392 



THE IERIGATION AGE. 



It is not our intention to cover all cases of this 

 character, but to take up the most flagrant violators and 

 tell the truth about them. 



The Bankers' Association of Colorado has taken a 

 proper step to place reliable irrigation properties where 

 they may be recognized by bond buyers. 



It would have been well for the Bankers' Associa- 

 tion to appoint a committee to investigate all irrigation 

 projects about which there is any question. This would 

 place them in the right light before the institutions 

 controlling the investment of money in this character of 

 securities. 



Those who have followed the irrigation movement 

 during the past ten or twelve years are well aware that 

 many of the large bond houses did much to weaken irriga- 

 tion securities in their greed to take over all projects 

 offered which appeared to have merit before a careful 

 investigation was made. 



There may be cited several companies which, in order 

 to forestall action in the way of acquirement of properties 

 by rival houses, took over projects which eventually re- 

 sulted in their undoing. There was, at one time, a craze 

 to take over everything offered so that competitors would 

 be kept out of certain fields. 



The result of all of this sort of manipulation has been 

 to discredit bond issues on wholly reliable and substantial 

 irrigation projects. This has hampered many of the better 

 class of promoters who have gone out and developed a 

 property and expended large sums of money to bring it 

 up to a bonding basis. There are easily three or four 

 hundred good projects lying dormant today where 33 per 

 cent of the development work has been performed and 

 paid for. 



If the bankers and those controlling investments in 

 irrigation securities would take the trouble to investigate 

 a few of these projects this statement could be easily 

 verified. 



The writer has in mind a project in Wyoming where 

 $75,000 has been expended in preliminary work, the 

 filings have been accepted by the state land board and all 

 requirements of the law fully complied with, and yet 

 this project, organized by high-grade business men who 

 went into the matter in good faith, lies practically dead, 

 while its bonds go begging. 



This same property could easily be made worth 

 $1,000,000 by the expenditure of an additional $100,000, 

 and it is difficult to understand why bankers with large 

 surplus of money that could be used for this purpose do 

 not make a careful investigation and help out such worthy 

 projects. 



There is no doubt in the writer's mind that irrigation 

 securities are coming back, and a careful investigation, as 

 suggested, would do much to hasten this end. 



It is our intention to publish in a subsequent issue 

 of THE IRRIGATION AGE an article on this subject by one 

 of the leading bankers of the state of Colorado who has 

 made a study of the subject. 



IRRIGATION IN VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA 



A Valuable Customer of American Manufacturers. 



Send $1.00 for 1 year's subscription to the IRRIGA- 

 TION AGE and bound copy of THE PRIMER OF IRRIGA- 

 TION. If you desire a copy of The Primer of Hy- 

 draulics add $2.50 to above. price. 



The presence in Chicago on September 12 and 13 of 

 Sir George Reid, High Commissioner of Australia to Great 

 Britain, and Elwood Mead, head of the irrigation depart- 

 ment of the State of Victoria, Australia, brings into 

 prominence the remarkable development now going on in 

 the island continent of the southern hemisphere. 



This continent is already one of the most valuable of 

 the foreign customers of the United States, making large 

 purchases of all kinds of machinery and ranking second 

 only to Great Britain as a buyer of American motor cars. 



Mr. Mead is an American who went to Australia five 

 years ago, resigning the positions of Chief of Irrigation 

 and Drainage Investigations of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, and Professor of Irrigation Institutions, Uni- 

 versity of California, to accept the position he now holds. 

 From him, some interesting facts have been gathered re- 

 garding the progress being made in the settlement of irri- 

 gateed lands of Victoria. 





Dr. Elwood Mead, Head of the Irrigation Department, State of Victoria, 

 Australia. 



The state of Victoria is about the size of Colorado 

 and has the climate of California. A dividing range 

 crosses the state from east to west. Between the range 

 and the sea-coast, irrigation is not required, but north of 

 the range there is a wet winter and dry summer, the con- 

 ditions being almost identical with those of the Sacra- 

 mento and San Joaquin valleys in California. It is in this 

 northern half of the state that the most important develop- 

 ment of irrigation in Australia has taken place, and the 

 results of this have given to Victoria the name of "The 

 Garden State of Australia." 



The first irrigation district to be established was 

 founded by the Chaffey Brothers, who went to Victoria 

 from near Los Angeles. Cal. The name of the coopera- 

 tive settlement which they founded is Mildura. It is re- 

 markably prosperous. Six thousand people live on twelve 

 thousand acres of land. They grow a large part of the 

 raisins and other dried fruits consumed in Australia and 

 are large producers of citrus fruits. The average value of 



