Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1922-06-24
PROCLAMATION PROJECTS AND BUSINESS

Under the above caption, Secretary of the Int.
rior A B. Fall contributed article to New York
publication, 1.-THE Magazine of Wall Street." and
the article was printed in recent issue of that
puplcation. Mr.. Fall reviews briefly what govern
ment irrigation has accomplished since exactly
twenty years ago this month when the basic irriga.
ton act was passed by congress- He said in part az
follows
Let us see what irrigation under governmental
auspices has concretely accomp lished-and this Is
timely quest in view Of the fact that it was twenty
years this month of June the congress passed
the basic irrigation act. In the present time the
reclamation service has constructed or under con-
struction Fl projects in Is states. Living on the
reclaimed land in towns and cities or on the farms
100000 people. There 423 of the former
and about $4,000 of the latter. Our irrigation sys-
tens prepared to put water 2,S45,OOO acres,
as of the 1921 report, Of which 1,662.O00 acres
have other water supply and 1,1S3,O00 acres
receive supplemental water. or the first class
1,224,0O0 acres, and OF the second class, 9S2 900
were actually irrigated in 1921
We have then found new homes for 450 900 peo-
pie, where only few hundred at most few
thousand would otherwise have been living today.
In terms of urban population that the city
OF Washington almost much as San Fran
cisco. In terms of state population it is little
more than that Of Utah, about two and one-third
times that OF wyoming; six times that or Nevada
and twice that of Delaware The lands that are
totally dependent upon government water produced
crops in 1920 that worth s66 900 O0O and since
the inception Of the work they have produced con-
sderab1y over $500. oOoO 900 worth of crops to say
nothing of livestock and its products The actual
permanent investment in the reclamation works ~
around $3.50 100000 and the crops raised on all the
lands that benefits from them cunt to about that
in single year. The banking aptal Of the new
irrigation communities is $1,000 900; and $4,000
depositors in 247 banks had s144 100000 to theli
credit in 1920,
"The reclaimed lands produce between two AMI
three times as much in acre-value as the average
of agricultural lands in this country consequently
they are the equivalent of at least 100000 acres
OF ordinary land Visualize tract of land as large
as Massachusetts but all cultvable and you get an
idea of what an investment of $3.50, 900 in twenty
years has accomplished towards keeping this an
expanding country In passing let me say that this
capital was derived from pubc-land sales or reve-
nues and that it will all be paid back into the pub
lie treasury
The foregoing should be of particular interest
Ia residents of the middle Rio Grande valley where
as everyone knows there Is a reclamation problem
TO contend with. There is reason why this ter
ritory cannot take care Of hundreds Of additional
families with a corresponding increase in produce
ton il the land is reclaimed The soil is there anu
we have the climate and the middle Rio Grande
valley should under proper conditions, become the
garden spot Of the earth.