THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



363 



$1,000,000 IN CROPS BURNED UP BY RED TAPE 



Cold Blooded Policy of F. H. Newell Scored by Nebraska Man 



By WALTER v. HOAGLAND 



ON June 7, 1902, the Federal 

 Congress passed the Rec- 

 lamation Act which provided for 

 the loaning of the public lands 

 fund of certain western arid 

 states for the construction of 

 irrigation projects in the arid 

 states to irrigate the government 

 lands. The Reclamation Service 

 was organized and one of these 

 projects was started by the con- 

 struction of the Pathfinder Res- 

 ervoir in Eastern Wyoming, for 

 the conservation of the waters of 

 the North Platte River for irri- 

 gation purposes. The Reclamation officials set aside 

 three tracts of land situated in the state of Wyoming 

 and Nebraska for Reclamation. One is known as the 

 Interstate Canal, irrigating a tract of land consist- 

 ing of 129,270 acres, north of the North Platte River 

 in Scotts Bluff County, Neb. There was a second 

 project contemplated, known as the Fort Laramie 

 unit, consisting of about 100,000 acres in Wyoming 

 and Nebraska on the south side of the North Platte 

 River; the third project contemplated was . a large 

 tract of land known as the Goshen Hole unit. 



The Reclamation Service constructed their Path- 

 finder reservoir, holding a capacity of more than 

 1,000,000 acre-feet of water at a total cost of 

 $1.794,365.94. The Inter-State canals, reservoir and 

 irrigation works have been constructed for irrigat- 

 ing the 129,270 acres at a total cost to the govern- 

 ment of $4,909.- 

 793.34. These 

 figures are offi- 

 cial and were 

 given me by the 

 project engineer. 

 The government 

 is collect ing 

 from the settlers 

 under the proj- 

 ect the sum of 

 $55.00 per acre 

 or some thing 

 more than $7,- 

 000,000.00, if all 

 of the land un- 

 der the canal is 

 taken and paid 

 for. This would 

 net some thing 

 more than $300,- 

 000.00 more 

 than the total 

 cost of the irri- 

 g a t i o n works 



Walter V. Hoagland, of North Platte, Neb., 

 chairman of the judiciary committee of the State 

 Senate of Nebraska, and republican candidate for 

 Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska. 



Filling a Concrete Silo with Kaffir in Texas. Courtesy of Santa Fe Railroad. 



and Pathfinder reservoir com- 

 bined. The Secretary of the In- 

 terior estimated when they 

 started the project that the land 

 could be M'atered for $35.00 per 

 acre, but this cost has been in- 

 creased by $20.00. 



Reclamation officers have 

 abandoned the Goshen Hole unit 

 because their estimates of the cost 

 of construction are so great as to 

 make it prohibitive. The officials 

 are now attempting to get the set- 

 tlers owning land under the Fort 

 Laramie unit to place all of their 

 lands in trust under the control 

 of the Secretary of the Interior for the construction 

 of that project at a cost of something in the neighbor- 

 hood of $75.00 per acre, but the conditions are so 

 harsh that it is difficult to get the owners of the prop- 

 erty to place their property outside of their own con- 

 trol, and but a small percentage have signed the trust 

 agreement. If this project should succeed, there must 

 necessarily intervene a number of years before any of 

 the water from the Pathfinder Reservoir can be used 

 upon any of this property. 



The records of the flow of the North Platte 

 River show that in the years of the greatest scarcity 

 of water in the North Platte River the government 

 can impound in this reservoir from the flood waters 

 not less than 600,000 acre-feet of water and in years 

 of plenty, the maximum flow shows that the govern- 

 ment, if the reservoir was large enough, could easily 



impound more 

 than 2,000,000 

 acre-feet of 

 water. On June 

 25, 1914, the 

 government had 

 actually im- 

 pounded in this 

 reservoir from 

 the flood waters 

 during the past 

 year 1,093,280 

 acre-feet of wa- 

 ter. This was the 

 full capacity of 

 the r e s e r voir 

 and the govern- 

 ment kept the 

 quantity of stor- 

 age above 1,- 

 000,000 acre- 

 feet until July 

 16, 1914. 



Mr. A n - 

 drew Weiss, the 



