It is now seven years since the 

 Reclamation Act was passed. During this interval sur- 

 veys and examinations have been carried on throughout 

 the western half of the United States. Large projects have 

 been laid out and the most important structures have 

 been built to a point where 768,000 acres have been sup- 

 plied with water, or brought to a condition where settlers, 



