LAND RECLAMATION POLICIES IN THE UNITED STATES 13 
Table 6, taken from the twenty-first annual report of the United 
States Reclamation Service, shows the material results accomplished, 
to 1922 : 
Table 6. — Results of the work of the United States Reclamation Service. 
Acreage to which service was ready to supply water in 1922. 
Acreage irrigated, in 1922 
Acreage in crops, in 1922 
1, 700, 000 
1, 250, 000 
1, 175, 000 
Irrigation district act. — Under the act of August 11, 1916, public 
lands within the boundaries of irrigation districts organized under 
State laws may be included within such districts under certain con- 
ditions, including the approval of district plans by the Secretary of 
the Interior. Under the State irrigation district laws the cost of 
irrigation for each district is taxed against the land included within 
that district. The effect of the Federal act is to- make the public 
lands within approved districts subject to these taxes, with a pro- 
vision that " nothing in this act shall be construed as creating any 
obligation against the United States to pay any of said charges, 
assessments, or debts incurred," but that the charges shall be met by 
the person who takes up the land. Until someone applies for tlie 
land there is no way of making the land liable for its share of the 
cost of providing the water supply. 
This act, like the Carey Act, is an attempt to make the land finance 
its own reclamation, without making the land directly liable for the 
cost. As under the Carey Act, there is State and Federal approval 
of projects, and an appearance of public liability for cost that does 
not exist in fact. 
The fundamental policy running throughout the whole series of 
Federal laws has been to let the public lands supply the financial 
basis of their own reclamation. Under the swamp land acts (1849, 
1850, 1860) the swamp lands in the States then organized and con- 
taining public lands were granted to the States in order that the 
States might reclaim them. The desert land act (1877) enlarged the 
area that might be taken by one person over that allowed under the 
homestead act, for the alleged reason that the cost of supplying 
the water for irrigation made this necessary. The Carey Act (1894) 
attempted to solve the problem of making specific areas of public 
land security for the funds to build the irrigation works for their 
own reclamation. The irrigation district act (1916) is another at- 
tempt at the same thing. The- reclamation act (1902) made funds 
arising from the sale of all public lands available for the reclamation 
of limited areas. Later acts (oil leasing act, 1920; water power act, 
1920) have added to the reclamation fund a part of the receipts 
from leases of privileges on other public lands. 
It is to be observed that throughout the whole period the problem 
has been the financing of reclamation, and the measures have run all 
the way from granting rights-of-way for ditches to giving away the 
land and advancing the money without interest to pay for the con- 
struction of reclamation works. 
