Arizona republican., 1901-11-18

conditions in the Salt River Valley
 knows that if a reservoir were assuerd. every <acre available for cultivation
 under the reservoir would be in tillaer
 and yielding a revenue the first year 1 in which water was supplied.
 GOVERNMENT AID
 ! It is evident that for the Salt River ! Valley there is not much encourage ! ment in the movement for construction i of reservoirs by the government for tho | reason that 1t is feared congress would
 not be easily persuaded to appropriate money for the benefit of lands already : settled. inasmuch as the headway sn
 far made for reservoir construction for { the public lands has not reached the point of assured success. But two so- l lutions accordingly appear to offer. The i capital required must be provided by 1 private corpora tion. alone or assisted i by some form of local encouragement. [ or the construction must be done by the | county or district thereof. Earnest ! consideration of these points is now ! enga ging the attention of the people of ] the valley.
 i There is of course deep interest in the general question of government aid i to the people of the west in the matter | of storage enterprises. It is insisted | must be confessed. that the government | very properly could extend financial as sistance in the reclamation of the arid i lands for the reason that the expeu- : allure would be for the direct benef, ] of intending settlers and the outlay ul- i timately would be returned to the pub ! lie treasury.
 If congress could be brought to {. favorabl consideration of the proposed ! g=1-G ts-i. aa1 sons for beginning the work here. As l heretofore explained. ana as Torcibly | pointed out by the secretary of the in ! terior. the construction of the propos- ed dam at san Carlos on the Gila river would settle permanently the question ] of q water supply for the Indians on I the Gila river reservation. of whom there are4.o0 engaged in an attempt 70 | make living by farming. Unless T ! system of irrigation is provided for them by the government they must iu- l evitably become d bUrGelsome charge ' upon the national treasury. whereas ] their capa bilities in the way of self support are altogether satisfactory. Not only would the San Carlos reservoir provide these Indians with a permanent i water supply. but many thousands of acres of vacant land would be availa ble [ for homeseekers. The revenues from 1 the districts thus irrigated. even ] though based on very moderat.. | charge for the water service annually. l would be sufficiently large to more than | pay d good interest on the money ns- i cessary to be invested in construction: | Complete information as to the cost of | the proposed reservoir is winthin reach ! of congress, and it is to be hoped that i the coming session will authorize the | beginning of the work. No better op- | portunity could be offered for trial | of the plan of the government construc- 1 tion of reservoirs.
 | on the general question as to the best
 method of quickly bringing about the settlement and improvement of the arid | lands. have in no wise receded from
 the position heretofore taken, namely. i that the most practicable course woul,i i be through d general cession of the arid lands to the states and territories | in which they lie. Unless it be assume | at the outset that the people are i'm capa ble of self government. there can
 be no argument whatever against per i hitting them to take over the publio domain and use it q basis for obtain | ing capital for the construction of res ervoirs. The entire opposition to the
 suggestion lies in the assumption that | the people are essentially corrupt ana
 that the lawmakers whom they woulI i direct to represent them would be per i versely dishonest: in the assumption | that it would be impossible for con gress to devise measure which would ! properly protect the people from spolia- i tion: and finally in the assumption that capital is always dishonest and should have no consideration or encoura ~e-
 ment. Happily such inferentiaI argu- ments are confined to but few. ani
 
 DETAILS CONCERNING IRRIGA- TION.
 Arizona has been inhabited at differ ent times by three races. each making use, of irrigation in agricultural opera tions. Of the first, or prehistoric, rac'.
 very little is known. Evidences abound 1 that It inhabited Arizona for eX- tended period and had vanished before | the advent of the white man in Ameri
 ca. In Maricopa and other counties are l found traces of this race, and the pres 1 ent canals and ditches for irrigation in many places follow closely the lines laid down centuries ago. When the l region was explored by white men the | agricultural Indians were practicing ir-
 risation of primitive kind, very much fas do their present successors. The | white settlers have improved on these
 methods. and population, agricultural | development and wealth have ad- vanced on lines parallel with the arti- fcial application of water to the culti- vation of the soil. The sketch map rep resents, by areas. in solid black. the | main regions in which Irrigation has 1 been successfully applied to any con siderable extent.
 Of the 72. 2.26S.ScO acres of l3nd surface
 of Arizona only 1.935. 327. or ~ per cent. were included in farms in 1900 and only 254.521. or 0-35 per cent, are improved.