LAND RECLAMATION POLICIES IN THE UNITED STATES 31 
It appears from these figures that the average cost per acre for a 
water supply for irrigation during the last decade has been more than 
three times what it was in the preceding decade and more than eight 
times as great as it was before 1890. This very rapid rise in the cost 
of a water supply undoubtedly accounts, to a considerable extent, for 
the decided slowing up in the rate of expansion in irrigated area. 
In general, future reclamation of arid land will be increasingly 
difficult because the more easily-constructed projects are already 
developed, and, therefore, it will be increasingly expensive unless 
increased difficulty is offset by decreases in wages and cost of ma- 
terials. Since there are several alternative means by which increased 
agricultural products may be obtained, increased cost of reclamation 
may tend to force development into other directions. 
Furthermore, the cost of agricultural production on reclaimed land 
is not limited to the cost of reclamation works, but includes the cost 
of establishing new farms, as well as the cost of all community im- 
provements and institutions, such as railwa}^, highways, schools, 
churches, etc. These elements of cost have not always been adequately 
considered in advance. It is not uncommon to see comparisons be- 
tween cost of reclamation works and land values or gross crop values, 
with the implication, if not the statement, that these values can be 
credited to reclamation alone, and that the difference is a measure of 
the profit of reclamation. 
This fallacy has been responsible for much of the reclamation ac- 
tivity of the past. The wide margin between the value of desert or 
swamp land and that of highly improved reclaimed land when com- 
pared to the cost of a water supply or of drainage canals has made 
it appear that there was possibility of large profit in the financing 
of reclamation work which usually did not exist, because the cost of 
reclamation was but one item and not always the largest one, to be 
charged against the value of the improved land. This apparent 
possibility for profit has been used as a lure for investors in irriga- 
tion securities, and has been urged in Congress and in the press as 
an argument for Government participation in reclamation. Yet the 
fallacy seems too apparent to need statement. 
Not only does the creation of an improved irrigated farm involve 
many expenditures other than those incident to providing a water 
supply, but it involves the passage of much time, during which up- 
keep and interest eat into what might have been available for profit. 
The extent of the delay in utilizing irrigation works to their full 
estimated capacity has been determined roughly from the census re- 
turns for 1910 and 1920. The schedules from irrigation enterprises 
were grouped by the dates of beginning and the " ages " deter- 
mined by the differences between the dates of the beginning and 
the census year. For each age group the ratio between the acreage 
in the projects and the acreage irrigated in the Census year was 
computed. Curves based on the results are presented in Figure 1. 
For the census of 1910 this tabulation was not made by the Census 
Bureau, but was made by the writer from the census schedules. 
Only projects containing 5,000 acres or more were included in the 
1910 tabulation. The results, and the curves based on them, were pub- 
