THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



be given adequately by means of bulletins or other read- 

 ing matter; an ocular demonstration is what is needed. 

 Hence the necessity for the demonstration farm. From 

 these farms, if properly conducted, the settler should 

 gain an idea of correct irrigation practice and of the 

 possibilities of the soil and climate of the locality where 

 he proposes to live. Incidentally, such farms might 

 serve a very useful purpose in showing how to makt' 

 the irrigated farm attractive in looks as well as profit- 

 able. 



As a means of promoting the success of the govern- 

 ment irrigation scheme, the Warren bill seems the most 

 important measure proposed since the passage of the 

 original act. 



This bill was side tracked, being referred to the 

 committee on irrigation, where it is to sleep until Con- 

 gress meets again. It is sincerely hoped that early 

 action may be secured when the committee gets together 

 at an other session. 



Within the last few years a new class of 

 Irrigation bonds have come before the public that 

 Bonds. combine all and more of the safety fea- 



tures of the farm loan, meeting the re- 

 quirements of the larger money loaners as to size and 

 length of loan. We refer to the bond issues based on 

 lands and water rights in the new irrigated districts 

 of the West. For many years, even in irrigated dis- 

 tricts, only those lands were taken \\p and improved 

 where the waters could be controlled with little ex- 

 pense ; usually the work of the fanner himself in 

 building small dams and reservoirs and suitable ditches. 

 Large areas of the West, however, could not be irrigated 

 without the outlay of great sums of money for the 

 building of immense reservoirs and the construction 

 of great systems of canals often involving millions of 

 dollars.With the increased value of farm lands many 

 of these large propositions have been undertaken by 

 wealthy individuals or by corporations and sometimes by 

 Uncle Sam. Thousands of acres of land, sometimes 

 hundreds of thousands of acres, are acquired by a com- 

 pany at a nominal cost, then millions are expended in 

 irrigation works and the land is accordingly sought 

 after by the farmer and is soon transformed from a 

 desert to the most productive of farms. Large sums 

 of money are required for the original purchase of 

 the lands and for the construction of ditches, reservoirs, 

 flumes, etc., and the most available way of securing this 

 is by a bond issue, thus binding under one mortgage a 

 thousand or more farms. 



What shall be done with our money to insure safety 

 and a reasonable rate of interest is the question thou- 

 sands are asking. In the past, large blocks of railroad 

 bonds have been readily taken by bond buyers and by 

 them resold to small investors. At the present time, 



and owing largely to recent investigation into the meth- 

 ods of some of the railroad magnates, these bonds have 

 in a measure come to be looked upon with suspicion. 

 Municipal bonds are readily sold, usually at a premium, 

 but in these a great amount of care has to be exer- 

 cised to see that the issue is in every way regular and 

 within the limits allowed by law. Often cities or 

 towns exceed the amount of bonded indebtedness con- 

 templated by the law makers. 



It should be borne in mind when contemplating the 

 purchase of bonds that a loan in the form of a bond 

 amounting to say $25 or $40 per acre on an irrigated 

 tract of land is much better security than a straight- 

 loan on farm land valued at $80 or $100 per acre. 

 This is true from the fact that an acre of irrigated 

 land will earn double that of an acre watered by the 

 clouds which are beyond control. 



Investors, generally, should study the matter more 

 thoroughly. There is no better nor safer investment 

 today than bonds issued on an irrigation project which 

 has been properly handled from the beginning. 



The legislature of South Carolina en- 

 Drainage and ac ^ed at its last session, its first general 

 Irrigation drainage law, entitled, "An act to im- 

 Legislation. prove the sanitary and other conditions 

 of the State of South Carolina by proper 

 drainage, and to provide for the same." It is framed 

 along quite different lines from the drainage laws of 

 other States. Upon request of the senator and repre- 

 sentatives of any county, the governor shall appoint 

 five residents who shall be known as the Sanitary Drain- 

 age Commission of that county. The commission is 

 given control of all sanitary, agricultural, and road 

 drainage outside the limits of incorporated towns and 

 may require the owners of lands which are in an un- 

 sanitary condition, to drain them. 



An estimate of the amount of money which will 

 be required for drainage work for any ensuing year, as 

 estimated by the commission, must be filed with the 

 State comptroller in January of each year and be sub- 

 mitted to the general assembly by that officer. The 

 general assembly is given power to levy a tax upon 

 the lands of the county for the construction of drains, 

 which shall be collected and paid to the county treasurer 

 and be expanded by the commission under the regula- 

 tions controlling the acts of that body. The commis- 

 sion may apply to the general assembly if necessary, 

 for an issue of coiinty or township bonds in order to 

 prosecute drainage construction in county or township. 



The great value of drainage as a sanitary measure 

 has been quite well demonstrated in Charleston County, 

 where for three years land drainage has been prosecuted 

 under the provisions of a special act of the legislature 

 by which a commission was empowered to construct 



