176 



IT I 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



Grazing a Band of Sheep on the Public Range Surrounding the Huntley (Mont.) Project. 



Two more horses with no more implements would en- 

 able the next boy to farm at home, but father is not 

 permitted to buy the land. 



Surely 160 acres is too much for most families 

 to begin with on irrigated land, but there should be 

 some arrangements whereby a farmer may justly ac- 

 quire more than one forty. Else the family must be 

 reduced to the condition of the European peasant. 



The superintendent of irrigation recently ap- 

 pointed to draw a large salary out of our meagre 

 earnings is permitted to own a 160-acre tract on the 

 Huntley project, and to hold it only for pasture land, 

 while we improve the country to enhance the value 

 of his holdings. Neither does he pay construction 

 charges nor maintenance and operation expenses. 



Do you think such a person is in sympathy with 

 you? 



There is more land held in the same way here. 

 It was Indian allotments. Parties have been permitted 

 to buy this land and hold it out of cultivation. The 

 ditches to supply these lands with water were built 

 by the Reclamation Service, and are now generally 

 abandoned, but we foot the bills. 



Most people now owning such lands prefer not 

 to buy water of the service, because the terms are so 

 onerous and the charges -so exorbitant. One man has 

 built his own ditch at less than half what the Service 

 charges. 



Farming on some of the units on the Huntley 

 project certainly is not good enough to pay M. and O. 

 charges. The products from some of the units have 

 not been sufficient to buy bread for a small family. 

 Some have not returned even the seed. A paid-in- 

 full water right and a patent would not induce many 

 of the experienced farmers to accept some of these 

 units as a free gift. 



I don't wish to convey the idea that the lands 

 are all poor. Some other of these lands are worth 

 $100 per acre on basis of yields. 



Quite a number have rented their homes to Rus- 

 sian peasants and more want to rent and move away. 

 They wish to find employment that affords more than 

 a mere existence and to get from under the dictation 



of the impractical Reclamation Service. Some of 

 these have become so involved in debt because of con- 

 ditions here as to be compelled to auction their per- 

 sonal effects and seek work for wages. They have 

 borrowed money to pay M. and O. and other expenses. 



The Reclamation Service points to its success 

 with the Huntley project. If the service were not so 

 notorious for blunders and exaggerations, one might 

 believe it had made a success of Huntley. Whatever 

 of success the Huntley project has had, has been ob- 

 tained in spite of the Reclamation Service. The serv- 

 ice makes pictures and publishes reports of the ex- 

 ceptional cases, not giving the average or any of the 

 unfortunate instances. 



If we could get congress to move out here and 

 farm one season, we certainly would get better treat- 

 ment. Every man who aspires to a position in the 

 Reclamation Service, even the Secretary of Interior, 

 should be compelled to live upon and farm a home- 

 stead on one of the government projects. 



Perhaps the department could then tell us why 

 homesteaders should water by a rotation system pre- 

 determined, prearranged, predestined and fore-or- 

 dained, while the government's experimental farm 

 may have water on demand. 



This experimental farm is another great blunder 

 to charge to the western boomers. It was first called 

 the Demonstration Farm. We are unable to tell why. 

 It has never demonstrated anything except how to 

 dissipate government funds. Settlers thought it would 

 demonstrate to us how to farm these new lands. We 

 have learned that in a large measure by our own ex- 

 perience and that before the experiment farm got into 

 action. 



The Secretary's reference to "the experts of the 

 Service and those outside of the Service, who have 

 been longest accustomed to irrigation and who have 

 developed all that is known on that subject," would 

 be ludicrous if the consequences were not so serious. 

 (Continued on page 183) 



*Stenes on the Huntley and Lower Yellowstone government irriga- 

 tion projects in this issue are from photographs made by the Northern 

 Pacific Railway photographer. 



