The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1904-03-18
ACTUAL SETTLERS
AND IRRIGATION
Settlement in the West Has
Caught up With irrigation


drawal of all timber lands from sale, by
the government is question the Great
Northern railroad has taken great
interest in. A circular on this question
has been distributed by the railroad
which will no doubt do good in arous-
ing public attention to the fact that
what is left of the public domain should
be put out of reach Of spectators.
The following interesting article from
the pen of VIM. E. Smythe, on the mat
ter of irrigation, which is closely allied
to the public land question, will be read
with INTERCEPT
Irrigation in the west is manifestly
on the uptrend.
The first boom in building large irri-
cation works in the west was at its
height Is years ago. The investment
was then very popular and eastern and
foreign money readily responded to the
call of the promoters. With only a few
exceptions every western state and ter
ritory received the benefits of this ex-
penditure.
But this development proved dissap-
pointing on the side OF colonization. 1t
was found that arid land, worthless
without water, was still without prac
tical value after the water had been
provided unless there was man there
to till the soil. And this man did not
come in sufficient numbers.
AS an investment irrigation lapsed
into unpopularity and the active cam
paign of reclamation by means of pri-
,vate enterprise came to an end. Since
then two things have happened.
The tide of settlement has caught up
with irrigation. There is now but little
virgin soil open to the homeseeker ex-
,cept in the valleys of the arid region.
Furthermore, the people have become
educated as to the merits of the irrigat-
ed farm. They understand what it
means to have their crops insured by
the ditch. They appreciate the advant-
ages of self suffieiency and of near
neighbors offered by the mall, diversi-
fled irrigated farm. So they are NOV
ing into all the places prepared for
them by the enterprise of other years.
California is getting many of them.
But just how many will not be known
until another census is taken. The rail-
roads report that they brought $4,000
people to California during 1908, OF
whom only 90, 900 had return tickets.
One hopeful report comes from the
newly reclaimed desert in the eastern
part of San Deigo county. On January
l, 1901, there was not a single white
man in the neighborhood. On January
l, 1902, there was onlya camp with a
dozen surveyors. January /, 1908, saw
a population of about 1000, while Jan
nary l, 1904, finds about 5000 on the
ground. They are still coming very
rapidly and another year is likely to
disclose an even larger gain. ae
The beautiful Yakima valley in east
ern Washington is witnessing similar
growth Indeed, this holds true of
many parts of the Pacific northwest
drained by the Columbia river and its
tributaries, including eastern Oregon
and southern Idaho.
The Rocky mountain states are find
ing a strong demand for their irrigated
lands. Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and
New Mexico are gaining recruits very
rapidly. And, perhaps, more encour-
aging than anything else is the activity
of settlement in the long neglected state
of Nevada. Railroad and mining devel-
opment have much to do with it, but
Nevada is also the beneficiary of the
general movement of population to irri-
gated lands. a1 s4sf
The lesson of all this is that the in
auguration of the new national irriga
ton policy is we'll timed and that the
duty OF saving the public lands for
actual settlers presses urgently upon
congress. 1t can no longer be claimed
that the people do not crave homes in
the west. They are clamoring at the
doors of this great empire and every
acre that the government shall reclaim
will be promptly taken by those who
are ready to cultivate the soil in good
faith. @
If we have needed the speculator in
the past as sort of advance agent of
prosperity, we need him no longer The
land laws under which he has grown
rich should be repealed and true
homestead law put in place of them, so
that no one except the actual settler
can get possession of this public prop