History of public land law development

page 666

666 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT more obvious, suggests that since the Reclamation Service was directed by engineers during the first 30 years of its existence, as in the construction stage of course seemed wise, possibly over-attention had been given to projects calling for ever higher dams and involving newer engineering skills and techniques, and too little to economics and social planning. The point is well made, but one has to bear in mind that projects had been adopted not only because of their engineering feasibility.91 Undoubtedly engineers were from the outset favorable to government development of irrigation and continued to favor the new and larger projects in the later years, as they favored the work of the Army Corps of Engineers. Their support has been of material aid to the Reclamation Service in some of the controversies into which it has fallen. However, the greatest source of support is from cities and businesses that need additional water for their continued growth and development and all the many economic interests concerned with growth in the far western states. More Than Water Required It became apparent to the officials in charge that the reclamation program of the government could not be made to flourish unless the settlers on the projects had the best information available about growing and marketing the crops adapted to their land. Somewhat belatedly, experts of the Department of Agriculture were secured to advise the settlers.92 Experts of 91 Lampen, Economic and Social Aspects of Federal Reclamation, passim. 92 The first evidence I found of appreciation of and cooperation with the experts of the Department of Agriculture is in the report of Newell in 1914. There he alludes to the experimental farms maintained on the project areas by the Bureau of Plant Industry and seems to say that they were undertaken in agreement with the Interior officials. He also says "arrangements have also been effected for expert the Department had been studying soils of the arid lands and the effectiveness of private irrigation schemes, particularly with regard to the need for fertilizer, the quality of the local fertilizers, the problems of drainage and the rise in alkali which was already damaging some of the best soils. They reported that under (subsurface) drainage could in most instances take care of the problem, though this called for heavy extra expense. Other experts had been studying state water laws which were found to be productive of a great amount of litigation which burdened the courts and improvished water users. Especially was this true of California where: The chaotic and conflicting records of claims, the uncertain limitations on riparian rights, and the failure to protect all rights by the public division of the water supply in times of drought has been a source of anxiety to the user and of expense and loss to the not less worthy owner of ditches and canals. Evaporation, seepage, agricultural engineering, and current land policies, all came in for investigation and analysis in the 1901 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture. While the Secretary conceded that the homestead-type laws had been framed for the benefit of settlers, he admitted that in practice they had enabled speculators, who had no intention of farming, to grab much of the land suitable for irrigation. In the same book was a 15-page treatment of reservoirs in the Rocky Mountain States by Elwood Mead.93 Though Congress had not permitted the Department of Agriculture to share in the planning and responsibility for the development of the reclamation program, it has been seen that it voted funds for it to conduct research in the problems of farming on agriculturists to act as advisors of the irrigators on each of the projects, the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior cooperating to that end." Reclamation Service, Twelfth Annual Report, 1913, p. 8. 93 Pp. 44-46, 85-93, 415-30.