The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-07-12
MAKING DESERTS TO
UNITED STATES
$7O,OOO,OOO Already
Spent In Irrigation
Projects
NHROUGH the work Of the United
States reclamation service a con-
siderable proportion of the west


States reclamation service con-
siderable proportion of the west
ern desert area, extending from
Arizona and lower California north
ward into the state of Washington,
has been transformed, and the lands,
formerly worthless as q national asset,
now yield crops worth each year $780,
100000. Thirteen million acres in
these deserts have been planted to
grains, fruits and other crops. The
reclaimed areas, dotted with thousands
of comfortable homes, present undenia-
BILE proof that the possibilities for
homemaking and crop growing are just
beginning to be realized by the thou
sands of people for whom the govern
ment undertook and is carrying for
ward the reclamation work.
In this work of development the gov
ernment already has employed S70,-
100000. An additional S4S,OOO,000 is
to be invested in the next four years
S1,000,000 each month. OF this latter
amount a $20y000,00O bond issue was
authorized recently by the government.
anu lhC duullluuul P-OSOOO,OOO VIII w
derived from the income from the sale
of public lands and from the projects
already established, of which there are
more than thirty, either complete or
In course of construction. The fact
that this huge expenditure is to be
made by the government is sufficient
to suggest the transformation that is
A,I- Il, l,u
with its millions of acres of lands
which formerly comprised only unlim-
tied stretches Of drifting sand and al
kali flats unrelieved by any vegetation
other than the sagebrush, for, while
the government is carrying forward
its work there will be expended by
private capital developers operating in
the same field probably ten millions to
the governments one.
1t was the pioneer work Of the rec
lamation service which first served
to create more general interest in
the homemaking possibilities of the
west, and the impetus this interest has
been given is most forcibly reflected
by the appearance in many of the
larger cities during the last few years
of land and farm produce expositions
on big scale. Until three years ago
the only exposition of this nature ever
known was the state or county fair.
In addition a remarkable increase of
interest in the work of agricultural
colleges and experiment farms has
manifested itself. Until within pos.
sibly the last eight or ten years the
majority of farmers revealed an un-
mistakable prejudice against these in.
stitutions.
Land and Produce Expositions.
Probably from 100000 to 100000
persons will visit land and produce ex-
positions in Chicago, New York, Pitts
burg, st. Louis, Kansas City and other
points this year. The interest in such
expositions in Chicago always has
been such that it has been difficult to
provide a show place big enough to
accommodate the crowds. What the
interest will be in the New York ex-
position this year, the first one of the
kind ever given here, it would be diff
cult to foretell. When the problem Of
creating homes for the people in the
western deserts first was presented to
congress most of the national lawmak-
ers We're firm in the conviction that
/ that portion of the nation was hope
less of utilization for any such pur-
pose. They ridiculed the idea that any
considerable number of persons would
ever court starvation in such barren
land, and it required all the logic Of
such national leaders and thinkers as
Theodore Roosevelt, ]. NJ. Carey, gov
ernOr of Wyoming, and Senator New
lands of Nevada to convince congress
that the government could make the
desert arabic and livable.
| President Roosevelt signed the recla-
nation act on June II, 1902. 1t was
largely, if not wholly, through the eff
! forts of the national irrigation con-
gress that the act finally became a
| law. This congress, an educational
institution which for twenty years
has labored, through earnest men in
both public and private life. for a
greater development of the agricul-
tural resources of the country, has
been given the credit not alone for the
enactment of the reclamation act but
for many of the good results that have
been possible because of it, The con-
gress has in addition influenced the
national congress and state legisa-
lures from time to time to enact such
further legislation as would prove ben
eficial to the government in its recla-
nation work and has helped largely
to remove obstacles to progress in the
form of arbitrary state statutes which
were made laws before the reclama-
tion act was created.
Nineteenth Annual Gathering.
During it's existence the congress has
held an annual session at which state
governors and other public men of note
gathered for a session of one week
thus gaining year by year more and
more interest In the development pos
Ill, mn.