9 8 



The National Geographic Magazine 



cut, the waters of the Payette drainage 

 will be brought over into a reservoir in 

 the Boise Valley to supplement the insuf- 

 ficient supply of the Boise River. It will 

 require a number of years to complete 

 this work and the expenditure of about 

 $9,000,000. x\t the present time this sec- 

 tion has a population of about 15,000. 

 When the works are finished it will easily 

 support as dense a population as the Salt 

 Lake Valley, or 120,000. Nearly $40,- 

 000,000 will be added to the value of tax- 

 able property in land values alone. 



Three projects have been approved in 

 the state of Washington. The Okanogan, 

 in the northern part, to cover about 

 10,000 acres, will cost about $500,000. 



Two projects in Yakima Valley, the 

 Sunnyside and the Tieton, aggregating 

 64,000 acres of land, at an approximate 

 cost of $1,750,000. The Yakima Valley 

 contains an irrigable area of approxi- 

 mately 500,000 acres, and with the stor- 

 age in the lakes at the headwaters it is 

 estimated that the water supply will be 

 sufficient for 340,000 acres. In addition 

 to this, there are 100,000 acres in the 

 Yakima Indian reservation which may be 

 brought under canals at a moderate cost, 

 but for which there is no late summer 

 flow in the river. The development of a 

 comprehensive system of irrigation in 

 this valley is to be accomplished by the 

 successive construction of several units 

 of a greater project, the work being grad- 

 ually extended to embrace the entire 

 irrigable area. Not less than $12,000,000 

 will be required. The present plans pro- 

 vide for the purchase of the Sunnyside 

 Canal, the most important irrigation sys- 

 tem in the valley, and its enlargement and 

 extension to cover new areas. 



A SUMMARY OF WORK DONF AND FSTl- 

 MATFS FOR THF FUTURE) 



A summation of the work of the Rec- 

 lamation Service for the three years in 

 which it has been organized shows that 

 it has built JJ miles of main canals, some 

 of them having the size of rivers ; 54 



miles of distributing canals, and 186 miles 

 of ditches. It has constructed and has in 

 operation 150 miles of telephone, 125 

 miles of roads in canyons involving deep 

 cuts. It has excavated 10,000,000 cubic 

 yards of material and 3^2 miles of tun- 

 nels. Work is now actually going on in 

 13 different projects. 



The reclamation fund at this time avail- 

 able for investment by the Secretary of 

 the Interior in feasible irrigation pro- 

 jects is more than $28,000,000. The es- 

 timated increment to the fund from the 

 sales of public lands in 1906, 1907, and 

 1908 is $9,000,000, bringing the total 

 fund up to $37,000,000. Nearly all of 

 this has been apportioned by the Secretary 

 for the construction of the 24 projects 

 mentioned and for which plans have ma- 

 terialized. This practically brings to an 

 end further surveys and examinations 

 and provides. for the concentration of ef- 

 forts of the Service on the actual con- 

 struction of the works. 



Conservative engineers estimate that 

 the reclaimable area of the Great Ameri- 

 can Desert is 50,000,000 acres. Assum- 

 ing the average cost per acre of irrigation 

 to be $30, the reclamation of this area 

 will involve the expenditure of $1,500,- 

 000,000, or seven times the cost of the 

 Panama Canal. 



Some of the reclaimed land has a value 

 of more than $1,000 per acre. The aver- 

 age value of irrigated land in the United 

 States, according to the last census, is 

 $47 per acre; so that the reclamation of 

 this vast empire in the West will result 

 in an increase in the taxable property of 

 the people of $2,350,000,000. It will pro- 

 vide homes for 600,000 families on farms. 



And out of the desert, now only the 

 haunt of the skulking coyote and the 

 jack-rabbit, fair cities shall rise, and in 

 the midst of islands of emerald the smoke 

 of thousands of industries shall ascend. 

 Every intermontane valley shall boast 

 of its Riverside or its Redlands, com- 

 munities representative of the highest 

 and fairest type of the homes of home- 

 and honor-loving Americans. 



