LAND RECLAMATION POLICIES IN THE UNITED STATES 
29 
Under those conditions the benefits, without the burdens, accrue to 
the community ; and the losses, in case of failure, fall on the outside 
investors. Under the Carey Act, and with irrigation and drainage 
districts, bonds are sold. These are based on the lands, but in fact 
depend for their value upon the successful settlement and cultivation 
of the land. 'Under the reclamation act, the funds are supplied by 
the Federal Government, and their return, in this case also, de- 
pends upon settlement and cultivation. 
In every case, local interests gain from the expenditure for recla- 
mation and whatever settlement takes place, without suffering from 
the loss to investors. Consequently, there is not sufficient relation 
between the demand for further reclamation work and the need for 
the land reclaimed for the growing of crops or the prospects for 
success on the part of those supplying the funds. 
Attention has been called to the large area of " reclaimed " land 
that had not been put to use, and to the fact that this area for irri- 
gation is sufficient to care for expansion in the area of reclaimed land 
put to use, at the average annual rate for the 10 years from 1909 to 
1919, for about 14 years; and that there is included in existing 
reclamation projects sufficient land not yet fully reclaimed to care 
for expansion at the average rate for an additional period of 21 
years. 
The census figures indicate, however, that the rate of increase in 
area used has been decreasing. No figures for the increase in use of 
drained land are available. The average annual increase in irrigated 
area between 1909 and 1919 — 475,843 acres — was but 71 per cent of 
the average annual increase between 1899 and 1909 — 668,882 acres. 
Annual figures are not available except for the United States Rec- 
lamation Service. The increases in area irrigated by that service 
from 1913 to 1922 are given in Table 14. 
Table 14. — Annual increase in area irrigated in United States Reclamation 
Service projects, 1913 to 1922. 1 
Year. 
Area 
irri- 
gated 
(acres). 
Increase 
over pre- 
ceding 
year 
(acres) . 
Year. 
Area 
irri- 
gated 
(acres) . 
Increase 
over pre- 
ceding 
year 
(acres). 
1913 
694,142 
761, 271 
814, 906 
922, 821 
1, 026, 663 
1918 
1, 119, 566 
1, 187, 255 
1, 225, 480 
1, 227, 500 
2 1, 202, 130 
92, 903 
67, 689 
38, 225 
2,020 
-25, 370 
1914 
67, 129 
53, 635 
107, 915 
103, 842 
1919 
1920 
1915 
1916 
1921 
1917 
1922 
1 Twenty-first Annual Report, p. 2. 
2 Twenty-second Annual Report, p. 1. 
It will be noted that the annual increase decreased from about 
108,000 acres in 1916 to about 2,000 in 1921, and that 1922 showed 
an actual decrease of more than 25,000 as compared with 1921. 
Throughout this period the unirrigated area for which water was 
available on United States reclamation projects was nearly a half 
million acres, so that lack of expansion was not due to lack of land 
ready for use. If the tendency toward gradual decrease in the an- 
nual increase in the area irrigated, as shown by the United States 
reclamation projects, may be regarded as typical, and should con- 
