The Coconino sun., 1923-08-31

estimate because some months ago
! Mr.. La Rue told me that it was safe
to assume that after all possible fu-
ture uses of water had been made in
| the upper basin there would remain
an average of ten million acre-feet
annually for use in the lower basin.
In Senate Document No. 148 Mr..
Davis estimated that 100000 acres
of land in Arizona, California and Ne
vada could be irrigated from the Col
orado river, which would use about
100000 acres feet of water. If the
| Parker-Gila Valley project, as sug-
gested by Mr.. La Rue and his asso-
ciates, is carried out about 100000
additional acres may be irrigated in
the United States, which would re-
quire 100000 acre feet of water or
a total of 100000 acre feet. 1t will
be observed that In any event the
water supply is adequate to care for
the reclamation Of this extra land in
Arizona and California.
1t seems to me that the plan to
irrigate 100000 acres in the lower
ella valley is worthy of the most care
full investigation. While $168 an acre
is more than any farmer can now af-
ford to pay for bringing water to raw
desert land yet this project may be-
come entirely feasibfe withiIr a gen
Grafton. BY that time cheap power
will be available from the Colorado
river which will reduce the cost of
construction. The normal increase of
population in the United States will
not only create a demand for more
agricultural land, but should cause
farm products to bring relatively
higher prices. Undoubtedly the inven-
tive genius of the American people
will improve the means of pumping
water, Of blasting rocks in tunnels !
and of removing earth to make canals. !
The prediction can therefore be safely I
made that this and many other ir1i-
cation projects, the cost of which is
now considered to be excessive, will
probably be constructed.
While it may be entirely proper for
the Arizona legislature to appropriate
$4,000 for a further study of the
high line canal plan yet everyone must
agree that the commission was correct
in its conclusion that 1925 per acre
is a prohibitive reclamation charge
at the present time. AS a member
of the committee on irrigation ofsRrid
lands have listened to the testimony
of water users from all of the federal
reclamation projects and in every in-
reclamation projects and in every in
stance where the construction charge
is over $40 an acre the farmers are.
complaining bitterly.
In some cases they have asserted
that it is impossible to secure enough
from the net returns from the sale
of their crops to meet the payments
due to the government even though
no interest is charged.
To reclaim 100000 acres at cost
of $225 per acre will require $780,,
100000. That amounts to more than
half of the taxable wealth of Arizona
so this state cannot finance such an
It is equally certain that
the United States will not invest any
money in an enterprise when there is
not the remotest possibility that the
cost Of the project would be repaid.
Every engineer who has studied the
Colorado river problem agrees that at
the present time, with the existing
prices for crops grown on irrigated
farms, there are not enough practi-
cable irrigation projects within the
entire basin of the Colorado river to I
utilize all the waters Of that stream. /
Looking into the future Mr.. La Rue
in his supplemental report says the
time may come when "the water sup J