Much of our public land has been nonproductive solely because of the lack of moisture.  In 1902 a law known as the Reclamation Act was passed by Congress, providing that the proceeds from the sale of public lands in states containing arid regions,[Footnote:  The states to which this law applies are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.  See map.] except such as were already devoted to educational and other public purposes, should be used for the construction and maintenance of irrigation works.  This reclamation work is in charge of the Reclamation Service of the Department of the Interior, whose engineers have built great dams and reservoirs from which the water has been led by canals and ditches into the desert.  By 1916 more than 1,000,000 acres had been irrigated under this act, the crop value in that year reaching $35,000,000.  The reclaimed land is disposed of to actual settlers in accordance with the homestead laws, each homesteader repaying the government in annual installments the cost of reclaiming the land he occupies.  The fund so created is used by the government for further reclamation projects.  The Department of Agriculture sends its experts to advise with the farmers in regard to the problems peculiar to the reclaimed regions.  “Every effort should be and is, therefore, being made to promote the success of the farmer, and on the basis of his success to increase the prosperity of the country.” [Footnote 2:  Report of the Reclamation Service, 1912- 1913, p. 4.]

The Yuma project in Arizona opened a new Valley of the Nile where four crops of alfalfa are now raised on what once were arid lands.  The streets of Yuma and Somerton are crowded with the automobiles of farmers, enriched by thousands of acres of splendid long-staple cotton, alfalfa, corn, and feterita.  Another irrigated valley in Arizona, that of the Salt River, has few superiors in the world and has come in three years into great prosperity.  Arizona planted to cotton last year 92,000 acres.  Its crop was 96 per cent perfect, the best record in the United States. [Footnote:  Arthur D. Little, “Developing the Estate,” Atlantic monthly, March, 1919.]

The principal irrigation projects of the Reclamation Service are shown on the accompanying map.

RECLAMATION BY STATES AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

Five or six times as much arid land has been reclaimed by private enterprise as by the Reclamation Service.  The first extensive irrigation project in the West was a cooperative enterprise by the Mormon colonists in Utah.  It is said that about two fifths of the land irrigated in the United States is supplied with water by works built and controlled by individual farmers or by a few neighbors, while another one third is supplied by stock companies.  As early as 1877