IRRIGATION DISTRICT OPERATION AND FINANCE. 33 
improvement. Along this line a prerequisite not required in the 
case of certification is a complete survey of acreages irrigable, farmed, 
cleared and irrigated, cleared and dry farmed, and unreclaimed. A 
further showing must be made of all acreages that will be for sale if 
the reclamation works are built and that are covered by specific 
agreements between the owners and the district for sale at fixed 
prices, preference in their purchase being given ex-service men and 
women. 
Other States. — Recent attempts have been made in three other 
States to provide public financial aid for irrigation districts. The 
State engineer of Wyoming, in the fifteenth biennial report, published 
in 1920, made very strong recommendations for State assistance in 
financing sound irrigation projects on the ground that the need of 
further irrigation development in Wyoming is urgent. In Montana 
an initiative measure to provide for financing irrigation districts to 
the extent of $20,000,000 by the issue of State bonds and use of the 
proceeds in purchasing irrigation district bonds was defeated at the 
general election held November 2. 1920, by the comparatively close 
vote of 76,949 to 68,785. The last legislature of Arizona submitted 
to popular ballot a constitutional amendment authorizing the issuance 
of State bonds in aid of irrigation districts, which owing to certain 
technical difficulties did not get to a vote. 
So while no State has yet gone far along the line of developing its 
irrigation resources through the medium of public aid to irrigation 
districts, nevertheless recent developments in Washington, Oregon, 
Wyoming. Montana, and Arizona indicate the trend of thought on 
this subject. Two different viewpoints have governed the purchase of 
district bonds with State funds — investment and development — and 
the selection of bonds has varied accordingly. Where the prime 
motive has been investment, the State has chosen bonds satisfactory 
from the standpoints of security and net return and has made pur- 
chases mainly in small blocks. On the other hand, where the benefit 
to accrue to the State from the development of resources has been 
sought, in addition to or aside from the benefit of a good investment 
of State funds, the conclusion has been reached that the public funds 
should be placed where they would do the most good, even to the 
point of purchasing bonds much of the security for which remained 
to be created and of assuring the project that the State would carry 
it through to completion. 
RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES. 
UNITED STATES RECLAMATION SERVICE. 
The most prominent relations between irrigation districts and the 
Federal Government have been with the Reclamation Service. Dis- 
tricts which have had such dealings may be subdivided into two 
classes : 
(a) Districts formed at the instance of the Reclamation Service 
on reclamation projects, as substitutes for water users' associations, 
"for the assumption as principal or guarantor of indebtedness " of 
project lands to the United States. 
(b) Districts which have contracted with the United States, under 
the provisions of the Warren Act, for the purchase of water supplies 
or for the construction of irrigation or drainage works or both. 
