154 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



to receive such water as may be drained from proj- 

 ects above, we would have accomplished a great deal 

 more than we will be able to accomplish with the 

 system started as it has been. Invariably, our 

 higher lands are of a more compact soil, receive a 

 greater amount of precipitation and retain the mois- 

 ture better. The consequence is that the amount 

 of water necessary to produce crops upon these 

 lands, in addition to that which Nature has already 

 given them, is of relatively small quantity to that 

 which is necessary to grow crops upon the lower 

 lands. 



Good results can be secured on the basaltic soils 

 of eastern Washington and Oregon, where there is 

 a sufficient depth of soil free from coarse sand and 

 gravel, through winter irrigation. These soils will 

 hold about 30 per cent of their weight in capillary 

 water. That is, each foot in depth will hold in sus- 

 pension and retain 4J4 inches of water. The writer 

 has been successful in putting 20 inches of water in 

 five feet of soil, and produced a splendid apple crop 

 without further irrigation. The water was put in 

 the soil during the winter and spring months. No 

 irrigating was done after April. Through the prac- 

 tice of winter irrigation and the storage of water 

 in the soil, large expenditures for reservoirs will be 

 done away with ; at the same time enables the farmer 

 to do his irrigating at a time when he is not busy at 

 other farm work. He will be able to spend the 

 summer months cultivating crops instead .of drown- 

 ing them. 



We, as engineers, must devote our time and at- 

 tention to the conserving of our waters, to securing 

 to the people the greatest amount of production with 

 the least amount of water, and address ourselves at 

 all times to educating the farmer that it is not neces- 

 sary to drown his land in order to raise crops. Cul- 

 tivation under irrigation counts for as much as it 

 does any place else. As a matter of fact, all that we 

 require in most instances is, to adopt dry farming 

 methods, with a little irrigation in order to bring 

 under cultivation thousands of acres of land that has 

 not at the present time been considered. 



The financing of irrigation projects throughout 

 the west has been carried on through such a variety 

 of methods, that we have at the present time upon 

 our markets, such a varied form of irrigation bonds 

 that it is impossible for anyone to understand exactly 

 what an irrigation bond means. We have, as an in- 

 stance, a private corporate bond, which is secured 

 by private contracts upon lands. We have mutual 

 water bonds; we have Gary Act bonds, and the dis- 

 trict bonds from several states, no two lots of which 

 are alike. ' The consequence is, at any time, that 

 you undertake to float an irrigation bond, if the 

 banker will listen to you at all, it becomes necessary 

 for you to explain the exact kind of a bond you pro- 

 pose to sell. This explanation sometimes takes 

 weeks. What we should work for at the present time 

 is to secure some way by means of which each and 

 every irrigation project throughout the west shall issue 

 a uniform bond. This can best be done through pass- 

 age by each state of a uniform irrigation district law, 

 so that every security issued on an irrigation project, 

 would be exactly the same kind of security as issued 

 on any other irrigation project, so that financiers may 

 know what an irrigation bond is. The irrigation dis- 

 trict in all of our states is a municipal organization. 



but what is required more than anything else is a uni- 

 form method of issuing these bonds and a uniform 

 method of paying the same. 



A bill has been introduced in the U. S. Senate by 

 Senator W. L. Jones, which has for its main object the 

 guaranteeing of interest on district bonds by the United 

 States government. It is believed that under the work- 

 ings of this law the Secretary of the Interior will 

 insist that each state, wishing to take advantage of 

 it, pass a district law which will be uniform in its oper- 

 ation. It is believed that within a short time after 

 this bill is passed that such laws will be passed by the 

 states that will enable them to issue the kind of security 

 that will be known and understood in the money mar- 

 kets of the world, thus enabling us to develop the 

 West more rapidly than has been done before. 



I am glad to see that Oregon has organized this 

 Congress ; a congress similar to your's is needed in 

 every state in the West. If we are to succeed in de- 

 veloping this great country, it is necessary that all of 

 us, each and every one of us, do our little mite to- 

 wards bringing about this thing. It can only be done 

 through organization. It can only be done through the 

 united efforts of every state and of every man in every 

 state. It is the great work of the West. If our cities 

 are to retain their present prosperity, it is necessary 

 that our arid lands be developed. Whenever the time 

 comes that all of our landed resources of the West 

 are under cultivation, and we have a man upon every 

 piece of land that is capable of producing a living for 

 him, we will no longer hear the cry of "More Factories" 

 in the city ; no longer will our Chambers of Commerce 

 have to be continually advocating the subsidizing of 

 manufacturing industries in order to get them to come 

 because through the development of our lands, we will 

 create a market for the thing that the manufacturers 

 produce ; and when that time comes, the factories will 

 come without the necessity of subsidizing them. 



Most all legislation heretofore has been for the pur- 

 pose of assisting the commercial man, the man who does 

 business with the article that is produced by the farmer. 

 We hear today of Congress debating the question of 

 government construction and operation of steamships 

 on one side and government subsidy for steamships on 

 the other. We have a banking system that is designed 

 wholly for the commercial man. We have had a pro- 

 tective tariff for years, which is designed for the pur- 

 pose of building up the manufacturers. We have had 

 railroads subsidized by land grants and government 

 guarantee of interest on bonds. Each year there is an 

 appropriation made by Congress for the purpose of 

 improving our rivers and harbors. We have lately 

 completed the great Panama canal for the purpose of 

 aiding commerce ; together with constant efforts being 

 put forth by Congress in order to forward commerce 

 in different ways. 



Without the farmer and the things produced by 

 him, there would be little use for the above subsidized 

 institutions. We have had but little legislation up to 

 this time that has for its aim the development of our 

 landed resources, and putting- a man upon the land in 

 such shape that he may be able to produce the necessi- 

 ties of life at the lowest possible cost. I advise en- 

 gineers to look to the foundation of the completed 

 project ; the man who does the paying without that 

 be firm and sound, it matters not how perfect a 

 superstructure you may build, the project falls a 

 financial wreck to fill a bankrupt grave, as so many 

 others have. 



