A Survey of Reclamation: how the Great Government Adventure in Irrigation of the Arid West Came Into Being and what it Has AccomplishedMcGraw-Hill, 1923 - 64 pages |
Common terms and phrases
acre agricultural alfalfa amount Arizona banker build built California canals capital Carey Act cent charge Colorado Colorado River Congress consideration construction cost crops dairy debt Delhi ditches drainage Engineering News-Record enterprise experience extension fact failures favorable federal reclamation future homes Idaho Imperial district Imperial Valley interest Interior investment irri irrigated land irrigation district irrigation farming irrigation project irrigation water labor land owners land reclamation less live-stock loan matter ment methods Minidoka Newlands Newlands project North Platte project official operation organization payment pioneer political poor land possible practically present private irrigation problem production profit public lands Reclamation Act reclamation farmer reclamation law reclamation projects Reclamation Service region Salt River Secretary selection settlement settlers soil success tion troubles Twin Falls United Valley water supply water users West western whole
Popular passages
Page 5 - charges which shall be made per acre upon the land entries, and upon the lands in private ownership which may be irrigated by the waters of the said irrigation project . . . shall be determined with a view to returning to the reclamation fund the estimated cost of the construction of the project.
Page 5 - ... he shall give public notice of the lands irrigable under such project, and limit of area per entry, which limit shall represent the acreage which, in the opinion of the Secretary, may be reasonably required for the support of a family npon the lands in question...
Page 4 - An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and for other purposes," and amendments thereto, shall be restricted to and shall contain only so much land as is actually necessary for the construction and maintenance of reservoirs, excluding so far as practicable lands occupied by actual settlers at the date of the location of said reservoirs...
Page 4 - That in all patents for lands hereafter taken up under any of the land laws of the United States or on entries or claims validated by this act, west of the one hundredth meridian it shall be expressed that there is reserved from the lands in said patent described a right of way thereon for ditches or canals constructed by the authority of the United States.
Page 5 - No right to the use of water for land in private ownership shall be sold for a tract exceeding one hundred and sixty acres to any one land owner, and no such sale shall be made to any land owner, unless he be an actual bona fide resident on such land, or occupant thereof residing in the neighborhood of said land, and no such right shall permanently attach until all payments therefor are made.
Page 48 - Settlers were to pay 5 per cent. of the cost of the land and 40 per cent. of the cost of the improvements at the time of purchase, the remainder of the purchase price to extend over a period of twenty years with interest at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum. Payments...
Page 9 - The increase in value of lands and other properties on farms and in towns within the projects is estimated at $550,000,000.
Page 31 - The Reclamation Service has unquestionably been one of the best administered bureaus of the government with no taint of politics, graft or intentional wrong" (HH Brook, "Difficulties and Complaints of the Farmer," in A Survey of Reclamation [New York, 1923], 31).
Page 19 - ... selection" provision in the Newlands Act would have been thought to be suffering from political schizophrenia, or worse. FH Newell, after noting that more than 75 per cent of the "first comers" had departed from the projects within three years, cryptically summed up the problem from the Service's viewpoint. "In proportion, however, as the land owners under the reclamation projects have been lacking in ability, strength, experience and good health and other essential qualifications, to that degree,...
Page 51 - Likewise, they have the services of the best-trained engineers in the United States. These engineers have had more practical experience than any other engineers of like training. 2. Our experience is that the Reclamation Service is able to do construction drainage work far cheaper than private contract. We have figured that...