Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-09-01
ARID LANDS.
Report of Register H. w.
Patton on the Subject.
STORAGE RESERVOIRS NEEDED
A Document For The Senate Com.
mittee to Study Carefully-The
Probable Benefits.

mittee to Study Carefully-The
Probable Benefits.
In order to enable the Arid Land Com
mittee OF the United States Senate, in
regard to which an article will be found
in another column, to come to a proper
understanding of the needs of this Sec
ton in the shortest possible time, Mr.. Fl.
W. Patton, Register of the United States
Land Office in this district, has prepared
report which is accompanied by a map,
both of which will be turned over to the
Senators today. The report is as follows
Gentlemen Of the Arid Land Committee of
the United States Senate:
At the reeuest of the President of the
Chamber Of Commerce of this city, l
take pleasure in submitting to you few
figures in regard to the desert lands of
the Los Angeles land district.
The Act of Congress under which you
gentlemen are prosecuting your inquiries
would seem to, in q measure, confne
your work to consideration of the lands,
arid in character, which still belong to,
or are likely to revert to, the Govern
ment.
1t is of such lands within the limits of
the Los Angeles land district that shall
treat. My object will be to show you,
by means of map which I have had
made, ranges of mountains containing
many reservoir sites so sloped by nature
that only supplemental work will have
to be done by man to make them catch
ment basins Of vast capacity; to show
you the streams and water sheds which
will furnish the water for filling the stor.
age reservoirs, and to show land lying
under them belonging to the National
domain upon which this water can be
conducted, and thus the value of the
lands be increased from nothing per acre
to 500 per acre.
AS to the
COST OF THE WORK
To be done by the Government in this
district, it is impossible for me to furnish
an estimate, but it js not beyond my
widest hopes to convince you that the
Government will receive in actual cash,
through this land office, at the legal
price for land, every dollar expended in
the work done here, while at the same
time 5000, ,000,0 will be added to the
assessment rolls of the several counties
OF this district.
As for the benefit of irrigation, other
gentlemen will see to it that you are
thoroughly informed, and visits to places
where you will SEQ land on one side of a
ditch too high for the water to reach,
worth 75 cents per acre, and land on the
other side of the ditch, whereon water
can be and is conducted, worth 81 900
per acre, will have q very convincing
effect.
Fortunately, the Los Angeles land dis
trict contains more desert land suscep-
tible of irrigation than all the rest of the
State. say fortunately, because now
that the Government has taken this
matter in hand, our people have reason
to believe that every acre of this now
desert land will be reclaimed and put in
productive condition.
From careful examination of the rec.
ords of this Office, I find that in this dis
trict there are 13 ,156,000
ACRES OF ARID LANDS,
Divided into three bodies:
Colorado Desert. 4,699 900
Antelope Valley. 2,1s5, 900
These are lands which can be entered
under the Desert Land act as lands
(Which will not, without artificial irriga-
ton, produce agricultural crops in ordin-
ary years." Under the provisions of this
act person can, by paying twenty-five
cents per acre on single-minimum land,
or fifty cents per acre on double-minimum
land, enter not to exceed $40 acres; and
If he conducts water on the same and
reclaims it to such an extent that it will
raise crops, he shall have the privilege,
within three years. of proving up on said
land. and by paying an additional 81 OF
81 per acre, as the land may be single OF
double minimum, receive patent there
for.
That there is much land of this char
acter in the Los Angeles land district is
evidenced by the fact that 76S persons
have found in this district 333, ,1S1 acres
of land which they thought
COULD BE RECLAIMED,
And have paid into the land Office $780,
617.05 in first payments for such entries.
It may be surprising to know that out of
the large number Of entries-768-on
twenty-three persons have proved up,
and the Government has only parted
with title to 6,627 out of the total mum.
Der of acres entered. The remainder of
the 333, ,181 acres has either reverted to
the Government because OF t. g failure of
the parties to reclaim, or will shortly re-
vert because the work of reclamation is
too expensive for private enterprise. To
sum it up briefly, the Government has
received from the people Of the Los An
geles land district 1889 for first pay.
ment on desert lands, and the Govern
ment still has the land.
"In this connection trust it will not
be deemed indelicate to indulge in the
hope that, inasmuch as the Government
has secured this large sum from the
people of this land district, on account Of
desert lands, and the people have not
been benefited thereby, q proportionate
sum of the money appropriated for SUR
veys be expended down here, and an
investigation OF our wants be made by
the consulting engineers. 1t is matter
of reciprocity, and will be greatly to the
advantage OF the people and the Govern
ment.
NOT DIsCoURAGING SIGN.
1t must not be taken as discoursping
sign that 90 few final entries of desert
land have been made. 1t is purely
ouoot;ovn of o~nnrI;tvro auI A. e