THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



87 



WHAT EFFECT DOES AN IRRIGATION DISTRICT 

 HAVE ON LANDOWNERS? 



Address to the irrigation men of the northwest at Boise, Idaho, January 17, 1917, by W. O. Cotton of Idaho Falls, Idaho. 



At the present time there is a great deal said 

 about irrigation districts of the west, in fact enough 

 has been said before the National Congress in re- 

 gard to the irrigation district law being the best 

 possible means of reclaiming the remaining thirty 

 or forty million acres of arid land of the west (for 

 which there is available water), that the Federal 

 Government is now preparing a report on the irri- 

 gation districts of the west. 



Not long ago a strong banking establishment 

 of the northwest was desirous of investing in good 

 securities which carried a high rate of interest ; 

 thereupon their attorney was called upon to render 

 a report upon irrigation districts of the western 

 states ; this report conveyed the opinion that a great 

 many districts had failed in California, a certain 

 number in Washington and a high per cent had 

 failed in Oregon, and that the record in Idaho was 

 fully as bad. The truth of the matter is that there 

 is only one failure in Idaho, or two at most, out of 

 some twenty districts. Idaho has a right to be 

 proud of her record in this regard. 



The effect of an organized irrigation district 

 on the land owners might be expressed as follows : 



1. Enables communities to purchase and op- 

 erate their own irrigation systems. 



2. Enables land owners in irrigation projects 

 to finance improvements with the elimination of 

 profit and overhead cost. 



3. Places control of entire project in hands of 

 the land owners. 



4. Stimulates development of raw land. 



5. Tends towards breaking up large holdings 

 and substitution of intensive for extensive agri- 

 culture. 



6. In some states works exempt from taxation. 



7. Public lands bear their share of the cost. 



8. State lands may pay their share of the cost. 



9. May co-operate with U. S. Reclamation 

 Service. 



10. Enables land owners to take advantage of 

 Federal Farm Loan Act. 



1. Enables Communities to Purchase and Operate 

 Their Own Irrigation Systems 



Prior to the advent of the irrigation district law, 

 canal companies were formed for the purpose of 

 constructing irrigation works, which usually con- 

 sisted of a crude diversion dam in the supply stream 

 and a crude canal simply to assist nature to water 

 a few acres or possibly a few farms in the valley 

 adjacent to the stream. In a short time the neces- 

 sity arose for a canal on higher ground to cover 

 more farms in the valley, hence another company 

 is formed. This procedure has gone on in some 

 cases until there are several canals, one above the 

 other, all watering parallel lands in the same valley 

 which would today be watered by one large canal 

 system financed through an organized district. 



It is comparatively easy for a colony of people 

 whose lands are adjacent and susceptible of one 

 mode of irrigation to band themselves together and 



organize an irrigation district in which event bonds 

 can be issued and sold or exchanged for construction 

 work on an irrigation system ; this enables the set- 

 tler to plow, level, fence and subdue his farm and 

 begin deriving an income before the first bonds 

 mature, which is in the eleventh year. Or for in- 

 stance an irrigation system has been built and 

 operated by private company, that the management 

 is poor, and that the water rents are high in order 

 to take care of interest on invested capital and the 

 irrigators have no redress ; then if an irrigation dis- 

 trict is formed, bonds can be issued and given in 

 exchange for the system ; the system is then op- 

 erated by the landowners, and if the management 

 is still poor and the cost high it is their own fault. 



Even where a mutual company is in existence 

 and there is no outstanding indebtedness it is often 

 found desirable to adopt the district form for the 

 purpose of facilitating the collection of assessments. 

 There are four small districts in northern Idaho 

 pumping water out of Haden Lake. Their systems 

 were built by companies with the understanding 

 that they would be turned over to the landowners 

 when a certain percentage should be paid for. Two 

 of these have been in operation several years as 

 districts, and the other two are in process of taking 

 over the plants. 



In Nebraska along the North Platte river, there 

 are districts formed from mutual water companies 

 without any indebtedness, the mutual turning over 

 the system to the district as an entity. Assessments 

 have been collected much more readily under the 

 district organization for the landowners naturally 

 object to being sold out. 



I have in mind several stock companies where 

 the settlers have learned that a fifty per cent water 

 right at the upper end is equal to a hundred per cent 

 right at the lower end, and at the present time the 

 man at the lower end pays assessments on a great 

 deal more stock than the man at the upper end and 

 gets less water. Under an organized district every 

 acre pays according to its benefits, and the district 

 is obliged to give an equal distribution of water to 

 land within the district. 



2. Enables Landowners in Irrigation Projects to Fi- 

 nance Improvements with the Elimination of Profit 



Where an irrigation project is under way and 

 there is no money available for much needed im- 

 provements which when made will lower the opera- 

 tion cost, the irrigation district provides a method 

 of financing these improvements through its ability 

 to issue bonds and its sovereign power of taxation, 

 and bond buyers who are disposed to invest in irri- 

 gation securities favor the district on account of its 

 taxing power. Savings banks and conservative bond 

 houses on the coast will buy bonds for improve- 

 ments when they will not buy the bonds of an un- 

 developed district. In this way bonds of the Hood 

 River and East Fork districts in Oregon; Cascade, 

 Union Gap, and Wenatchee districts in Washington ; 

 Yellowstone district in Montana, and Poplar district 



