130 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



or eight years, we will have to procure settlers about three 

 times as fast as we have secured them in the past decade. 



Now, no transportation company would be foolish 

 c'noiigh to construct a railroad and make no provision for 

 its operation and maintenance. Is it therefore wise for 

 irrigation enterprises to provide water supplies for lands 

 which can not soon be cultivated and irrigated? Four 

 years ago when this Congress met in Sacramento, Cali- 

 fornia, and still again at its sessions in Spokane, Wash- 

 ington, and Pueblo, Colorado, I tried to point out the 

 large areas of land that were unreclaimed because there 

 was no one to plant the seed and moisten the soil. 1 

 then urged as I do now, that more consideration be given 

 to those features of irrigation which directly concern the 

 irrigator. It is now our duty to teach the man already on 

 the land how to get higher returns from the areas already 

 open to settlement. Throwing open new areas will not 

 solve the problem. We must demonstrate increased re- 

 turns from more intensive cultivation, better methods of 

 applying water, more wisdom in planting and in harvest- 

 ing. 



The west must not place on the industrious settler 

 a burden greater than he can bear. Already the price of 

 land under many of the irrigation enterprises is more than 

 he can pay for. Raise it a little higher and he will stay 

 at home. 



The value placed upon the farm lands of the United 

 States by their owners has increased 1 17 per cent in ten 

 years, but the value of lands in eleven of the far western 

 states has increased in the same time 203 per cent. Only 

 a little more inflation is needed in some irrigation districts 

 to burst the bubble created by land boomers. Then the 

 rallying cry will be "Back to the shop and the city." 



The rapid increase in the value of irrigated land ap- 

 plies with equal force to the value of water. Enterprises 

 which charged $20 an acre for a water right a dozen years 

 ago have been followed by others which charge double 

 and treble this amount. There is, however, this difference 

 between the two. The value of water is not fictitious. Its 

 upward trend in price has been due to the fact that the 

 supply availablh for future use is becoming every year 

 less and less. We shall probably never see the day when 

 water will sell for less than it has in 1911. In the states 

 where irrigation is practiced, there are in improved farms 

 173,000,000 acres, but of these, less than 14,000,000 acres 

 ;ire irrigated. The time will perhaps never come when more 

 than 50 milllion acres are irrigated and the large balance which 

 is doomed to be farmed dry will be certain to keep the price of 

 water at a premium. Now, as regards the high price and scar- 

 city of water for irrigation purposes, two courses are open. 

 One of these is to continue to reach out for fresh supplies as 

 we have done in the past and attempt to utilize these at 

 great cost to the irrigator. The other course is to use 

 with greater economy the water already appropriated. It 

 is not incumbent upon western people to utilize all the 

 water resources of the arid region before 1920 or even 

 1930. The irrigation structures we are now building and 

 the methods we are pursuing may be thought inferior by 

 our boys when they reach maturity. Then why not leave 

 a little water in western streams for our boys to utilize? 

 It should be our chief concern to make better use of 

 the water we have taken from its natural channel. 



Present conditions in many of the irrigation states call 

 for, we believe, a readjustment of land values. While 

 this readjustment is being made, every effort should be 

 put forth to increase the yield and value of irrigated prod- 

 ucts. Occasionally enormous yields and corresponding 

 profits are obtained from irrigated land. These are freely 

 used as a warrant for holding irrigated lands at a high 

 ligure. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the average returns 

 per acre even in the irrigated districts are only medium. 

 Not many parts of the west are more favorable to the 

 growth of alfalfa than Southern Idaho. At our demon- 

 stration farms a seasonal yield of 8 to 10 tons per acre of 

 either red clover or alfalfa is readily obtained. It is 

 therefore somewhat disconcerting to learn that the aver- 

 age seasonal yield of irrigated alfalfa for Southern Idaho 

 in 1910 as obtained by the census was only 3.26 tons per 

 acre. What is true of Idaho is also true with few excep- 

 tions of the entire west. The farmers are not getting any- 

 thing like the greatest possible returns from their irri- 

 gated farms. 



The census figures show that up to a year ago the 

 extend of land irrigated under the U. S. Reclamation, 

 projects was less than 3 per cent of the total. In other 

 words, more than 97 per cent is controlled by individuals, 

 associations, communities and corporations acting under 

 the irrigation laws of western states. These laws and the 

 customs on which they are founded, are still, for the most 

 part, in a formative stage. At every session of state legis- 

 latures, some new ideas are crystallized into law, and statu- 

 tory enactments which were thought almost perfect fifteen 

 or twenty years ago, are modified to meet the requirements 

 of changing conditions. 



In many states of the west, progress in irrigation is 

 being retarded and costly investments rendered insecure 

 by the lack of proper legislation on the part of state legis- 

 latures. Some of these urgently needed laws are clearer 

 definitions in regard to the flow of water in streams and its 

 use in irrigation. Colorado, at the close of 40 years of 

 wonderful achievements in the reclamation of her arid 

 lands, is going back once more to the irrigation primer in 

 an effort to find out the meaning of direct irrigation. It 

 may cost the farmers of this state a million or more dol- 

 lars to find out whether winter irrigation should be de- 

 fined as direct irrigation or merely the storage of water 

 in the soil. 



Again, if priorities are to hold on the waters of 

 streams lying wholly within the state lines, they should 

 also hold on inter-state streams. A law so general as that 

 of priorities should not become inoperative by crossing 

 an imaginary line which separates two political divisions. 



Western states, through their respective legislatures 

 must also get behind the irrigation bond. If it is not 

 feasible to guarantee the irrigation district and Carey 

 Land Act project bond it should be safeguarded by state 

 officers in every possible way. Failing this, such bonds 

 are likely to be discredited and thereby tarnish the good 

 name of western states. 



The needs of better and wiser irrigation laws is not 

 more urgent than that of better and more efficient admini- 

 strative systems. The state irrigation engineer, if not the 

 nominal head, is usually the active head of such systems. 

 When this office is kept out of politics and the incumbent 

 given a long term and a fair salary, good work may be 

 expected, providing the law under which he is operating" 

 is satisfactory. On the contrary, when the administrative 

 law is defective, the term of office two years, the salary 

 low and the incumbent more of a politician than an engi- 

 neer, the great irrigation interests of the state are likely 

 to suffer. 



I am unwilling to conclude this brief paper without 

 first reiterating my abiding faith in irrigated agriculture 

 and the final triumph of the west over all obstacles. I 

 can see no good reason to believe that progress in the de- 

 cade which lies before will be less rapid than in the de- 

 cade which is past. I have merely called attention to a 

 few things which may retard development unless adequate 

 measures are adopted to safeguard all interests. In my 

 humble opinion, some of the most important of these are, 

 the speedy settlement of lands now under ditch, the giv- 

 ing of additional aid to settlers on irrigated farms, a re- 

 adjustment of land values and more particularly, orchard 

 land values, a more economical use of appropriated water 

 supplies, broader and better irrigation laws by western states 

 and more efficient administrative systems. 



A GREAT ENGINEERING WORK. 



The first step in preliminary construction preparatory 

 to building the highest dam in the world has been ac- 

 complished in the completion of the mammoth diversion 

 tunnel at Arrowrock dam, Boise irrigation project, Idaho. 

 This tunnel when lined with cement will be 25 feet high 

 and 30 feet wide, larger than a double track railroad tun- 

 nel, and will carry the whole flow of the Boise river dur- 

 ing the construction of Arrowrock dam. The tunnel is 

 470 feet long, and driven through solid granite for its en- 

 tire length. Its excavation was completed several days 

 ahead of schedule time. 



DO IT NOW. 



Remit $2.50 for the "Primer of Hydraulics." cloth 

 bound ; it is ready now for delivery. 



