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Show RECLAMATION OF THE ARID LANDS accomplished and predicted that the new owners would not be able to finance a carefully designed plan for irrigating the lands and only those tracts involving the lowest cost would finally get water. He deplored the failure, holding that it showed the advantages of reserving lands within prospective irrigation districts for limited home-steading as provided in the Act of 1902.84 In the Malheur plateau of east central Oregon the Reclamation Service perhaps first encountered difficulty in enforcing the excess-lands provision of the Act of 1902. A portion of the land in this area was already irrigated by a private company but a much larger acreage, as much as 75,000 to 100,000 acres, could be watered if a storage basin was constructed in the Malheur Canyon. The per acre cost of construction, maintenance and drainage and the purchase of existing ditches and water rights was estimated at $42 in comparison with the $100 an acre for which well watered land was selling. A foreign syndicate owned 25,000 acres acquired from a military wagon road company and it declined to dispose of its excess lands. Most of the other owners of land in the Malheur area were ready to cooperate with the Reclamation Service. Fifteen percent of the land was still in public ownership. Elsewhere in Oregon negotiations with excess-land owners did not look promising.85 By 1910 the Reclamation program was in serious trouble, though one would scarte- 84 Sixth Annual Report, 1907, p. 131. The GLO Commissioner in his report for 1907, speaking about the opening of the Huntley area of the Crow lands, said that 588 farm units aggregating 32,287 acres (an average of 54 acres) were drawn for by 5,401 persons as applicants, but only 79 entries were made by those whose names were drawn. Subsequently any qualified applicant could enter the allotments and by Sept. 4, 1907, a total of 199 farm units had been entered. He does not explain why so many registered for the drawing and then lost interest. Department of the Interior, Annual Report, 1907, Vol. 1, pp. 92-93. 85 Reclamation Service, Third Annual Report, 1904 and following reports. ly gather this from the reports of Director Newell. True, engineers, contractors, the railroads which were benefiting from the heavy traffic in supplies for the various projects, and western real estate and other business interests, who counted progress by growth of population and rise in land values, had little reason to be troubled. The enormous attention given to reclamation of the arid lands had brought unparalleled growth to the 16 states concerned. Population had increased 51 percent for the decade as contrasted with 24 percent for the United States. Land values were exceeding the anticipations of the most optimistic, and judging by outward appearances one might assume all was well. No official likes to concede errors but, in 1910, it became apparent that remedial legislation was needed to salvage the irrigation program. Sereno Payne, Representative from the Auburn District of New York, brought to light the mistakes that had been made. The Reclamation Service had rushed into the construction of projects without due consideration of water resources, soil conditions, drainage, markets for crops, and because of Section 9 of the Newlands Act, which required the funds to be apportioned to projecsts in the states in relation to the origin of the funds, had even undertaken a dubious venture in Kansas that depended on pumping water from an underground stream, the costs of which the settlers were unable to bear. People had been encouraged to move to desert lands years before the water was to be available, but, to gain title, were compelled to remain on their unusable desert land for as much as 5 years. None of the projects were completed, the income from water rents which was supposed to feed into the reclamation fund and make possible the continued expansion of projects had been small, though it was anticipated it might soon reach as much as a million a year. Also, income from the public lands |