Arizona republican., 1914-03-02


 Western and Highline canals. There are 54 homesteads of 40 acres
 each, S7 homesteads of 80 acres each. 21 homesteads of 120 acres each, and
 TO homesteads of 160 acres each There are holdings in excess of 40 ! acres of irrigable land per entryman
 of 17271 acres on the project.
 1 It has been shown that there are 1 about 232000 acres of irrigable lands
 now within the limits of the project, and it has likewise been shown that 1 there can be developed a water sup ply for a maximum area of about
 195,000 acres. It therefore becomes
 necessary to reduce the area of the project 37,OOO acres.
 The articles of incorporation of the association, indicate that it will be ! necessary to give preference to culti- vated lands in determining the lands which will be included in the project,
 regardless of compactness of the body | of the project as a whole, productivity
 of the land. residence on the land by
 the owner, or size of the holding of
 the owner.
 l If the articles of incorporation of
 the association are followed, making | cultivation the criterion of the in-
 clusion of lands and in addition to
 this the principles laid down by the
 department for the guidance of the board are also followed, the condi- tions described below would result. The 164,312 acres of land now under
 cultivation would be included in the project without consideration of com 1 pactness of the project, relative pro- | ductivity of the land residence on
 the land and size of holdings. Sub l tracing from the total area of 195,- | 900 acres the 4460 acres for town
 sites and the 164,372 acres in cultiva- ton, there would remain for selection | 26,16S acres, the selection of which
 would be governed by the five prin-
 ciples laid down by the department. l Assuming that cultivation has pre- 1 cedence and that the uncultivated "A" and ''B" lands under the Kent decree
 in the order named, have the second
 conditions described below would re-
 suit. The project would be composed I of 164,372 acres of land now culti- vated 15,22S acres of "A" land now
 uncultivated, and of 10,940 acres of
 "B" lands now uncultivated. This would leave also 1885 acres of un-
 cultivated B lands without water Assuming the instructions given by
 Kent in his decree to be binding,
 there would be 15S,SO2 acres of class | "A" land and class B" land included
 in the project, to which could be
 added 31.73S acres Of cultivated "C'
 lands to make a full project, which
 would leave 1885 acres of cultivated "C" lands out of the project.
 1 If there are no legal objections it
 is the opinion of the board that it
 would be desirable to give first pre- l ference to the shares for 164,372 acres
 of cultivated lands and second prefer
 ence to applicants up to 40 acres of their holdings contracted with the l Waters Users association, and to
 make up the remaining area of the project by allowing each land owner whose lands are contracted with the water users association an acreage bearing the same ratio to his entire acreage not included in the above preference acreage as the additional | acreage needed to complete the limit ed project bears to the total contract i ed irrigable area of the present pro- 1 ject not included in the above two
 preference acreages.
 I The lands now under cultivation
 are so completely scattered through
 out the project that the canals neces-
 sary for their irrigation reach practi- cally all the irrigable lands in the project, and there is, therefore no disadvantage from a water distribu- | tion point of view, in including the lands not in cultivation on a propor- | tionate basis. Moreover the method proposed in the preceding paragraph rewards those water users who have cultivated their lands, provides a | means for caring for the small land owner and gives identical considera- | tion to all the larger land owners who have lands that are not under 1 cultivation.
 It is recommended that the adoption oI pTOJeCt OI l95OUU acres lncluQlng townsites, be supplied with by the present developed water supply of the l project with the construction of 21 additional pumping plants having capacity of ten second feet each and properly located, be submitted to the board of governors of the Salt River Valley Water Users association for l it's consideration and approval
 AS part of the printed report is sion to Chairman Hanna setting forth the views of the commission and put ting forward suggestions for discus sion in the valley.
 Relative to the recommendation to limit the irrigable acreage of the Salt River project to 170.000 acres under the water supply as now developed, this recommendation is approved, ex- cept that the irrigable area may be | crowded up to 175,O00 acres, if it is found necessary to increase slightly the acreage for additional cases where severe hardship would be worked on small land owners if the lands are excluded from the project. This area may be increased in the future by the Water Users association by the in- stallation of additional pumping plants, or by the construction of stor-