TWO GREAT UNDERTAKINGS* 



OPERATIONS under the Recla- 

 mation Act, which I signed on 

 June 17, 1902, have been car- 

 ried on energetically during the four 

 years since that date. The Reclamation 

 Service, consisting of over 400 skilled en- 

 gineers and experts in various lines, has 

 been organized, and it is now handling 

 the work with rapidity and effectiveness. 

 Construction is already well advanced on 

 twenty-three great enterprises in the arid 

 States and Territories. Over 1,000,000 

 acres of land have been laid out for irrri- 

 gation, and of this 200,000 acres are now 

 under ditch ; 800 miles of canals and 

 ditches and 30,000 feet of tunnel have 

 been completed ; and 16,000,000 cubic 

 yards of earth and 3,000,000 cubic 

 yards of rock have been moved. Detailed 

 topographic surveys have been extended 

 over 10,000 square miles of country with- 

 in which the reclamation work is located, 

 and 20,000 miles of level lines have been 

 run. Three hundred buildings, including 

 offices and sleeping quarters for work- 

 men, have been erected by the Reclama- 

 tion Service, and about an equal number 

 by the contractors. Over 10,000 men and 

 about 5,000 horses are at present em- 

 ployed. 



The period of general surveys and ex- 

 aminations for projects is past. Effort 

 is now concentrated in getting the water 

 upon a sufficient area of irrigable land in 

 each project to put it on a revenue-pro- 

 ducing basis. To bring all the projects 

 to this point will require upwards of 

 $40,000,000, which amount, it is esti- 

 mated, will be available from the receipts 

 from the disposal of public lands for the 

 years 1901-1908. 



We may well congratulate ourselves 

 upon the rapid progress already made, 

 and rejoice that the infancy of the work 

 has been safely passed. But we must not 

 forget that there are dangers and difficul- 

 ties still ahead, and that only unbroken 

 vigilance, efficiency, integrity, and good 



sense will suffice to prevent disaster. 

 There is now no question as to where the 

 work shall be done, how it shall be done, 

 or the precise way in which the expendi- 

 tures shall be made. All that is settled. 

 There remains, however, the critical ques- 

 tion of how best to utilize the reclaimed 

 lands by putting them into the hands of 

 actual cultivators and home-makers, who 

 will return the original outlay in annual 

 installments paid back into the reclama- 

 tion fund; the question of seeing that the 

 lands are used for homes, and not for 

 purposes of speculation or for the build- 

 ing up of large fortunes. 



The pressing danger just now springs 

 from the desire of nearly every man to get 

 and hold as much land as he can, whether 

 he can handle it profitably or not, and 

 whether or not it is for the interest of the 

 community that he should have it. The 

 prosperity of the present irrigated areas 

 came from the subdivision of the land 

 and the consequent intensive cultivation. 

 With an adequate supply of water, a farm 

 of 5 acres in some parts of the arid West, 

 or of 40 acres elsewhere, is as large as 

 may be successfully tilled by one family. 

 When, therefore, a man attempts to hold 

 160 acres of land completely irrigated by 

 government work, he is preventing others 

 from acquiring a home, and is actually 

 keeping down the population of the 

 State. 



Speculation in lands reclaimed by the 

 government must be checked at what- 

 ever cost. The object of the Reclama- 

 tion Act is not to make money, but to 

 make homes. Therefore, the requirement 

 of the Reclamation Act that the size of 

 the farm unit shall be limited in each 

 region to the area which will comforta- 

 bly support one family must be enforced 

 in letter and in spirit. This does not 

 mean that the farm unit shall be sufficient 

 for the present family with its future 

 grown children and grandchildren, but 

 rather that during the ten years of pay- 



*A letter from President Roosevelt to the Congress of Irrigation Engineers, held at Boise, 

 Idaho. September, 1906. 



