THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



63 



8 per ton when pressed for shipment. Pressed hay is 

 selling in Melbourne at present for 5 per ton. 



From four to six cuttings can be made each season 

 in the irrigated areas. The consequence is that in those 

 districts where the land is properly graded and culti- 

 vated land values have reached high prices, 100 being 

 paid in some instances for alfalfa farms. The improved 

 farms which the state recently purchased for subdivision 

 were resold to settlers at prices varying from 8 to 16 

 an acre, and this will probably be the range of prices 

 on the large area soon to be opened for settlement. 

 Thirty-two years' time is given to pay this, with interest 

 at 4 J /2 per cent, the first payment being 3 per cent of the 

 purchase price. 



Under the Small Holdings and Closer Settlement acts 

 the state is preparing to aid in the settlement and devel- 

 opment of its irrigable areas in the following ways: 



1. Long time and low interest in paying for land. 



2. No charges for water rights, only an annual 

 charge to meet interest and operating expenses. The 

 average price of water will be 5/ an acre foot, measured 

 at the place of use. 



3. Small advances to settlers to aid in constructing 

 needed buildings. 



4. State cool stores, to which meats, fruits and dairy 

 products can be consigned. Thus relieving farmers of the 

 discrimination and extortion sometimes charged against 

 American farmers by meat and dairy trusts. 



These advantages, coupled with the high prices of 

 farm products, are making the irrigated districts so pros- 

 perous that the old water troubles are being forgotten. 

 With an annual charge of 10/6 an acre for water the state 

 irrigation works will be a complete financial success, and 

 at this price water is cheap whether considered in respect 

 to the results it makes possible or compared to prices 

 under similar works in America. 



I know of no country where the profits of irrigated 

 agriculture promise to be greater or where the ultimate 

 success of all the irrigation works, whether considered 

 from an agricultural or financial standpoint, are better 

 assured than here. Victoria has one enormous advantage 

 over the United States, it has taken the question of water 

 rights or the control of rivers out of the domain of specu- 

 lation or the uncertain jugglery of courts. Instead of 

 water titles being determined as in America in suits at 

 law between private claimants in which the public has no 

 adequate voice, all such matters are settled by administra- 

 tion procedure. Riparian rights have been eliminated by 

 the simple and effective method of the state retaining 

 ownership of a strip of land bordering each side of every 

 stream, hence the state is the only riparian proprietor; 

 no one can cut the bank or build a pumping plant, or in 

 any way interfere with the water supply of a river or 

 creek without trespassing on state land and obtaining 

 the state's consent thereto. The contrast to this pre- 

 sented by the enormous and constantly increasing litiga- 

 tion over water rights in America is one which can only 

 be fully appreciated by one acquainted with conditions in 

 both countries and who knows how heavy is the burden 

 in money, cost, and worry imposed by the continued war- 

 fare in the courts due to lack of proper public control of 

 streams. There has not been a law suit over water titles 

 in Victoria for ten years, and there are no indications of 

 any being instituted within the next ten years. 



Irrigation under these conditions should pay, and 

 there is no question in the minds of those who understand 

 conditions best, that the state works for providing water 

 are destined to be a complete financial success. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM 



HOW MAXWELL RAISES MONEY. 



The National Irrigation Congress which met this year 

 in Spokane should not be confused with "The National Ir- 

 rigation Association," a concern that is run chiefly, if not 

 wholly, by George H. Maxwell, who publishes a monthly 

 called Maxwell's Talisman. Probably a great many peo- 

 ple have contributed to Maxwell's scheme under the im- 

 pression that they were aiding the National Irrigation 

 Congress. 



Maxwell was closely questioned by the house commit- 

 tee on irrigation of arid lands and admitted that his 

 scheme was subsidized regularly by the transcontinental 

 railroads to the extent of $39,000 a year; that other con- 

 tributions brought the annual receipts to about $50,000 a 

 year, and that he practically controlled the expenditure of 

 this great sum. 



At the hearing Chairman Hitchcock of the committee 

 expressed a belief that Maxwell's periodicals which pre- 

 tended to champion the interests of the people were in 

 reality zealous advocates of railroad interests, when those 

 interests came in conflict with the people's rights. Chair- 

 man Hitchcock asked: "Is it not true that your associa- 

 tion has taken occasion to ridicule legislation prohibiting 

 the location of valuable timber lands with the forest re- 

 serve lieu rights or script (held by the railroads) and the 

 people who have proposed it?" 



Maxwell answered this and other questions evasively. 



Maxwell is now sending circulars broadcast to the 

 business men of the United States, urging them to con- 

 tribute to his "National Irrigation Association" and two 

 other schemes of his devising the American Homecroft 

 Society and the Rural Settlements Association. He signs 

 himself "executive chairman," but in his circulars fails to 

 give any names other than his own in connection with 

 the Homecroft society and the Rural Settlements Associa- 

 tion. 



It is believed by persons who have investigated Max- 

 well's operations that he has been in receipt, for several 

 years, of "a total fund of about $100,000 a year, of which 

 he has absolute control and disposition. 



Prudent business men will want a more definite and 

 substantial guarantee of the proper and business-like ex- 

 penditure of these various funds before they contribute 

 to Mr. Maxwell. Spokane Review. 



ATTACKS PINCHOT PLAN. 



Utiited States Judge Cornelius Hanford, in address- 

 ing a meeting in the Exposition Auditorium at Seattle 

 recently, denounced the conservation policy advocated 

 by Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot and former Governor 

 Pardee of California, saying: 



"We have been told repeatedly by advocates of the 

 'big stick policy' that our court's proposed new system 

 will not hurt the West, but will aid in the development of 

 the natural resources of the region in which vast areas 

 are reserved and to be reserved. These provisions of 

 kindly intentions bring to mind a case tried in one of our 

 courts many years ago, in which, according to the testi- 

 mony, a murderer consoled his victim by beseeching 

 him not to mind having his throat cut, because the pain 

 would soon be over, and he would be in heaven. 



"In our state the reservations comprise more than 

 27 per cent of its total area, into which no homeseeker 

 dares to set his foot. The water runs down our moun- 

 tains, and most of it flows idly to the sea, without turn- 

 ing a wheel, but to prevent grabbers from acquiring 

 vested rights the theorists insist it must keep on flowing 

 idly until it can be made to yield tribute to the national 

 treasury perpetually as the agents of the government 

 shall dictate." 



