IRRIGATION DISTRICT OPERATION AND FINANCE. DO 
Supervision over district activities by State officials is general. 
Supervision applies to formation of districts, to plans and estimates 
of construction, and to certification of bonds as legal investments 
for trust and savings funds. State control has exercised a moderat- 
ing influence upon the organization and financing of districts and 
made the promotion of unfeasible projects more difficult. 
Financial aid to irrigation districts, in the interest of development 
of the State's resources, has been granted to a limited extent in two 
States and is engaging attention in other States. 
Districts have cooperated extensively with the United States 
Reclamation Service in connection with Federal reclamation projects 
and have superseded the water users' associations in some cases. 
Distribution of water is pro rata to all lands in some States, 
according to beneficial use in others, and according to the value of 
the land as provided by several statutes. Actual practice has seldom 
developed a distribution according to land values because of possible 
inequities. 
Districts are granted the power of eminent domain, construction 
of drainage works, and sometimes development of electric power. 
Municipalities may be included in districts in some of the States. 
Public lands of the United State- may now be included under the 
provisions of an act of Congress. Several States permit State lands 
to be included. 
Local improvement districts within irrigation districts may be 
organized in four States and have been put into successful operation 
in Washington. 
Cooperation with other districts in the same State is not uncommon. 
Cooperation with districts in adjoining States has seldom occurred. 
Districts may be legally dissolved upon liquidation of indebtedness. 
Fifty-eight districts in the United States have been dissolved. 
Failures among irrigation districts have resulted from opposition 
of principal financial interests in the district, unproductive lands, 
inadequate water supply, overcapitalization, faulty engineering, and 
principally from insufficient settlement of land/ Formation and 
financing of districts under such conditions have been due to over- 
optimism of landowners, manipulations of promoters, connivance of 
some bond houses, inexperience in district possibilities and limita- 
tions, absence of official restraint, and marketing of speculative bonds 
without their true character being known to purchasers. 
Successes among irrigation districts have been mainly among dis- 
tricts formed for acquisition of going concerns, extensions, better- 
ments, cooperation with the United States, and for new construction 
in partially developed communities or in sections where development 
has followed rapidly. 
_ The essentials of success have proved to be productive land, suffi- 
cient water, reasonable capitalization, and adequate land settlement. 
