Lovelock tribune. (Lovelock, Nev.) 1898-1912, 1912-01-18
IRRIGATION
Wild CAT IS
NOW AT Large
State Still Suffers from the Fake
Promoter Who Turns from Mines
to Agriculture
LEGITIMATE COMPANIES LOSE
Newspapers Urged to Aid in Ex.
posing the Fake Land Rec
lanatiOn Schemes

The Goldfield Tribune has the fol-
lowing under the head Wildcat
ers After the Farmers"
Ceaseless vigilance and unremit--
ting prosecution have driven most
wildcatters from the mining field.
The evil has been abated but not
at this time entirely stamped out.
The same old manipulators evident
ly have studied the fashion books,
for they appear equipped with one
of these new reversible oyercoats
which enables them to gold brick
the investor in new guise every
time they meet him around the cor
ner. The victims of the latest
rapicity are found among the legit-
innate irrigation and reclamation
companies who find they can not
dispose Of their bonds and securit-
les, owing to the number of invest
who have been stung by the latest
form of frenzied finance. Reports
from New York and Boston state 1t
is almost impossible to float paper
which few years ago was regaded
as gilt-edged The irrigation field
has been worked to a FRAGILE, and
the buyers of what, in many cases.
appears to be- nothing better than
worthless rags. are declaiming
against all forms of farm securities
from the arid west.
The wildcatting of irrigation lands
is said to have put back the dey-
elopment of thhe arid country ten
years, and the list of victims, Is
only beginning to roll In. Nevada,
with q land area OF &c, ,268, ,440
acres, of which less than four per
cent is under cultivation, will be
one of the chief sufferers unless cit
izens of this State denounce the
the malefactors engaged In explo
iting our resources for their own
mercenary ends. Nevada stands in
need of capital to develop her lands
to build irrigation reservoirs and to
construct bitches to fertilize valleys
whose rich, loamy soil begs for
moisture to save them from the
encroaching sands of the desert.
OF the 1906 farms In Nevada 89.5
per cent of them we're irrigated In
1909. The acreage reporteda if-
rigated in 1909 was 701,833 acres
or 93,3 per cent of the improved
land In farms. The irrigation plant:
that existed in 1910 were capable
of supplying water to S4O,962 ac-
res, and the total acreage includ-
ed in projects completed or under
way in the same year was 1,232,-
142. The water wildcatter should
be driven from the land If Nevada
Is going forward at the pace set
this year, but it rests with the peo-
Pile of the State to see that nothing
but legitimate projects receive their
sanction or encouragement. The
State Engineer may be relied on to
do all in his power to circumvent
the artifices of the enemies OF irri-
CATION, but his office is occupied
with details of numerous projects
that can only be sifted out with the
most painstaking exactness, and
therefore he Is not in position to
devote much of his time to inquir-
les affecting the legitimacy of the
grab-at-sight concerns. If the
newspapers of Nevada do their du-
ty by systematically exposing In
stances of fraudulent land schemes
or the attempts of bogus land com
panies to victimize investors, the
evil may be mitigated. The wild ca
shuns the light of publiciyt, except
his own peculiar brand, so 1t be-
hoves the newspapers of Nevada,'
to throw the spotlight on the mar
keting of Nevada lands. e..