40 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



which our puritanic Secretary of the Interior has 

 wrecked, to pay a tribute, and to divert moneys which 

 are now supporting Nebraska's splendid educational 

 institutions, into a fund which the Forest King is 

 manipulating. The effect would be to condemn into a 

 wilderness forever a territory sufficient to sustain 20,000 

 families, 100,000 people and 5,000 rural schools. 



too much; it spreads itself until its original purposes 

 are lost to view. It should stick to the text. 



The solution of the question of public grazing 

 lands is simple, and does not need soil experts or 

 civil engineers. A few common surveyors, and a few 

 appraisers with good horse sense and rugged honesty 

 and a local knowledge born of experience, and a capa- 

 ble recorder, can do the work. Public grazing lands 

 should be classified, appraised, and blocked into range 

 units capable of sustaining a given number of stock. 

 These units should be open to entrymen. Conditions 

 imposed should be: Payment of 10 per cent of ap- 

 praised value, and continuous and perpetual interest 

 upon deferred amount, occupancy and individual use, 

 residence upon or in vicinity of tract, fencing and 

 protection. Title subject to contest and cancellation 

 for non-compliance with any of these requirements, 

 or lapse by default of interest payment. 



Shoiild subsequent developments prove a unit more 

 profitable for other purposes, or available for irrigation 

 projects, the provisional ownership may be cancelled, 

 by repayment of moneys and interest, and for improve- 

 ments if any are taken, the provisional owner having 

 privilege to select from within the range unit not to 

 exceed 160 acres as a homestead. The fund thus 

 created by provisional sale of public grazing lands, 

 after deducting fixed fees, should be expended as fol- 

 lows: 5 per cent to state, 10 per cent to county, 10 

 per cent to public roads, 25 per cent to the school fund, 

 25 per cent to the national irrigation fund, and 25 

 per cent for inaugurating new methods of culture for 

 improvement of the range, for reseeding, and for intro- 

 ducing new grasses and forage plants. 



We have digressed to elucidate a plan which we 

 have suggested by letter under date of November 20th, 

 to President Eoosevelt and others, and now "Back to 

 the Woods" your pardon, the Forestry department. 

 Its attempted amalgamation of itself to the Reclama- 

 tion Service has caused much criticism of the latter. 

 There is little in common between them. 



Planting trees and covering waste lands with 

 growing forests is a splendid work, and under proper 

 management the department will reflect much per- 

 manent glory, and do the world magnificent service, 

 but it must take a new tack. At present it scatters 



One of its erroneous tenets has struck a snag in 

 a recent court decision wherein a prosecution for tres- 

 pass upon a "reserve" was not sustained. Briefly stated, 

 executive rulings are not laws, and an executive can 

 not assume to himself powers and authority not pro- 

 vided by statute. Perhaps the autocrat of forestry will 

 also find that bureaucracy is not an American idea, 

 and that press censorship is not a prerogative of his 

 office, and that official capacity requires a broader in- 

 telligence than is exhibited by him in the recent Boise 

 episodes. 



Inasmuch as the President's letter to the Irriga- 

 tion Congress was top heavy with forestry, we are led 

 to opine that our busy executive permitted the "mes- 

 senger boy of the President" to write his own eulogy, 

 the said "boy's" vanity hiding his blushes as he read it. 



While the letter seemed almost to subordinate Chief 

 Engineer Newell's part in national reclamation, that 

 man and his work has been steadily rising in the 

 estimation of former critics for some time past. And 

 one of the pleasurable events of the Congress was 

 the manifest realization by all that the principle of 

 Federal irrigation was approaching the critical period, 

 and should have united support to prove it all that its 

 originators had promised. 



IRRIGATION IN NORTH ATLANTIC STATES. 



In this report will be found data relative to irri- 

 gation as practiced in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsyl- 

 vania, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Mas- 

 sachusetts. The territory investigated lies in the humid 

 district of the United States, where the annual rainfall 

 is between forty and fifty inches and where irrigation 

 is not always necessary for the growth of crops and 

 has been confined to truck farms and meadow lands. 

 Truck farmers in the vicinity of large cities frequently 

 use city water at a cost of $1.00 to $1.50 per 1,000 

 cubic feet, or $44 to $65 per acre-foot. In spite of this 

 prohibitive price when compared with western practice, 

 those farmers practicing irrigation in the district cov- 

 ered seem to find it profitable. This is probably due to 

 the fact that the yearly value of the truck crops is esti- 

 mated as being increased 30 to 50 per cent. As the 

 cost of irrigation usually lies between $30 and $100 

 per acre it is fair to assume an acreage profit of $200 

 or more per acre due to irrigation. The report was 

 written by A. J. Bowie Jr., United States Department 

 of Agriculture, and comprises 167 pages. 



Send $2.50 for The Irrigation Age 

 1 year, and the Primer of Irrigation 



