8 BULLETIN 1177, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
There is a possible field here for public aid in land settlement, which 
is still somewhat in the experimental stage in the few States that 
have taken it up. 
Under this heading may be classed also those districts for which 
there was no economic justification and which failed to attract* 
settlers in sufficient numbers to be of substantial assistance. 
Past conditions permitting unfeasible undertakings. — That irrigation 
districts have been allowed to be formed and financed under conditions 
conducive to failure has been due in past years largely to overoptimism 
of landowners, manipulations of promoters, connivance of certain 
bond houses, inexperience in district possibilities and limitations, and 
absence of official restraint. The fact that bond investors did not 
discriminate sufficiently between speculative and non speculative 
bonds made possible the flotation of issues with little security beyond 
a purely prospective value. In certain speculative districts, with one 
or more of the necessary elements of land productivity, water, 
reasonable capitalization, and rapid colonization lacking, the inability 
to meet payments led to demoralization and failure to create the 
required security. Inasmuch as bonds of those districts had been 
sold to the ultimate investors on practically the same basis as bonds 
of districts in already proven communities, instead of being sold on the 
basis of a speculative investment, the failures reacted very unfavorably 
upon the sale of nonspeculative bonds as well. 
At the present time what the district can and can not accomplish 
is better known than it was. The temper of the bond market during 
the past 10 years has not been such as to sanction the financing of 
questionable schemes on any great scale, and in any event the effects 
of State supervision have been beneficial in making known the opinions 
of qualified State officials as to feasibility and in preventing the 
formation of certain districts considered to be unfeasible. 
WHERE THE DISTRICT HAS SUCCEEDED. 
Some district enterprises in which the security for the bonded 
indebtedness remained to be created have attained success because 
they have combined the features necessary to rapid development of 
the land and production of income. But the proportion of districts 
of this type that have proved successful from all standpoints is small 
in comparison with the proportion in which at least a fair amount of 
the security existed at the time of organization. Supplemental 
development of itself is not conclusive upon adequacy of the security, 
nor does new construction necessarily imply a speculative enterprise; 
yet the present status of districts formed, respectively, for supplemen- 
tal and for new development, as shown in Table 3, page 10, is indicative 
of the fact that districts of the supplemental class have more generally 
attained their ends. Furthermore, though there are sliming examples 
to the contrary, the class of districts formed for extensions, better- 
ments, and other supplemental purposes has provided many more 
cases of prompt payment of obligations than has the group organized 
for new construction. Supplemental development implies some prior 
development through which values have been created and irrigation 
works constructed and put into operation, together with a certain 
amount of income already accruing from the benefits of irrigation. 
As the irrigation district is dependent upon revenue, it has followed 
that conditions making possible immediate and adequate revenue 
