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Show 40 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER conducted, and in the late 'seventies the approval of Congress was sought for what could be termed the first affirmative reclamation policy. The homestead laws were unsuitable for arid regions in which irrigation was necessary, and they did not require the homesteader to irrigate as a requisite to title. In 1875, in an effort to encourage irrigation of public lands, Congress approved the sale of desert acreage in Lassen County, California, with the specific object of reclaiming it. Under the provisions of this law, one person could reclaim a section of land within two years' time, and if conditions were met, could acquire title to the land, paying $1.25 an acre for it. It was this law which spurred other legislative action, and resulted in the passage of the Desert Land Act of March 3, 1877. The Desert Land Act described as desert, all public land upon which crops could not be grown without the aid of irrigation. Under its terms a person could buy 640 acres for $1.25 an acre. The land had to be irri- gated within three years after its purchase. The Desert Land Act was neither very wise nor very successful. It was a move which left irrigation up to the individual, and it provided no sound national policy for development. Six hundred and forty acres were hardly enough for grazing stock in profitable numbers, and it was too much for a private citizen to irrigate, if he had to construct and finance his own irrigation system. Ex- tensive speculation occurred under the act, and thirteen years later 640 acres allowed an individual was cut down to 320 acres. Something more was needed. A geographical and geological survey of arid lands in the western states had been conducted by Major J. W. |