THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



435 



Act and the public notice issued, we only have until 

 March 24, 1915, to file acceptances. 



"In my opinion, the new law does not change 

 the manner in which the building charge is directed 

 to be fixed under the Reclamation Act. Unless this 

 charge is based on the 'estimated cost' as provided 

 by the law, it cannot be determined in any instance 

 until after a project is completed in its entirety. 

 Hence, it can readily be seen that during the con- 

 struction period of a project, which, in the past, has 

 covered many years, the uncertainty of ultimate 

 cost is such that colonization and development 

 work is necessarily retarded even in those portions 

 of a project as are completed and for which water 

 is ready for delivery. I am also of the opinion that 

 the water-right charges, or building charges, shall 

 be equitably assessed, and that a different rate on 

 the same project cannot be lawfully assessed, as 

 has been done on the Belle Fourche Project. There 

 might be exceptions to this rule where a project 

 is made up of several units and the cost is fixed for 

 each unit, or where there are prior existing rights 

 to be considered. 



"I believe that it is to the interest of every 

 project to have the original Reclamation Act fairly 

 and conclusively interpreted by the courts, and 

 that a reasonable interpretation of the law would 

 mean much to these projects and would lend sta- 

 bility to business conditions therein. It is the un- 

 certainty of ultimate cost, and the great latitude 

 exercised by Department officials in their construc- 

 tion and application of the law that has created the 

 chaotic conditions on most of the . projects, and 

 which is now destroying independent thought and 



action characteristic of American freedom, and 

 building up in its stead communities of forced sub- 

 serviency to a Governmental Bureau and the Ad- 

 ministration that happens to be in power. The 

 present policy is undemocratic and dangerous, and 

 without authority of law." 



In publishing the Reclamation Commission let- 

 ter, the Valley Irrigator, of Newell, S. D., on the 

 Belle Fourche project, says: 



"This ought to convince everyone that the new 

 law cannot increase the building charge, or any 

 other charge, for that matter, without the Water 

 Users voting for it. We believe, however, that 

 while the affairs of the Water Users are being ad- 

 justed there should be a definite understanding as 

 to the 'betterment' charges and the deficit charges 

 to the maintenance and operation. A clear under- 

 standing will benefit both the government and the 

 Water Users." 



Concerning the penalties, the Powell (Wyo.) 

 Tribune says : 



"A phase of the new law that is not very gen- 

 erally realized or appreciated is the provision that 

 fixes a penalty of one per cent for each month that 

 the payment of any year is overdue. To most peo- 

 ple this arrangement has appeared to be a penalty 

 pure and simple, but it actually works out as a 

 money-lending proposition. If the entryman is un- 

 able to pay on December 1, he may let the payment 

 go until later on, paying at the rate of one per cent 

 a month, which, in a year's time, would amount to 

 just what the banks would ask for the accommoda- 

 tion." 



NEW CULTIVATION REQUIREMENTS 



HERE are the agricultural requirements under 

 the Twenty Year Reclamation law, which the 

 settler must fulfill before he can prove up on his 

 land, as stated in instructions of the Commissioner 

 of the general land office to various registers : 



"To comply with the' provisions of the Recla- 

 mation law requiring the reclamation of one-half 

 the irrigable area of any entry made subject to the 

 provisions of that law, the land must have been 

 cleared of brush, trees and other incumbrances, 

 provided with sufficient laterals for its effective ir- 

 rigation, graded and otherwise put in condition for 

 irrigation and crop growth, planted, watered and 

 cultivated, and during at least two years next pre- 



ceding the date of approval by the project manager 

 of proof of reclamation, except as prevented by 

 hailstorm or flooding, a satisfactory crop must be 

 grown thereon. 



"A satisfactory crop during any year shall be 

 any one of the following : A crop of annuals pro- 

 ducing a yield on similar land under similar condi- 

 tions on the project for the year in which it is 

 grown; a substantial stand of alfalfa, clover or 

 other perennial grass substantially equal in value 

 to alfalfa or clover or a season's growth of orchard 

 trees or vines, of which 75 per cent shall be in a 

 thrifty condition." 



IRRIGATION RECLAIMS MICHIGAN LAND 



THE irrigated gardening experiments that were 

 carried on during the past season at the Moses 

 Seabolt estate, two miles north of Eaton Rapids, 

 Mich., known as the old Michigan Peat Company 

 farm, proved so much more successful than had 

 been anticipated that it is now an assured fact that 

 the gardening proposition will be conducted there 

 on an extensive scale. 



Mr. 1 ,. Fred Osborn, of Ann Arbor, Michigan's 

 pioneer' irrigator, who has conducted an extensive 

 gardening enterprise in the suburbs of the Univer- 



sity city for seventeen years, was engaged by the 

 trustee of the Seabolt estate to take charge of the 

 experiments, and, as a starter, put in six acres of 

 celery, several acres of cabbage, a patch of carrots, 

 and a few other vegetables, and all of these devel- 

 oped a growth that fully demonstrated that the soil 

 is just the sort that will make the gardening in- 

 dustry profitable. 



Wells are being put down to be used in irrigat- 

 ing the tract, which ultimately will cover 360 acres. 



