The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-27
Millions Will Be Spent in Making Desert Land Fit
 For Farming
REPORT OF ENGINEERS
 SHOWS DETAILED COST
Engineers Say That Work of Irrigation and Land Reclamation Is still in It's Infancy in United
 States

Taft has approved the report of the spe- cial board of army engineers recommend ing the apportionment of the new coo fund provided by Congress, among the following reclamation projects in the west:
 Salt river, Arizona 5000; Yuma. Ari- Eona and California, $1,2oo,0o0; Grand Valley. Colorado. $1,O00t0O0; Uncompahgre, Colorado, s5Oo,o0o: Payotte-Boise, Idaho, 2. .ooo.O00 Milk river, Montana, $ooo.ooo; North Platte. Wyoming and Nebraska, f2,000,0oo; Truckee and Carson, Nevada, i3 t,1s3.ooo Rio Grande, New Mexico Texas and Mexico, s4,5OoOo0; Umatilla, Oregon, ss25.o00; Klamath, Oregon and California, seoo,ooo; Strawberry Valley, Utah, $2272.- , 900; Sunnyside and Tieton at Yakima, Washington. sl,25o,ooo and s665oOo. respec- lively. Total, s20,0o0,00o.
 The s2o.0OoOO0 is to be spent within the next five years and the interest on the loan Is to be charged against the projects. The following projects, completed or nearing completion. carry recommenda- tion for funds from the general reclama- tion act sufficient only for maintenance and operation:
 / Orland, Cal Carlsbad. N. M, Hondo. N M, Garden City. Kan. Kittitas. Wa pata and Benton Units of the Yakima washington, project. s@
 Tn his letter to the secretary of the in- terior approving the report of the en- gineers, President Taft says in part:
 President Taft's Views
 "I hereby approve the report of the board of engineers in respect to the re- clamation projects to which they have made allotment from the $2O,000000 loan. but this approval. so far as the amounts of the ailotments are-conccrred, is not final and absolute, but is intended to be subject to change by adjustment and modification of the amounts as may be necessary for the intelligent and proper prosecution of the work and to the ad- vantage of the service
 You are authorized to call upon the secretary of the treasury to issue the cer- tificates of indebtedness needed to furnish the funds in accordance with the allot- ment recommended by the board and provided by me as the same shall be needed from time to time in pursuance of the terms of the act. The remainder of the report of the engineers, which was not responsivle to the direction of the law but was drawn at my request and for my information, I hereby approve; and when Congress reconvenes In Janu- ary I shall submit a message to the two houses, transmitting the report announc- ing my approval of the same and urging the adoption of the enabling legislative measures recommended by the board"
 Report of Engineers N In its comprehensive report on the re- clamation work in general the engineers board says in part:
 "The engineering structures of the va rious projects are, as a whole, well de- signed and well built. Some of them, as the Pathfinder dam, the Shoshone dam, the Roosevelt dam. and the Gunison tun- mel, are monuments ref1ecting great cred 1t on both designer and builder
 Modern irrigation being relatively new art in this country. much freedom was allowed local engineers in the design of minor structures. While this was a wise policy In the early stages of the work it has resulted In some complicated and unnecessarily expensive structures. With the present knowledge of the comparative merits of the difficult types, it is be- lieved> standard designs of the simpler satisfactory type should be adopted for all minor structures.
 "The most uncertain feature of nearly all the projects is the water supply. This is under state control and in the prosecution of it's work the reclamation service bears the same relation to the state as a private individual or corpora tcn. Where the water rights have been adjudicated. the rights of the United States are we'll defined but elsewhere they are uncertain and may prove to be materially different from that assumed.
 ''It is recommended that wherever pos .sible steps be taken to secure an early adjudication of water rights on all prof ects where such adjudication has not yet been made and that pending such action expenditure be kept within the probable rights of the United States.
 Cost of Completed Work
 ''The actual cost of completed work has almost invariably exceeded the original estimates and in the case of some struc- lures has been two or three times as large. This increase in cost has been the cause of much discontent among the set tiers. It was partly due to a general n- crease in the cost of labor and materials, rarty to underestimate and insufficient allowance for contingencies and partly to the necessity of doing more work than was originally contemplated"
 Under exist. ig regulations, the report sets forth the. construction charges must be returned to the reclamation fund h 10 equal annual payments Init, it is said, is regarded as a hardship by the settlers on some projects who express a desire for series of graduated con struction payments increasing from 1 per cent or per cent the first year to IA or !. 15 per cent the tenth year. Shouli this 4 suggestion be generally adopted, 1t is ~ pointed out, 1t would mean a delay of several years in the return of the first half of the investment and a correspond ing delay in the completion of other work.
 4.-.-E ---.<