IRRIGATION PROBLEMS OF HONEY LAKE BASIN. 109 



for giving the supervisors the power to make therates is open to manj' objections. 

 It is hardlj' to be expected that Hone\^ Lake Basin will be reclaimed by this method. 



THE COOPERATIVE CANAL. 



The cooperative company, chartered to furnish water exclusively to its own 

 stocidiolders and operated with no expectation of dividends, is free from most of the 

 objections which attach to private canals. Theoretically, at least, it supplies water 

 at actual cost and imposes no hardships upon the consumers. But there is the same 

 difficulty in commanding large capital, and it is gravely to be feared that the natural 

 limitations of this method will not permit of its application to great undertakings. 

 If the bonds of such enterprises could be readily floated at low interest, and if popular 

 initiative could oe trusted to evolve administrative methods equal to the needs of 

 such a sj'stem, this would furnish a happ3^ solution of the larger irrigation problems. 

 But the truth is that both the capital and the management necessary for such under- 

 takings are exti'emely difficult to command in coopei"ative enterprises. Where it is 

 only a question of building a small local ditch the case is entirely different. 



POSSIBILITIES OF THE CAREY LAW. 



Oddly enough, California has thus far declined to accept the grant of 1,000,000 

 acres of arid public land offered by the Carey law enacted in 1894. The provisions 

 of this act are much more favoi-able to irrigation development than the land laws 

 which have been utilized in Honey Lake Basin — that is, the homestead law and the 

 desert-land law. Under the Carey act, if supplemented with appropriate State 

 legislation, the irrigable lands in Honej^ Lake Basin could be withdrawn from settle- 

 ment. The State would then advertise for bids of construction companies desiring 

 to build the necessary works to reclaim these lands. If the Wyoming example were 

 followed, the construction company would look for its return to the sale of shares in 

 the canal, which is based upon a cooperative basis. The price of the land would be 

 fixed at 50 cents per acre. The State would fix the maximum price which could be 

 charged for water shares. In Wj'oming the maximum price fixed has varied from 

 ^10 to $16 per acre, so that the settler paj's from flO.oO to $16.50 per acre for water 

 and land. He is then joint owner in the irrigation works, and in the end the entire 

 control passes into the hands of himself and his neighbors. This plan'is a great 

 improvement over the past methods from the financial standpoint. For all practical 

 purposes, the entire tract of land to be reclaimed serves as the basis of security for 

 the capitJil employed in the work. This is so because the land office will permit 

 entries on this tract onlj^ from those who bring evidence that they have contracted 

 for the purchase of shares in the canal. Thus, those who furnish the capital know 

 that these lands can not be occupied except as the capital is repaid with whatever 

 profit is permitted by the maximum price fixed by the State. In arriving at this 

 maximum the State must take all contingencies into consideration and allow a price 

 sufficient to reimburse the investment, otherwise no construction company will 

 undertake the work. This plan also disposes of any vexations which attach to the 

 homestead and desert-land laws and which have proven equally unsatisfactory to 

 settlers and to irrigation companies. 



