Wells, A: Government Irrigation and the Settler

Excerpt from Government Irrigation and the Settler: California, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona, Including a Description of the Imperial Valley Project

T'is not quite eight years since the Reclamation Act was passed. In that brief period a great national movement has been organized, and more than invested by the Reclamation Service. Not only so, but it will require more to complete the projects now under way in the West, the Northwest and Southwest, and this amount will be expended in the next three years if Congress will meet the special exigency and advance the inoney. The results of this vast expenditure are placed at the service of the settler, at the actual cost of work done and without asking for interest on the money invested. Not a dollar has been taken from the pocket of the tax payer, and not an acre has gone into the hands of a speculator. The working of no system is perfect, but here the work has been safeguarded with much care, and has been done for the benefit of bona-fide settlers, and homes have been erected for many thousands under the most promising conditions: Opportunities have been made for a large body of citizens to own land - good land, passed upon by experts after careful examination land well watered, in area sufficient to support a family, and under the best irrigation systems which money and skill could construct.

No charge has been made for the land. The land is given away under the terms of the Homestead Act, and the Government simply recovers the actual cost of the water. Where lands are held in private ownership, this ownership is limited to 160 acres, and the rest is required to be sold to actual settlers. The practical working of the Service is to reduce the acreage under one holding, and to provide as many homes as possible on the lands available for reclamation.

Now it is worth while to ask what all this means. It is a new thing in our history. A new departure in the functions of government. What is behind it?

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.