The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-11-10
BALLINGER IS
WINNING OUT.
Time Shows in Some Points He
Was Right in Row Over
Conservation.
BY Ernest G. Walker.
Iail SPECIAL to The Advertiser.)

points IN his controversies on CON
servatiOn policies Developments are
bringing out that, in some measure, at
least, he was right and that his western
critics were in error. For example, it
Il 4 as Just been brought out that the
numerous irrigation projects the gov
eminent has been constructing have
put water on 768,000 acres, but APP
plications have been received thus far
for water rights on but 425,000 acres,
which leaves 900 acres ready for
the plow.
Very determined denunciations were
ieyeled at the secretary's head few
months ago, because he thought illegal
cooperative work - by which nearby
Settlers had been allowed to construct
bitches to their own property, in ac-
cord with plans of the irrigation en-
gineers, and take certificates of the
governments indebtedness to them.
This decision was proclaimed as Grip
ping the splendid work the reclama
ton service was doing and as de-
moralizing the esprit du corps of the
& thousands of skilled employees engaged
upon pending projects. Ultimately the
. secretary decision was upheld in an
i opinion from the attorney general and
4 the opposition among enthusiastic adj
vocates of aggressive execution of
reclamation policies subsidized
& In the face of conditions. so strongly
E emphasized, the reclamation service in
a bulletin, commenting upon the large
acreage of irrigated land, not yet
]. taken up by settlers, declares that
3 1.-THE work is much in advance of the
B needs of the people" and this addi-
tional semiconfession is made, that
'Fthe great problem, therefore, is no
3 longer that of engineering, but how to
4 put this unoccupied land into the hands
8 Of men who will Immediately utilize
d it for crop production.
The approximate investment in this
B uu,ccupied $4,000 acres, all now
B standing idle. is a little over 100000 900,
q so that in one sense these $10,000,000
& are locked up until the farmers make
& application for the water and in an
B nual instruments pays to the govern
ment the proportionate share of the
B money which has thus been invested
+ Nevertheless. the reclamation service
Il is going ahead this year with the com
3 pletion of existing projects, the en-
3 largement of other projects and the
q construction of entirely new projects.
1t is estimated that about $l0,000,000
& will be put into this new work during
& the next twelve months. That sum
Il has already been allotted by Secre
! tary Ballinger to work in various west
ern States and the reclamation service
n engineers are busy making plans for
the award of contracts.
The idle land will undoubtedly be
taken up in due time and it is not neces-
q sarily a criticism of the service that
settlers have not shown greater readi
4 ness in taking up all the irrigated
& lands. The cost per acre is pretty
high and the annual rentals for water
seem large to many prospective occu-
i pants 1t not only requires quite
bit of capital to take up an irrigated
farm, but also more than usual farm
I ing skill Not infrequently crops fail
& for the first year or two. Desert lands,
B that have been dry and barren for I'M
& told centuries, sometimes come under
& cultivation slowly. even though they
& be exceedingly rich in properties that
& make vegetable life grow iuxuriantlv
Ri
3 irrigation projects. built by the gov
! eminent, is known as the Truckee-
4 Carson project in the sink of the
{ Carson river in Nevada The soil there
L is of almost inconceivable richness.
& When the water was turned on and
Ierops were planted, the winds blew, as
4 of gld and with such force that the
EeoTpr of earth was blown off the seed
E which was iett exposed to the sun.
EThe government has spent $4,19S,000
ION the Truckce-C Carson project and the
Seeming year will spend $4,000 more
IN putting water upon 100000 addi
! tional acres But it has been de-
Imonstrated that settlers must have
IpatieBce with their first crops. till
Vegetable roots and ibers have pene-
trated the soil sufficiently to bind it
somewhat. \ reclamation engineer, who
Ireapntlv visited there, prophesied that
Ibefore many years that land would be
Aworth 500 an acre.
Z There are similar stories of Difficult
4ties In bringing arid lands under cul-
Xtivation on the score of other reclama-
Ition projects, which the government has
Imade ready FIR the settler. At first
4there was trouble in convincing the set
Itlers that they would really have 10
H. tAt 8bE tEHHeNI TOT the rama ana
I9lsotNar The nse Of the wafer. They
SHARED the opinion that in the end the
government did not intend to enforce
Acallectiors. Many settlers with insult
afcinpt canital rushed upon the lands
aand put in crops, only to find them
SELVES in financial distress when the
1ime came for payments. Lumber and
81 materials for ,arm buildings are in
svariably expensive in these desert spots
HFhich the government is undertaking
Z o make blossom like the rose. For the
Inoney he pays the government the set
I,er obtains absolutely nothing except
he land and the water and it costs
- heavily to install the necessary
/ lNipwent.
ln~@1e long run. the triumphs of set
ers reer the obstacles TO filling re-
CLAIMED land, will work 10 the govern