Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1920-10-07
PLAN TO WATER
VAST DRY AREA
Project Up to Congress to Re.
claim 100000 Acres at
$250,000,C0O Expense.
turn DESERT into EMPIRE
Members Of House Committee on Ap-
preparations and Group of Western
Colleagues Make Inspection
Tour of Government
Projects,

Neutrality-suspicious. for puts.ns
100000 acres of land on the agsicu.-
tural map of the United States by a
program of reclamation calling for the
expenditure of about $250,0OO,OOO over
a ten-year period are to be considered
seriously by congress when it reas.
Sembles.
Members of the house approprla-
lions committee and group of West
ern colleagues who have been making
nm inspection tour of the governments
reclamation projects and Of the natiop-
al parks In company with officials Of
the department Of the interior, after
travelling 10000 miles by train and
1000 miles by auto and viewing the
Irrigation achievements since 1902
have come back earnest converts to
big reclamation plan.
Arthur =. Davis, director and chief
engineer of the reclamation service,
who accompanied the congressional
tour, is now in the West visiting other
projects and preparing his recon-
mendations for the annual estimates
to he submitted to Secretary Payne.
Secretary Payne Enthusiastic.
Secretary Payne, who has just in
Spected two of the governments prin-
cipal reclamation projects at Yakima,
Wash. and ShoshOne, Wy0., has be-
come an enthusiast regarding the de.
STABILITY Of utilizing Americas unde-
veloped resources by building new
commemorative In the arid West.
While the reclamation service is re-
stricted in Its estimates to $8,0OOOOO
or S9,O000OO, equivalent to the amount
received by sale Of public lands, sale
of water and returns on irrigation de-
velopments, Secretary Payne has al
ready declared his intention of asking
congress for $12OOO,0OO to open up
100000 acres of reclaimed land in
small farms, with special considera-
ton of the Shoshone project.
Representative VIII r. Wood (Rep.)
of Indiana, member of the appro-
priations committee, says that he and
others who have just inspected these
projects have been converted from
their previous reluctance to make such
large appropriations and now believe
that 1t Is national duty thus to Gre
ate opportunities for its citizens to
establish themselves In permanent
homes on such fertile areas, wrested
from the desert.
Many who opposed the farms for
service men" proposition in the last
congress on the grounds that it was
camouflaged reclamation have pledged
their support to an out-and-out irriga-
ton development.
Senator Jones Of Washington intro
duced bill in the last session which
seeks an appropriation of $3.50, OOO,OOO
for reclamation work and the interior
department has drafted program
that calls for more than that.
Turn Desert Into Empire.
Senator Charles L. McNary of Ore
gon wrote favorable report last De-
cember from the committee on irriga-
ton and reclamation of arid lands. He
pointed out that under the reclamation
act passed in 1902, the government has
expended in construction work little
over $123,OOO,0O0, that water for dr.
rigation purposes has been made avail
able for 1,7S0,000 acres of land, which
had been largely barren, desert waste
and unproductive. 1t is now worth
from 800 to $3.50 an acre, with an
average crop value per acre Of $63.6O.
"Out of the uninhabited and almost
desert has been carved an
empire of nearly 100000 acres, in
tensively cultivated and producing
crops whose annual average gross re-
turns per acre are about double those
of the rest Of the country" says Di.
rector Davis Of the reclamation serv-
ice.
While the bill introduced by Sena-
tor Jones calls for $250,0OO,000, the
reclamation service is now working on
80 projects which call for total ap-
Of $3O2, 100000. but re-
turns would be coming in from some
Of the earlier construction before the
entire expenditure was made OF the
4, 100000 acres which 1t is proposed
to add to the farm lands about one
third is public land belonging to the
United States government.
Director Davis has figured out that
the average value of lands in the
projects, did not exceed $40 an acre, or
s17, 900, 900, when the government ir-
rigation was started In 1902, and that
today they easily represent increases
In land values of $556,O00,000 due to
this work. and has prepared de-
tailed report on this for congress. He
fgures that only 3.5 per cent Of the
total ultimate cost will be finally
aim rood against the government