RECLAIMING THE DESERT 165 



"For the highly intricate business of irrigation 

 farming and the hard and costly task of subduing 

 raw land we accepted all comers. In this we ignored 

 the teaching of common sense and our practice in 

 other lines of effort. For school teaching we have 

 always selected educators; for carpenters, men 

 skilled in the craft; but the creation of a new and 

 complex kind of agriculture was entrusted to the 

 uninformed, to men whose livelihood had been 

 gained in other occupations or who lacked either 

 the capital or the aptitude essential to success. 



"In recent years it has been evident that the 

 economic results of reclamation were not meeting 

 the expectation of its founders. Too many settlers 

 were losing their farms through mortgage foreclo- 

 sure, too many were unable to meet their payments 

 to the Government. Tenancy has increased on some 

 projects until more than half the farms are owned 

 by nonresidents. Sixty per cent of the land on the 

 North Platte project is cultivated by tenants, forty- 

 six percent of the Milk River project, and fifty- 

 seven per cent of the Uncompahgre project. This 

 increase in tenancy means that more and more of 

 those who tried to secure a farm of their own have 

 failed. Human tragedies lie behind these percent- 

 ages. Something needed to give the pioneer a fair 

 chance to succeed has not been provided, or we have 

 by accepting the over sanguine and unequipped made 

 reclamation a temptation rather than an oppor- 

 tunity." 



