THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



397 



Five years' experience with a state owned railway has 

 made me a complete convert to such ownership. I have 

 also come to believe that the state is the right agency to 

 direct the development and conserve the use of these 

 natural resources on which the ultimate prosperity of a 

 country must depend. I believe that the state should 

 do more that has been done in this country in aiding and 

 controlling- land settlement, the utilizing of minerals and 

 the use of water-powers. 



Progress in Irrigation. 



One of the reasons for this is the success which has 

 attended the efforts of the State of Victoria in directing 

 the settlement of its irrigated land. 



I lived in the arid west for twenty years before going 

 to Australia and had seen the marvelous growth of the 

 region. It was a wonderful exhibition of resourcefulness, 

 courage and energy, but it was also a continuing story of hard- 

 ship and privation. It seemed to me then, that this was 

 an inevitable feature of pioneer life. I now know that this 

 is not the case. I know this because the State of Vic- 

 toria through an entirely safe and conservative use of its 

 powers is bringing a new country into the highest state of 

 production without any hardship to settlers and without 

 loss of time and money. It is doing this by creating 

 ready-made farms. 



Settlers have done so well with their payments for 

 land that the state is now contemplating reducing the 

 interest rates on land from 4J/2 to 4 psr cent. 



Settlers are not invited to occupy these irrigated lands 



Double Conduits and Service Gate in Hollow Core Wall. 



until water is delivered 'on every farm. The state builds 

 houses for the settlers. It plants a part of the land to a 

 crop for the settlers. It loans them money for improve- 

 ments and makes it possible for settlers coming from Eu- 

 rope or America to take up dairy farms and be earning a 

 living in a new house built under their direction within 

 30 days after their arrival. 



On the contrary, it is the factor on which success 

 chiefly rests. Because of it sales of water for irrigation 

 have increased at the rate of $100,000 a year, each year 

 for the last four settlers have done so well with their 

 payments for land that the state is now contemplating 

 reducing the interest rates on land from 4 l / 2 to 4 per cent. 

 With no advantages over Western America in the 

 way of soil, or climate, it is overcoming the barriers of 

 distance and drawing settlers from the most fertile dis- 

 tricts of California. Out of 45 people who came from the 

 Pacific coast last May to Australia, 35 have either settled 

 on the land or are selling their property in this country 

 preparatory to doing so. 



Favors State Aid. 



I present this as the significant feature of Australian 

 development which is worthy the careful attention of 

 this country. The time is soon at hand, if the United 

 States is to hold its population and is to continue to 

 be an exporting nation, when farms in states like Illinois 

 must be subdivided and opportunities created which will 

 keep the younger generation at home. And this, in my 

 opinion, can only be adequately done through some form 

 of state enterprise. I am convinced that these things 

 can be done as honestly and successfully by public 

 authority here as in other countries. 



I saw at Gary, Indiana, this week a magnificent ex- 

 ample of private development, according to a compre- 

 hensive plan. A city of 200,000 people has been imagined 

 and every preparation is being made for that city. 



Those who are behind this enter- 

 prise are building houses for settlers 

 exactly as the Australian states build 

 houses and doing it better than the 

 settlers could do it for themselves. If 

 private enterprise can do these things 

 in America, on so generous and com- 

 plete a scale, the state can do them 

 and that the state can do this is 

 shown by the magnificent success 

 made by the Federal government in 

 building the Panama canal. 



LARGE CROP IN YAKIMA VALLEY. 



Ouf/ef Conctvtf 



: ^--Serwce Condutf, 



fhe d&m /s covp/e/e 



Reinforcement, 



iSecTwy/f-A- SHOWING THE- S&IVKC Co/vcv/r 

 Fig. IB. LOCATED WITHIN THE Oisrt-ET CoA/ourr 



Helping the Settler. 



By giving the settler long time to pay for land it 

 leaves him nearly all his capital for the purchase of those 

 things needed to make the land fully productive. Through 

 its state loans settlers get money at less than one-half the 

 interest which settlers in the United States have to pay, 

 and thus takes from them one of the chief burdens of 

 pioneer life in this country. 



By making comprehensive plans for 

 the subdivision of the land, providing 

 water and financing the settlers, it is 

 creating a confidence and prosperity 

 which I never saw in all my experience 

 in this country, although I lived in some 

 of the most successful districts. And it 

 is doing this without any risk or loss to 

 the public. 



The humble prune in the role of fairy godmother is 

 somewhat unique, but it is rewarding the faith and in- 

 dustry of a number of farmers in the Yakima Valley in 

 Washington with" such piles of golden shekels, as bid fair 

 to make the section a rival to the Santa Clara Valley in 

 California in the production of prunes. One grower in 

 particular, when his neighbors were planting the apples 

 and pears for which the valley is far famed, put fifty acres 

 in prunes. He has recently shipped forty-three (43) car- 

 loads of fruit from his orchard, receiving from $1,000 to 

 $1,200 per car for his shipment. 



This has been a banner crop year for the Yakima 

 project. The crop reports are not yet all in, but official 

 reports give the shipments of Bartlett pears and peaches 

 as the heaviest in the history of the valley. The third 

 cutting of alfalfa is nearly completed. Heavy shipments 

 of vegetables have been made during the entire season. 



It will be some time before the returns from the big 

 apple orchards are received, but the outlook is good for 

 a bumper crop. 



. 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. 



dh- 



Fig. 15. Outlet Conduit Used During Construction. 



