364 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Again, if we were to open our gates to Asia's mil- 

 lions there would be no difficulty in placing a yellow 

 family on every ten-acre tract. But the people of the 

 West, and especially those of the Pacific Coast States, 

 believe these productive plains and valleys bordering on 

 the Pacific, barricaded by mountain fortresses and 

 watched over by the silent peaks of a Whitney, and a 

 Shasta, a Ranier and a Hood, were destined by the Al- 

 mighty for a white man's country. 



It is true the West needs settlers, but its needs are 

 not so great that it can afford to adopt every one who 

 crosses either the Pacific or the Missouri. The oppor- 

 tunities which it has to offer in the way of soil, climate, 

 products and social conditions are such as ought to 

 make the best class of citizens eager to come. It is to 

 this class of citizens that the West is extending the 

 warmest of welcomes. It wants the sons and daughters 

 of the pioneers of the Mississippi Valley who have grown 

 tired of raising corn to try the more interesting and 

 more profitable irrigated agriculture. It stands ready to 

 hand over its dairies to the Norsemen, its sugar beets 

 to the German and its vineyards to the Italians. With 

 one hand towards New England and the other towards 

 the South, it extends an invitation to the children of 

 both Puritan and Cavalier to settle in the West and 

 blend forever into the highest type of civilization what 

 is best in both races. 



CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE TO OBTAIN SETTLERS. 



What if the West should fail to obtain a sufficient 

 number of the right kind of settlers ? The consequences 

 could not but prove disastrous in direct proportion to 

 the number of farms left tenantless. Were this to hap- 

 pen the states and territories west of the Missouri River 

 would be in a condition similar to the stockholders of a 

 splendidly built hotel, with costly equipment, who are 

 compelled to run it at a loss, because of the small num- 

 ber of paying guests. Like the commodious hotel, the 

 large irrigation system costs nearly as much to maintain 

 and operate for a small number of widely scattered 

 farms as for the entire acreage under it. 



Those of my hearers who lived in the West during 

 the latter half of the 80's and the beginning of the 90's 

 know something of the large number of irrigation enter- 

 prises which were then projected, of the mad rush to 

 acquire rights in streams and of the millions that cor- 

 porations hoped to make by the sale of water rights and 

 the collection of water rentals. When the crash came in 

 1892 and 1893 I was in charge of an irrigation system 

 in one of the Rocky Mountain States. This system was 

 begun in 1889, and in three years $2,100,000 had been 

 expended on its construction. The plan was to irrigate 

 200,000 acres by selling water rights at $10 per acre and 

 collecting an annual rental of $1 to $2 per acre. The 

 men who put money in this undertaking lost all the in- 

 terest and the greater part of the principal. The water 

 supply was abundant, the system was substantially built, 

 but failure resulted in not being able to get enough set- 

 tlers to cultivate the land and use the water. Then 

 years after beginning construction only 14,000 acres 

 were irrigated and of the total one-half belonged to the 

 canal company. The maintenance and operation ex- 

 penses of so large a system could not be reduced beyond 

 a certain limit and this limit was always far in excess of 

 the revenue derived from water rentals. 



The record of this enterprise is similar to scores of 

 others that might be given. Probably 95 per cent of 



the capital invested in canal enterprises from 1885 to 

 1895 produced no dividends, and much of it was entirely 

 lost. Many causes contributed to this end, but the three 

 which stand out prominently were the heavy annual 

 expenses in maintaining and operating new systems, the 

 long delay in securing settlers and the inability on the 

 part of many of those who did come to expend consid- 

 erable money and from one to two years of unprofitable 

 labor in putting desert land in a condition fit to cultivate 

 and irrigate. 



While I have no desire to dampen the ardor of this 

 large audience, yet it is a fact that the same causes 

 which wrecked so many irrigation enterprises fifteen 

 years ago are operating today, and unless measures be 

 taken to overcome their effects promising enterprises 

 will result in failures. 



Western enthusiasts tell us the irrigation problem 

 is solved, and to confirm this view they point with pride 

 to the construction work that has been done during the 

 past five years. We are told that over seventy-five mil- 

 lion dollars have been expended in that time under fed- 

 eral, state, district and private enterprises in providing 

 water supplies. We all rejoice in the accomplishment 

 of so great a task, but a greater task is still to be done. 

 The irrigation problem is only half solved. Statesmen 

 and capitalists alike have failed to realize that no irri- 

 gation enterprises can be successful without farmers and 

 that it .is the labor of farmers which determines the 

 value of such properties. Corporations and districts may 

 organize for the purpose of utilizing the streams, con- 

 tractors under the Carey Act may provide water for 

 thousands of acres of sage brush land and Government 

 engineers may erect the finest of structures for the stor- 

 age and diversion of irrigation water, but all these will 

 prove expensive luxuries without the co-operation of the 

 strong arm, sound judgment and tireless energy of the 

 agricultural classes. 



This brings us face 'to face with the weak feature 

 of every plan yet adopted by the American nation for 

 the reclamation of its arid lands. It also forces upon 

 our attention the great task yet to be accomplished of 

 reclaiming and planting five million acres of worthless 

 desert. Before any harvests can be obtained on this new 

 land it will cost on an average over $20 per acre. This 

 represents $100,000,000. Now, neither the Carey Act 

 nor the Reclamation Act provides for any competent 

 supervision in the expenditure of this sum. The prepa- 

 ration of the soil, the construction of ditches, the selec- 

 tion and planting of crops, proper cultivation and irri- 

 gation are to be handed over to inexperienced settlers. 



Again, the settler is forced to do this work and ex- 

 pend his small savings at a time when he can least 

 afford it. His farm is still a desert. The best crops i e- 

 quire from one to five years before yielding any profits. 

 First year alfalfa never made any man rich, small fruits 

 bear the second year, grapes and trees the third year. 

 The heaviest expense comes at a time when there is lit- 

 tle or no income. Do you wonder, then, that the weak 

 link in our much boasted schemes of irrigation snaps 

 under the strain, leaving a farm tenantless, a home 

 abandoned ? 



Perhaps I can convey a clear idea of the assistance 

 which might be given to new and old settlers alike by a 

 brief reference to work recent!'" done in California. Four 

 "ears a^o the California Legislature provided for the 

 joint investigation with several branches of the Federal 



