Bisbee daily review., 1914-02-07
LANDS
 PROVE WORTH OF
 NATIONAL PROJECT
Widespread Attention Is
 Called to Salt River District
 With Its $5,OOO, ,OOO Crops

WASHINGTON. Feb. 6.-(Special) The new commission appointed last summer by Secretary of the Interior Lane to preside over the reclamation | service in place of single adminis. trative officer. has already made good. so effective has been its work | the. serious complaints from settlers i have ceased and miner complaints are few.
 Crops worth approximately $l5.000.- 900 were produced on government re. clamation projects during the past year. The Salt River project in Ari. zona. about which there was a storm | cf criticism. produced crops worth sj,000,000. A striking feature was the success Of some of the younger men Of the ina Indians. who raised long staple Egyptian cotton valued at S35,. 900, all of which has been contracted for. This probably Is the largest amount Of money ever received by the ina Indians for an agricultural crop. although they have been farming in ihis rich valley for generations.
 lants are on foot for planting sui ficient cotton this year to bring rel turn Of Sl5O,OOO With the entire area of cotton land on the Sacaton reservation under cultivation it isl estimated that the imas win be able to grow a half million dollars worth .f this staple in a single season.
 When Secretary Lane took office last March one of the first things he lid was to look into the numerous complaints on file in his department about reclamation projects. He took a trip West and after studying con. ditions first hand concluded that the old one-man system would no longer work satisfactorily. He had the full est confidence in Director Newell, but believed the duties he was then try
 Ing tc discharge were too much for him. This explains the appointment Of a commission Of experts to preside over the reclamation service.
 The commission is headed b. Di' rector Newell Its other members are IA. Davis, chief engineer William A.
 Ran, comptroller. win R. King, chief
 counsel, and l. n. ODcnnell, super visor of irrigation.
 | The work Of the reclamation serv- lee was appropriated among these ! i've men and each was held responsi- ble for the portion assigned to him. Ion questions cf policy and matters
 involving important engineering ques'
 ions the entire membership of the
 commission was requirc- to confer. land their decision in a given case
 vas practically final, subject to alr proval by Secretary Lane.
 Under present conditions 1t is pos sible fer settlers on any project to
 receive replies to jim ortant com
 munications within a comparatively
 hort time. In the past matters sometimes would be delayed for weeks or even months. because of the press of othor important business in the secretary's effice.
 ; A very important feature Of the i, r,ey plan of Administration is the work of Commissioner ODonneil' who visits the various projects rom , time to time and ascertains what tLe , exact trouble Is whenever fouDie
 develops in connection witb the act nal irrigation Of land and the pro + duction of crops.
 Where A settler has not made a
 success of his farm, Mir oDonheli D makes 1t his business to learn why
 Then he endeayors 10 point out the II mistakes that have been made ahl
 shrw the farmer how 10 make sue | cess of fl. For two years Mr. ODon l. nell worked a forty-acre iarm on u'' n Huntiey project in Montana at th'
 reuest of Director Newell, absolutely T. without compensation, and succeede. G i'm demonstrating to the settlers tha [, if was possible to make real sue
 cess an an irrigated farm of that smal ,, area even in the great West, Ill s work has been a large factor m cum f mating complaints in the service
 As a general proposition the SCI a tiers have caught the spirit WILL 0 which Secretary Lane has gone m'
 reclamation matters and have beei
 very responsive to it. ln place or th s' cid nagging and complaint there ha st grown up spirit of cooperation d plentiful harvest the past season ol many projects also has contribute is largely to lessen the number oi req of ly serious complaints.
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