THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



121 



nnist be afforded, and the farmer is 

 willing to pay for it, when able to do 

 so. VVhere lands under a project will 

 not yield a crop, having always been 

 devoid of vegetation, the government 

 should reserve these sections, turn 

 them over to the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment until they have been brought to 

 a state where they are capable of pro- 

 ducing crops before being assigned 

 to settlers. There are gumbo lands 

 on the Huntley Project in Montana 

 where the settler, after years of trial, 

 has not been able to grow a crop 

 equal to the seed sown. 



At the start the settler has but a 

 small part of the money necessary for 

 improvements and to commence pay- 

 ing for water. It is clearly to be seen 

 that whatever costs there may be 

 must come from the soil; success, 

 therefore, absolutely depends upon 

 what the land is made to produce. 

 What the farmer wants and must have 

 as soon as possible is a productive 

 farm, so he can live and pay expenses. 

 This is the main thing, beside which 

 the cost of the project, while very 

 important to him, is a secondary con- 

 sideration. 



The government is simply expected 

 to afford such help as it reasonably 

 can, commensurate with its own in- 

 terest, and with due regard to the im- 

 portance of the agricultural and stock 

 raising business to the country at 

 large. The engineers on the reclama- 

 tion service are not farmers, ~nd 

 should not have the direction of this 

 work placed upon them. It is the 

 work of the Agricultural Department 

 and should be so assigned. The con- 

 struction department of the reclama- 

 tion service can take care of the civil 

 engineering required after the project 

 has been opened for settlement. The 

 chances are that a good agriculturist 

 or farmer would make a poor civil en- 

 gineer and vice versa. The civiliza- 

 tion of the present time demands the 

 services of the best experts in every 

 class of business, more each year; 

 when this principle is put in effect on 

 our reclamation projects, the desired 

 success will be achieved and not until 

 this is done. 



The necessity of something being 

 done now is apparent when it is un- 

 derstood that four out of five of our 

 reclamation projects would, if owned 

 by private capital, be in the hands of 

 the receiver today, with the probabil- 

 ity that those putting their money in 

 this business would never get a dol- 

 lar back Not only is the reorganiza- 

 tion for economy in construction 

 necessary, which is now being put in 

 effect, but the agricultural part of this 

 business must be put on its feet and 

 take precedence over all other work 

 until it is properly organized. 



Members of Congress, individually, 

 will find it impossible to acquire the 

 knowledge to vote intelligently upon 

 this matter; it is a question for agri- 

 cultural irrigation experts to solve 

 just as much as it is necessary to have 

 civil engineers on works requiring en- 

 gineering talent. 



It is not the purpose of this article 

 to discourage irrigation, but just the 

 reverse. Irrigation is bound to in- 

 crease as sure as pur population 

 grows. Ultimately, irrigation must 

 be conducted in such a manner as to 



produce necessary results. We have 

 the means, the land, and the knowl- 

 edge required; to assemble and put 

 these forces to work properly is the 

 problem which has to be solved in or- 

 der to avoid great waste of natural 

 resources and unlimited hardships to 

 the settler on our irrigation projects. 



Now is the critical period for the 

 settler and the Reclamation Service. 

 If proper relief is not accorded the 

 pioneer settler his fate is sealed; he 

 must go, a sacrifice to the govern- 

 ment's method of handling these rec- 

 lamation projects. The great major- 

 ity of eastern over western congress- 

 men almost precludes the possibility 

 of western natural resources being de- 

 veloped in a proper manner. If the 

 pioneer settler is forced to the wall, 

 it would have been much better had 

 the project never been undertaken. 

 By far the greatest resource we have 

 is the settler, and if he cannot be 

 properly conserved, the quicker the 

 government gives up trying to con- 

 serve western natural resources the 

 better, for it is pretty certain to do 

 more harm than good. 



As far as the law goes reclamation 

 service officials are paid by the settler, 

 whom they have not represented in 

 any efficient or proper manner, as 

 their ultimate paymaster. The main 

 idea has been to get appropriations 

 for new work and the welfare of the 

 pioneer settlers has been almost en- 

 tirely neglected. The time has ar- 

 rived when this general condition of 

 affairs on most of our reclamation 

 projects must cease or the Reclama- 

 tion Service itself be discontinued as 

 being utterly incompetent to handle 

 properly the business it has attempted 

 to perform. It must be borne in mind 

 that the present struggle is a matter 

 of life or death financially to a ma- 

 jority of the pioneer settlers on our 

 reclamation projects; they, being, as 

 a rule, native born Americans, are not 

 going to be sacrificed without making 

 a struggle characteristic of their na- 

 tionality. 



LETTERS FROM WATER 

 USERS 



A "Gentle" Roast 



To THE IRRIGATION AGE: In your 

 issue of January, 1916, page 36, "About 

 Cost Review Reports," you say "There 

 is no doubt but that all these reports 

 are drastic in their declarations and 

 recommendations." 



As to our Shoshone project, this is 

 a wild shot for THE IRRIGATION AGE to 

 take. It would be more expected 

 from a publication much less relied 

 upon for correct and sane statements. 

 In the face of the best authority in 

 Wyoming, and with due regard to the 

 price of contiguous irrigated lands in 

 operation for ten years suggesting 

 that the Shoshone water rights was 

 worth only $30.00, by way of com- 

 promise to satisfy the government's 

 special representative on the board 

 and secure an unanimous report and 

 end, if possible, contention and un- 

 certainty, upon the project, 50 per 

 cent was added, making the price 

 $45.00 per acre. The good name of 



THE IRRIGATION AGE would certainly 

 prosper in a correction of your state- 

 ment. Your source of information no 

 doubt had its origin in the Washing- 

 ton Reclamation office, whose man- 

 agement seem to be fighting "pussy 

 footed" for their official lives, without 

 realizing that their interests would be 

 best served by a proper adjustment 

 at this time. Should the local board 

 report not be sustained, it is the in- 

 tention to begin a campaign for a 

 $30.00 price. In this, with some not- 

 able exceptions, we believe the state 

 will join. The U. S. has no right to 

 use its prestige to fool and then its 

 power to crush its pioneer reclama- 

 tion settlers. D. L. Heaston, 



A Settler, 

 Powell, Wyo. 



To THE IRRIGATION AGE: 



A recent copy of your interesting 

 publication came to my notice. I read 

 with especial interest the article by 

 Mr. Mead. It is to be hoped that the 

 agitation for more adequate financing 

 of farm enterprises will result in ac- 

 complishing the purpose. Quite likely 

 trie rural credit or farm loan law will 

 be passed by this Congress. It has 

 occurred to me that unless an effort 

 is put forth to prevent it, farmers 

 under government projects will find 

 it impossible to secure loans under 

 this law. In Oregon the state school 

 funds are loaned on farm properties 

 at 6 per cent interest. But farmers 

 on the projects are unable to secure 

 such loans because the state authori- 

 ties hold that the water right con- 

 tract is a first lien or mortgage, and 

 the state will accept only first liens. 



Now will not the officials admin- 

 istering the farm loan law hold the 

 same? Will they not refuse to place 

 loans in projects where the Reclama- 

 tion Service holds first liens to secure 

 unpaid water rights? 



This seems to me to be of great im- 

 portance. It will be a sad blow to 

 irrigation farmers if they can not se- 

 cure loans under this law. 



I suggest that water users associa- 

 tions in the various projects urge their 

 representatives to look after this 

 point. May I not urge that you take 

 this matter up through vour paper? 

 J. G. Swan, 

 Klamath Project. 



Merrill, Ore., 



The Southern Lassen Irrigation 

 District now is a legal body. Its 

 formation has been approved at the 

 polls and its officers have been elected. 

 The district includes 22,500 acres and 

 the cost of bringing water to the land 

 will be between $33 and $35 per acre. 



If you want to keep in touch with 

 all sides of the Reclamation Problem 

 send $1.00 for one year's subscription 

 to the Irrigation Age, 30 North Dear- 

 born street, Chicago. 



