THE NATION'S UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES 



209 



years ago, has become one of the richest 

 portions of our country. This desert 

 included a variable area, generally all 

 west of the Missouri River to the Sierra 

 Nevada. Today it is harvest field, cattle 

 range, mining camp, and orchard — where 

 there is water. And where there is no 

 water it remains desert. 



There are at least four States which 

 can never increase greatly in stable popu- 

 lation unless their lands are brought 

 under irrigation. And in all of the West- 

 ern States there are tens of thousands 

 and in some millions of acres that will 

 remain waste land, fit only for the poorest 

 cattle range, and much not even for that 

 use, without the expenditure of large 

 sums for reservoirs, dams, canals, and 

 •ditches. 



That there is not water enough even 

 with the fullest storage to supply the 

 demands of all the arable land can safely 

 be said. That, however, there is suffi- 

 cient to care for a large part of this 

 territory and bring it into fruitfulness 

 there is no doubt. 



The government, seeing this condition, 

 undertook to lend itself to the develop- 

 ment of these lands by what is known 

 as the Carey act. This was a form of 

 cooperative effort in which the Federal 

 government turned over any required 

 body of lands to a State, which the latter 

 undertook through private enterprise to 

 irrigate. When to irrigate meant nothing 

 more than to divert a portion of a stream 

 from its bed and convey it by gravity to 

 the desert, this plan was attractive. But 

 since these simpler methods had to be 

 abandoned as no longer adequate, this 

 act has done little in the promotion of 

 such enterprise. 



The successful Carey act projects are 

 a distinguished few. Great wrongs to 

 trustful or none-too-wise farmers were 

 done in its name, and the suffering which 

 it caused has made it difficult to make it 

 serviceable, even under the more careful 

 scrutiny of later and more cautious 

 officials. 



THE government's reclamation work 



IS A SUCCESS 



Because of the magnitude of the 

 money investment required, and apprecia- 



tive of the need, Congress in 1902 adopted 

 the policy of undertaking irrigation 

 projects of its own. The moneys re- 

 ceived from the sale of public lands — less 

 5 per cent — went into a reclamation fund, 

 administered by the Department of the 

 Interior. The result has been the con- 

 struction of some 25 projects, scattered 

 through all of the arid-land States. In 

 these the government has invested ap- 

 proximately $76,000,000. One of these, 

 a pumping plant in Kansas, is now un- 

 used ; another, a flood-storage system in 

 New Mexico, is only in partial use ; both 

 of these, however, represent less than 1 

 per cent of the total investment. The 

 others are in operation, and less than 3 

 per cent of all the land which is served 

 or which we are ready to serve is unoccu- 

 pied. This work has been a success. 



Soon after taking office I received a 

 number of letters complaining of the 

 reclamation service. To inquire into these 

 complaints I first called a conference 

 in Washington of representatives from 

 all the projects and later visited most of 

 those from which most serious complaint 

 had been received. I cannot here review 

 the matters considered or the information 

 gained. My conclusion was that mis- 

 takes had been made by the service, some 

 of which grew out of ambiguities or 

 defects in the law, some out of inexperi- 

 ence, and others out of a misconception 

 of the relationship that should exist 

 between such a governmental service and 

 those with whom it was dealing. A 

 larger degree of frankness with the 

 farmer on our part and a fuller apprecia- 

 tion of the responsibilities assumed on the 

 part of the farmer will mend much of the 

 feeling that I found. 



RELIEF FOR THE USERS OF WATER RIGHTS 



But there is one matter of great 

 moment to these people which should be 

 corrected by law as soon as possible. 

 We mistook the ability of the farmer to 

 pay for his water rights. Ten years was 

 the time given. His optimism and our 

 own was too great. That time should be 

 doubled. This should be done not alone 

 because of the inability of many to meet 

 their obligations to the government, but 

 because it will prove wise policy to give 



