The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-07
Director Newell Enthusiastic for Reclamation
---By James B. Morrow-

and is used to fatten cattle Sugar
beets bring in large return, but, OF
course, sugar mill must be in the vi
cinity- Fruits pay handsomely when
there are transportation facilities.
Wheat isn't largely profitable because
is limited, and the cost of the crop, all!
things considered, is high"
"WheD all the dry lands have water,
and all the swamps are drained, will
the food supply of the country be ada
quate for long time to come7"
might be called the doubtful ground
of agricultural economy Mr.. Newell
answered. "Crops will be immensely
increased, without doubt, but in the
meantime the population will grow
with our supply Of flour and meat. You
have suggested never ending argu-
ment-an inquiry that takes rank. per-
haps. with the one concerning the prior
ity of the hen or the egg. India, dense
| ly populated, with its big crops and
crop failures, is on the edge of fam
inc most of the time
Private corporations 7 said, Ears
also spending millions of dollars on irri-
CATION enterprises,
Indians. Built Irrigation Works =
| "Oh. yes. Irrigation projects in this
country reach back to the works built
|
years ago, and it may be 1000 years
ago. We cannot tell how many acres
Of dry lands have been reclaimed in the
past by companies and corporations OF
men operating in different parts Of the
west, but the total acreage has besnj
very large -
Are irrigation bonds, so generally
offered TO the public, Il safe form of IN
| vestment?''
"Some arc good and some are bad and
some 'problematical. No one should
buy an irrigation bond unless he knows
all the facts. and the facts are hard to
get. Lawyers and engineers of the
east cannot inform themselves about an.
irrigation project without a long and
skillful study of the situation. In the
first place. the irrigation laws of our
states are disgrace to the nation. They
conflict with one another and are not
always applicable. We have based all
statutes of England. which is humid
country. and therefore we are behind
some of the dry countries which, in our
opinion, are scarcely better than bar,
barous-but they have been wrestling
with the water question for many CEN
turles.
"An eastern lawyer may see the
water rushing through a western river
In the wet season. The banks are FULL
The LAWYER does not know that III ~
month the bed of the river may be drV
as the ground on which he is stand
ing. Nor does he know that appli-
cations for water, covering a dozen
counties, perhaps, more than equal the
capacity of the river, even in the tins
of its highest flood. Unless he is thor
oughly Informed about the records Oh
all the counties and the actual condiI
tions along the river, his report to the
clients who sent him west will be abso-
lutely worthless"
"Hns the government any farms to
give away7"
eyes, about 500 of them, in the states
of Montana, Oregon, South Dakota
and Wyoming. The farms vary in
size from twenty acres to eighty acres
piece. The water right will cost the
settlers from $50 to $50 an acre, OF from
$S to Sc an acre annually for ten years
after that there will be no expense
except for maintenance. and it will be
Y little more than nominal -