Year 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



VOL. XXXII 



CHICAGO, FEBRUARY, 1917. 



No. 4 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



With which a Merged 



The National Land and Irrigation Journal 



MODERN IRRIGATION THE DRAINAGE JOURNAL 



THE IRRIGATION ERA MID-WEST 



ARID AMERICA THE PARK HERALD 



THE WATER USERS' BULLETIN THE IRRIGATOR 



D. H. ANDERSON 



PUBLISHER, 



Published Monthly at 30 No. Dearborn Street, 

 CHICAGO 



Entered as second-class matter October 3, 1897, at the Postoffice 

 it Chicago, 111., under Act of March I, 1879. 



D. H. ANDERSON, Editor 



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Official organ Federation of Tree Growing Clubs of 

 America. D. H. Anderson, Secretary. 



The Executive Committee of the National Fed- 

 eration of Water Users' Association has taken action 

 whereby THE IRRIGATION AGE is created the official 

 organ of this vast organization, representing 1,000,- 

 000 persons on the government irrigation projects. 



Radical 

 Revision 

 Oregon Irri- 

 gation Law 



A bill, the joint product of four 

 members of the Oregon Irrigation 

 Congress, Messrs. Percy A. Cupper, 

 A. Lamrgaard, Jay H. Upton and 

 Albert E. Elder, was recently pre- 

 sented to the legislature of that State. This bill is 

 one of the most striking that has so far been pre- 

 sented. It provides that all irrigation bonds, in 

 order to become a legal investment, must have the 

 certification of the secretary of state. This certi- 

 fication is to be given only when the bonds and the 

 district upon which they are issued satisfy certain 

 exacting conditions. 



The supply of water for the project must be 

 sufficient and the district must be entitled to a 

 sufficient amount of water. 



The soil of the district must be fertile and sus- 

 ceptible to irrigation. 



The irrigation system must be feasible. 

 The market value of the water and all irriga- 

 tion works must be reasonably high. 



The aggregate amount of bonds issued upon 

 any project must not exceed 60 per cent of the value 

 of the lands, water rights, etc. 



Sixty per cent of the irrigable land in the dis- 

 trict must be under cultivation and raising crops, 

 and 25 per cent of the land to be irrigated under the 

 proposed system must be at the time of the bond 

 issue irrigated and producing crops. 



Not more than 10 per cent of the land in the 

 district may be unappropriated government land 

 open to entry. 



The commission to investigate these conditions 

 will consist of the state engineer, the attorney- 

 general and the superintendent of banks. 



Another innovation of the new bill is that when 

 a petition for the organization of a district is signed 

 by a majority of the land owners either within or 

 without the limits of an incorporated city or town, 

 that city or town may be included within an irri- 

 gation district. 



Holders of bonds, says the bill, shall have a 

 lien on the irrigation works and other property of 

 the irrigation district in addition to the lien on the 

 lands within the district. 



This bill is worthy of serious consideration, 

 and clause 6 is especially interesting, in view of 

 the fact that if it becomes a law promoters of irri- 

 gation development will find it necessary to invest 

 60 per cent of the total in bringing the project to a 

 point where money may be taken back from the 

 sale of the bonds. The AGE may have a wrong con- 

 ception of this bill, but a perusal of clause 6 leads 

 us to believe that capital will act cautiously under 

 this plan. 



Heretofore, on a majority of the projects opened 

 up, the bonds have been underwritten and sold and 

 the proceeds or such part of them as were necessary 



