372 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



scheme, were brought forward, examined, found 

 feasible and suggested to the State, but the State 

 officials steadily refused to consider the granting of 

 any water rights that conflicted with those granted 

 previously to the Wyoming Central Irrigation Com- 

 pany, until those already granted had been returned 

 to the State. 



With the State officials so determined, it was 

 necessary to persuade the Wyoming Central Irriga- 

 tion Company to transfer the water rights that had 

 been granted it as trustee, to some other party who 

 would undertake the construction. Many months 

 went by with this hope, which ended in disappoint- 

 ment. The State officials finally effected a settle- 

 ment, releasing the Wyoming Central Irrigation 

 Company from its contract, but permitting that 



Kahoalele Falls, Kauai, Hawaiian Islands. 



company to carry out and collect for its contracts 

 for water furnished through the "Riverton Ditch" 

 in consideration of the surrender to the State of all 

 unused water rights granted it as trustee. By this 

 settlement an apparent injustice has been done 

 many settlers below the "Riverton Ditch" ; they 

 made contracts with the company at the prices stip- 

 ulated by the State, and which presumably would 

 have been just if the entire original system had 

 been constructed, but which are in equity unreason- 

 able, since the company constructed only the easiest 

 part of the work, but charged the full acre price, 

 as if the whole contract with the State had been 

 performed. It is doubtful if there can be any relief 

 demanded, in the face of the individual contracts 

 between settlers and the Wyoming Central Irriga- 



tion Company. This question is now before the 

 Wyoming courts. 



Finally it is alleged by the Wyoming papers of 

 August, 1913, (seven years after the opening to set- 

 tlement) that the Wyoming Central Irrigation 

 Company has released all claims under its contract 

 with the State except as to the district served by 

 the "Riverton Ditch," and that the State of Wyo- 

 ming by its land board has contracted with the Big 

 Wind River Land & Water Company for the con- 

 struction of an irrigation system that will reclaim 

 approximately 210,000 acres. This time a bond of 

 $150,000.00 is demanded, and was not filed at last 

 accounts. 



The original settlers, or their survivors, will 

 rejoice when sure of the prompt fulfillment of their 

 hopes, but many will feel that they have been "hold- 

 ing the sack" in a long snipe hunt, having to pay for 

 water five to twenty dollars more per acre than they 

 had contracted for, to lose most of their time for 

 seven years and the cost with interest of replacing 

 improvements made on each claim in good faith, 

 costing in cash, six years ago, from five hundred to 

 two thousand dollars on each homestead. These 

 losses are offset to only a very limited degree by 

 slight concessions. 



COOPERATIVE FOREST FIRE PROTECTION 



During the last quarter of the fiscal year, the 

 federal government entered into cooperative fire 

 protection agreements with the following states : 

 Maine, New York, Minnesota, Montana, Washing- 

 ton and Oregon. These six agreements contem- 

 plate the protection from fire of approximately 87,- 

 000,000 acres of land on the forested watersheds 

 of navigable streams, for which purpose $31,500 

 of federal funds have been made available. There 

 are at the present time 14 states which are engaged 

 in active cooperation of this kind, and it is possible 

 that three new states, Kentucky, South Dakota and 

 West Virginia will be added by early fall. 



The federal government, though it has allotted 

 a total of $85,000 for the work of the present sea- 

 son, is a minor contributor in the aggregate. Un- 

 der the impetus given to fire protection of navigable 

 watersheds through this arrangement the cooper- 

 ating states will expend an aggregate of $3 for 

 every dollar the federal government spends, to 

 which may be added about $2 more from private 

 sources. 



These amounts, of course, do not represent the 

 sum total of expenditures for fire protection even in 

 these states. For in -some of them the state itself 

 is spending considerably more money in the protec- 

 tion of forested lands lying outside the watersheds 

 of navigable streams. On the national forests, too, 

 the government is sending several times the 

 amount of its contribution to cooperative fire protec- 

 tion in the states which contain federal timberland. 



Aside from these governmental agencies the 

 railroads, lumber companies (both individually and 

 through their cooperative protective associations) 

 municipalities and private land owners throughout 

 the country are growing more and more alive to 

 the needs of better forest fire protection and are 

 devoting each year an increased sum to this work. 



