THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



fight to a finish. \Ye will present an article in our 

 December number from a well known authority 

 on this subject. 



Seventy million dollars have been 

 Improving expended so far by the Reclamation 



Conditions Service since the passage of the law 

 For in 1902. It is stated that $48,000,000 



Settlers additional is now available for use 



during the coming four years, every 

 cent of which will in time be returned to the United 

 States Treasury. The general supposition is that 

 this money is to be returned to the Treasury within 

 a period of ten years. Under recent rulings, how- 

 ever, that time has been extended to settlers who 

 have found it difficult to keep up their payments on 

 certain tracts, and it is hoped that a reasonable ex- 

 tension may be granted as per the suggestions of 

 Secretary Lane, after his visit through the West. 

 There are many farmers who have gone onto land 

 under Federal projects in the West who have not clear- 

 ly understood the situation, and who have gone west 

 with insufficient funds to carry them during the first 

 two or three years of development oi" their tracts. It is 

 generally conceded that if these settlers were given 

 two or three years without payment and allowed to 

 begin their payments after their land has been put 

 under cultivation and is producing that it would 

 be much better for all concerned. This evidently 

 is the view of Secretary Lane and if it is carried out 

 on all of the tracts through the West, will meet with 

 the approval of every one who clearly understands 

 the situation. It would be much better to give a 

 settler three years' time in which to get a good start 

 and then insist on his payments being made regu- 

 larly thereafter. A man who cannot put his farm in 

 shape to produce enough to live on and make his 

 payments at the end of three years, ought not to be 

 encouraged to remain on the land and should make 

 way for some one more capable. 



Dr. Elwood Mead, the world's fore- 

 Doctor most irrigation authority, is to be- 

 Elwood come a member of the University of 

 Mead California faculty, according to in- 

 Returns formation received by us recently. 



Dr. Mead has been engaged as head 

 of the irrigation and water divisions of the Victorian 

 Government in Australia for the past eight or ten 

 years. His work has been that of installing the 

 great irrigation system there and he has made good 

 with the Victorian Government. He left the posi- 

 tion of Director of the Department of Irrigation In- 

 vestigations at Washington, to take the position in 

 Australia, and it is understood that the Victorian 

 Government has made overtures to retain his serv- 



ices, but as Dr. Mead's interests lie mainly in this 

 country, he decided to accept this honorable posi- 

 tion with the University of California, and will be- 

 come active in irrigation affairs immediately upon 

 his return from the land of the Southern Cross. He 

 is the author of the World's Standard Volume on 

 Irrigation, and was formerly connected with the 

 State University of California and left there to take 

 the position with the Federal Government at Wash- 

 ington. His title in the faculty in the University 

 of California will be Professor of Rural Institutions, 

 and he will assume his duties, which will deal with 

 economic and legal aspects of irrigation projects 

 and systems, as soon as he returns. It would be 

 difficult to estimate the value of Dr. Mead's knowl- 

 edge and ability to California and the world. There 

 are other features about his coming back which 

 should be especially pleasing to all of us who are 

 familiar with irrigation history in the United States. 

 The fact is Dr. Mead should have been the head of 

 the Reclamation Service, and had it not been for the 

 manipulations of such men as George H. Maxwell 

 and a coterie of Bureau heads in Washington, some 

 of whom have been raised to positions of great 

 honor since that time, he would have been appointed 

 as head of the Service. Every one who understands 

 western conditions will be very glad indeed, to know 

 that Dr. Mead is returning and will once more be- 

 come one of us. 



General complaint comes to us from 

 the West that ranchmen and fruit 

 Is growers are not able to find a market, 



To a suitable one, at least, for their 



Blame? products. This brought about an in- 



vestigation by the editor, while at 

 St. Paul recently, and a number of the commission 

 men were visited and an effort made to learn why 

 fruit raised in Washington, Montana and Idaho 

 should be allowed to rot upon the ground when 

 there is such a great demand for it in the central 

 and eastern states. Commission men, as is usually 

 the case, tried to place the blame upon the railroads, 

 but it was explained to them that the railroads 

 were using every effort to encourage the shipment 

 of fruit and they are as much opposed to its waste 

 and the fact that it rots upon the ground, as they 

 possibly can be, as that naturally holds back freight 

 and results in loss of money. Discussing the sub- 

 ject with several of the railway men who are in- 

 terested, the fact was emphasized that the railroads 

 are doing everything in their power, under the law, 

 to encourage the shipments of apples and other 

 fruit from the West to the East. 



In Idaho is was found necessary to go into 

 foreign countries and develop a market, and Mr. 



