, 1925-02-18
PRACTICAL FARMERS FOR
RECLAMATION PROJECTS

OF more than passing interest to
the people of Wyoming and other
western states is the action taken
by the committee on irrigation and
reclamation of the United States
senate a few days ago in favorably
reporting with recommendation that
it be passed without amendment,
the reclamation bill introduced a
few days ago by Senator John B.
Kendrick of Wyoming. The meas
ure has already been approved not
only by the secretary of the inter
ior, but by the director of the bud
get and President Coolidge.
Reclamation authorities, including
DR.. Elwood Mead, Wyoming's first
state engineer and at the present
time commissioner of the United
States reclamation service, are prac-
tically unanimous in their belief
that if the recommendation of the
committee, which has made an ex-
haustive study of the plan, is ac-
cepted and the measure enacted
into law by congress-, a new era in
reclamation will follow.
Under the terms of the Kendrick
bill the settlers on future projects
will be accepted upon a basis of
their qualifications, rather than
through the old lottery system, the
faults of which are too well known
in arid states to necessitate ex-
PLANTATION at this time. The bill,
however, does not impose drastic
terms of eligibility, merely stipulat-
ing that the prospective settler must
have a small mount of capital and
a years actual farm experience. This
will serve not only to assure the
government of securing settlers who
can be counted upon to properly de
velop a project, but with the finan-
cial assistance which the govern
ment is authorized to extend, the
settler himself is given every rea-
sonable assurance of his own sue
cess.
To each settler or future projects
the government may loan as much
as $4,000 for permanent improve
ments Or for the purchase of live
stock and as much as $500 for the
building of a home for the settler
and his family, low interest rates
applying in each case. Repayment
to the government will be spread
over a long period of years under
an amortization plan that will en-
able the farmer to pay for his place
out of his earnings. These loans
by the government are something
entirely new to reclamation and
doubtless will prove the salvation
of many a settler, solving as they
do the problem of financing his
venture in a manner that will re-
move the burden of short time loans
and high interest that have been
the downfall of so many reclamation
settlers under the old system.
Still another striking benefit of
the Kendrick bill is the provision
for community settlement on future
projects. Heretofore each settler
has been left to shift for himself
and play more or less of a sing
handed game. Under the new plan,
however, through the assistance of
a government advisor permanently
stationed on a project, settlers will
be brought to know each other, to
work together on certain matters,
to save money in cooperative buy
ing of materials for hundreds of
farm buildings and farm animals,
and in securing increased prices for
their products through organized
marketing. Only to the person ia
miliar with the hardships exper-
fenced by the reclamation farmer
who has had to shift for himself
can the manifold advantages of this
community feature be appreciated.
OF particular interest is the bill
to Wyoming just at this time in
view of the fact that it is the in
tention of the reclamation service,
should the measure be enacted into
law, to give the plan its first try
out on the wildwood project on the
Shoshone river in Park county of
Senator Hendricks home state.