84 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



It is stated that in making a loan under the 

 Federal Farm Loan Act the board considers the 

 bonded indebtedness in determining how much of 

 a loan the land is good for but it is not prohibited 

 from making the loan because of such bond lien. 

 It is therefore clear that the district plan operates 

 in favor of the individual borrower whose needs for 

 financial aid at a critical time may thus be provided 

 for. 



In a recent communication from 



Summary the United States Reclamation Serv- 



Reclamation ice headquarters is enclosed a brief 

 Service advance statement of the summary 



Results of construction results to December 



31, 1916. The salient features of 

 this summary are : 



The Service furnished water for irrigating 

 about 1,000,000 acres of land. 



Has available reservoir capacity of 9,000,000 

 acre-feet. 



Has dug nearly 11,000 miles of canals and 

 drains. 



Has built 100 storage and diversion dams, as 

 follows : 



No. Volume 



.Masonry 42 2,000,000 cu. yds. 



Earth 39 10,000,000 cu. yds. 



Rockfill and crib 19 1,000,000 cu. yds. 



Total 100 



13.000,000 cu. yds. 



Has built over 77,000 canal structures. 



Has built about 5,600 bridges. 



Has built over 6,600 culverts. 



Has built 385 miles of pipe lines. 



Has built 95 miles of flumes. 



Has built 2,800 miles of telephone lines. 



Has built 438 miles of power transmission 

 lines, and excavated nearly 150,000,000 cubic yards 

 of material. 



This is a fine showing and reflects credit on the 

 Department of the Interior and officials of the 

 Reclamation Service. It is gratifying tq note that 

 many important changes have been made in the 

 Reclamation Service through the efforts of Secre- 

 tary Lane and Director Davis. 



In commenting on an editorial in a 

 A Friendly recent issue of the IRRIGATION AGE 

 Word i the Casa Grande Valley Dispatch 



From Arizona, the editor offers the follow- 



Arizona ing suggestion: 



"The Dispatch would suggest to 

 all landowners who are not subscribers, that they 

 will find it greatly to their advantage to take the 

 IRRIGATION AGE and read it regularly. It is devoted 

 almost exclusively to irrigation and irrigation de- 



velopment, and contains much which would be of 

 great value to irrigators and prospective irrigators. 

 The editor of IRRIGATION AGE heartily appreci- 

 ates this cordial expression and agrees that there 

 are thousands of farmers under irrigation who would 

 be greatly benefited by a perusal of each issue of 

 this journal. 



Recent information from Fresno, 

 Irrigation California, where Mr. George Al- 



Congress bert Smith, president of the Inter- 



May Skip national Irrigation Congress has 



1917 been in consultation with L. W. 



Nares, chairman of the board of gov- 

 ernors of that body, leads us to believe that the 1917 

 session may not materialize owing, it is stated, by 

 the San Francisco Chronicle, to war conditions. 

 Plans for the congress were discussed by these 

 gentlemen, but because of the unsettled condition 

 no definite date nor place was decided upon. 



These statements may furnish an explanation 

 satisfactory to the average reader ; they will, how- 

 ever, be reluctantly accepted by those who are 

 familiar with the history of this organization. 



The conclusions in the case are that the con- 

 gress degenerated to a poverty-stricken position, 

 owing to the fact that it is a one-man institution, 

 dominated by its secretary alone, who, however 

 pleasing his personality, has laid himself open to 

 criticism by his lack of managerial ability. Further- 

 more, he is perhaps thinking more deeply on the 

 question of his salary rather than the welfare and 

 future possibilities of the organization. 



We presented in the November number of the 

 IRRIGATION AGK an editorial headed, 'What Ails the 

 Irrigation Congress," from which we quote the fol- 

 lowing paragraphs giving as clearly as possible the 

 editor's views on this subject: 



"To what is the decline of this potential agency 

 of helpfulness to the entire West attributable? Why 

 has the expensive machinery of the Congress, in- 

 stead of at least maintaining its former prestige, 

 failed to vindicate itself? \\"ere the debacle at El 

 Paso for such it was, in point of attendance an 

 isolated phenomenon, the situation could be dis- 

 missed without serious misgivings. The fact that 

 the Congresses of 1915 and 1914 were also meagerly 

 attended not to speak of the failure to convene at 

 all in 1913 points, however, to a deep-seated and 

 fundamental defect. 



"The doctrine has been accepted throughout 

 the entire civilized world that those who are charged 

 with the immediate responsibility of success or fail- 

 ure of institutions, whether commercial, political or 

 semi-public, shall be given a reasonable period in 

 which to demonstrate their efficiency, and that those 

 who are found wanting in the balance shall be re- 

 tired. This is a wise provision, which is recognized 

 at the annual meetings of corporate bodies, where 

 officers must stand or fall upon the record of their 



