268 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



MAKE THE FEDERAL WATER RIGHT AN ASSET 



A Water User Tells How the Government Can Solve Its Irrigration Problem 



By JOHN C. BELL 



Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals of Colorado and a Water User 

 on the Uncowpahgj-c Project. 



WAS directed 

 by the com- 

 mittee on Irri- 

 gation at the 

 Denver Con- 

 gress to present 

 the question of 

 finance for the 

 farmers under 

 the Irrigation 

 projects to the 

 Congress. Un- 

 der this topic I 

 referred to the 

 question of the 

 govern ment 

 making a water 

 rig-lit not only a 

 burden and an 

 e n c u m brance 

 upon the land to 

 be watered, but 

 even upon the 

 cheap unwatered 

 land, which was 



A Cherry Orchard in Blossom, near Rifle, Colo. 



not tillable, and also on any watered land the owner 

 might possess. 



The government, in taking subscriptions upon 

 lands held in private ownership, requires the sub- 

 scriber to subscribe all the land he has, whether wa- 

 tered or unwatered, tillable or not tillable ; then they 

 record this subscription as a lien upon his watered 

 land, that to be watered, his tillable land and that 

 which is not tillable, then hold the water right as 

 security for the payment of the water itself. 



Where a private corporation builds a ditch, it 

 usually regards the water worth all it charges for it ; 

 it holds the faucet and turns the water on when the 

 fixed charges are paid. It generally gives indulgence 

 to the farmer from the beginning to the end of the 

 irrigation season, with the agreement that no water 

 can be applied to the land in the future until all 

 arrearages have been settled, hence any man who 

 wishes to cultivate his land the second year cannot 

 have the use of water until the arrearages are paid. 

 This has been considered sufficient security for a 

 private corporation. Why should it not be for the 

 government ? 



The subscribers, when putting in all of their 

 realty, with the understanding that the watered and 

 non-irrigable lands were to be eliminated, understood 

 that the elimination would take place in a reasonable 

 time after the subscriptions were made, so they would 

 at least have their non-irrigable and watered land as 

 an asset : but, instead of this elimination being made 

 within six months or a year, as anticipated, the gov- 

 ernment has held it throughout the long period of 



construction and until the completion of the project, 

 in cases now running up from near the date of the 

 beginning of the first projects in 1902 and 1903 to 



the present time, 

 and with, prob- 

 ably, from four 

 t o six years 

 more to be 

 added. 



If the govern- 

 ment intends the 

 water to be 

 worth what it is 

 charging, w h y 

 should it not be 

 as liberal with 

 the citizen as the 

 private corpora- 

 tion, and hold 

 the faucet and 

 pledge of the 

 water, and give 

 the farmer a 

 chance to make 

 a crop and pay 

 his annual 

 charges there- 

 from and, if he 

 neglects to pay the first year's charges before he re- 

 quires a second year's use of water, then withhold the 

 second year's use until his use for the first year is 

 settled? Under the Uncompahgre Project the Mont- 

 rose & Delta Canal, now owned by the government, 

 was run successfully under the suggested system by 

 the Travellers' Insurance Company under a long own- 

 ership by it, to the mutual benefit to both the owner 

 and the fanner. 



This is the simplest and easiest way for the 

 farmer to get the money with which to pay for his 

 water. Often his swamp lands or cheap lands, not 

 worth the price of government irrigation, may be cov- 

 ered with spring flows, or accessible seep water, making 

 it worth from $10 to $20 an acre, which would be 

 an asset upon which he might obtain small loans if 

 the government would relieve it from its subscrip- 

 tion, as it promised to do when it obtained it. 



There is no person so interested in making homes 

 for the people as the government itself. Every time 

 it makes an American home it has the assurance of an 

 American patriot. The farm raised boy is never over- 

 specialized, but is taught a diversified system of labor, 

 and, if he cannot do the thing of his choice, he can do 

 anything that turns up. It is a rare thing to find the 

 farm boy tramping the roads for lack of employment. 

 It is from the ranks of those who are over-special- 

 ized to the performance of one or few duties that be- 

 come helpless in limited labor markets. The men who 

 arm themselves against the constituted authorities of 

 the government are usually of the homeless and prop- 

 ertyless classes. It is the duty of the government to 



