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the valley of this river for about 250 miles. Much of this valley may be reclaimed by storing, and an economical use of the water. This river has many branches and fertile valleys, both to the north and to the south, which are already cultivated to a considerable extent by means of irrigation. While there are large parts of the State that must remain deserts for want of water, still there are valleys interspersed in the mountains throughout the State of exceeding fertility, and for which water can be procured for irrigation. In the southern part of the State there is a large extent of rich land, and the remains of irrigation works found in that vicinity show that the country was once inhabited by a race which cultivated the soil. The people of Nevada were at first exclusively engaged in mining, the agriculture that was pursued being solely for the purpose of supplying mining camps. But they are now turning their attention to agriculture with good success. This State will also have the advantage of a large home market in supplying the mining communities.

California is one of the most remarkable States in agricultural resources, variety of climate, and products in the United States, and probably is unsurpassed by any country in the world. It also commenced its career as a mining State, and for twenty-five years after the discovery of the gold mines little attention was paid to agriculture. It is noteworthy that the great valleys of California, now so productive, were regarded a few years ago as deserts, and were occupied only by roaming herds of Mexican cattle. Irrigation in this State is being developed on a grand scale and with wonderful success. Land that remained subject to private entry at $1.25 per acre for twenty-five or thirty years now commands $100 to $1,500 per acre, and a family can secure all the comforts of life upon 20 acres of this land. The work of irrigation in this State has only just begun. Enough has been accomplished, however, to demonstrate the fact that the possibilities of the growth and development of this country must continue indefinitely. Cities have sprung up within the last ten years in its alleged deserts, which rival the splendor of the most prosperous centers of the Atlantic States.

The methods adopted for irrigation in California furnish valuable lessons. They show that year by year the supply of water becomes more plentiful for new fields as the ground becomes saturated. It is estimated by the best judges that nearly all the valley land of California may be ultimately brought under cultivation by irrigation. The Sierra Nevada Mountains, as before remarked, are lofty, and the snow and rain that fall on them during ordinary seasons is simply immense. The Sacramento, the Feather, the Yubas, the Bear, the American, the Tuolumne, the Stanislaus, the Merced, the Kings, the San Joaquin, the Kern, and many smaller streams flowing from the Sierra Nevada into the great valley of California, when utilized with a proper high storage system in the mountains, will be found amply sufficient to bring under cultivation all the valley land from Red Bluffs to the Tehachapi Pass, a distance of about 500 miles with an average width of about 40 miles. The great valley of southern California, bounded on the west, north, and east by mountain ranges connecting with the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and on the south and west by the Coast Range and the Pacific Ocean, is fast becoming the most highly cultivated and productive part of the United States, abounding in semi-tropical fruit of all kinds as well as the productions of the temperate zone. A visit to its beautiful vineyards and its prosperous towns offers a new revelation to the traveler.

Arizona comprises 113,916 square miles. No part of it can be cultivated without irrigation. The southwest section of the Territory lies very low. The climate is warm and healthful. Its products are also semi-tropical. The grape, the orange, the fig, the date, the apricot, and all other fruits and products of the temperate and semi-tropical countries are cultivated here to perfection. The Colorado River, although furnishing an abundance of water, can not be utilized to any extent in Arizona without great expense. It may, however, be used above to reclaim a large section of country in California known as the Mojave Desert. This matter has not been fully investigated. The Gila and its branches are the principal streams of southern Arizona. This river discharges an immense volume of water in the wet season, but in the dry season it sinks and flows under the surface for miles on each side. The engineering problem to be solved here is how to bring this water to the surface. There are points where it crosses reefs of rock where dams can be constructed and the water conveyed in canals to reclaim large sections of country. The largest tributary of this river is known as Salt River. In the vicinity of the town of Phoenix, on Salt River, about 100,000 acres of land are already irrigated. The facilities for storing the water of Salt River are very good, and where the river leaves the mountains an immense reservoir of water may be had at comparatively small expense, which would irrigate an extensive region of country. This section is well adapted to the grape, orange, lemon, and other semi-tropical fruits. It also produces the cereals and all other crops of the temperate zone. There are many other parts of this Territory that can be reclaimed by irrigation. As a mining country it will furnish a valuable home market. There is no doubt of the capacity of Arizona to support a large and prosperous population.

New Mexico comprises 121,201 square miles. Along the valley of the Rio Grande the country has been cultivated by the Mexicans from a very remote period. The supply of water, however, for this Territory is very much diminished by irrigation at the headwaters of the Rio Grande in the State of Colorado. To what extent the waters of this river can be stored and utilized is a problem not yet solved, but it is confidently believed that, by storage of the flood waters, a very large extent of country, in addition to that heretefore cultivated, may be irrigated from the Rio Grande. There are numerous other streams in the Territory which are being diverted and utilized for irrigation. Water is also found under the surface in many parts of the Territory, and by means of pumping and flowing wells a sufficient supply may be obtained to reclaim much of the desert land. The Pecos River, in the eastern part of the Territory, is an important stream and is being diverted on a large scale by canals. This river extends into Texas, where it enters the Rio Grande, and may also be used, and is now being used, to reclaim a portion of that State. The Mexican grants, which cover a large part of the Territory of New Mexico, have been a drawback to its development, but the time is not far distant when these titles will be settled and the laud divided up, as it is now being done in California. New Mexico has great mineral resources, particularly coal, which is found in abundance. Taken all in all its future will surpass what the most sanguine have heretofore anticipated.

The western half of Texas, which was supposed to be uninhabitable, constituting in that section the plains region first mentioned, will be largely reclaimed by the use of the running streams, artesian wells, and pumps. The experiments already made there have demonstrated that a large part of it may be reclaimed and rendered exceedingly fertile by such irrigation. Artesian wells have been bored in various

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places throughout the arid region frequently with good success. California has several important artesian belts, and is developing the underground flow of water to good advantage. Nevada has many artesian basins which will be utilized. The same is true of Utah, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Arizona, and New Mexico; but in the mountain region the running streams, supplemented by reservoirs for storage of storm waters must furnish the principal supply for irrigation.

Without further particulars at this place with regard to the arid region, it may be said that throughout its entire extent the grasses are more nutritious than where the rain-fall is sufficient to produce crops. The frequent rains in the Mississippi Valley and further east extract the nutriment from the plants and destroy the grasses, except when they are growing, so as to render them at other times comparatively valueless for stock; but in the arid region the vegetation, however dry, retains its nutritious properties, and stock will fatten where to the uninitiated it would be supposed they would starve.

Wyoming, Montana, the western portions of North and South Dakota, eastern Oregon, and Washington, Idaho, and Nevada are especially valuable for grazing purposes. The same is true to a large extent of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Texas. This will be a perpetual source of wealth to the farmers who may cultivate the valleys by irrigation and use the uplands for pasture. Reclamation of arid lands will create cattle as well as arable farms, and tend rapidly to the division and use of the land in small parcels.

The amount of land that may be brought under cultivation in the arid region by irrigation is variously estimated at from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty millions of acres. It is safe to predict that at least one hundred millions of acres will be ultimately brought under cultivation by irrigation, and that, too, by the water in sight which, when properly utilized, will readily reclaim at least 10 per cent. of the whole arid area. It is worthy of remark that land cultivated by irrigation is much more productive than land where the rain-fall is sufficient to produce crops. The certainty of crops every year in an irrigated country where the water supply is sufficient is a most important consideration. Besides, in nearly every part of the arid region more than one crop can be produced each year from the same land, and a good crop is always certain with a constant water supply. Irrigation requires unremitting attention and high cultivation and with such attention and cultivation it is calculated that in any given period of ten years irrigated land will produce from three to five times as much as land cultivated by rain-fall.

The question for consideration is: What action should be taken by the Government to enable the people to reclaim these desert lands? The reclamation must be initiated and executed by the people, and not by their Government. In India, and, in fact, in all countries under monarchial or despotic rule, the work of irrigation has been carried on under Government control and largely with Government money. The Government of British India has already expended several hundred millions of dollars in constructing irrigation works, and is continuing such expenditures on a most magnificent scale. The reports show that the investment has been profitable to the Government and of the greatest possible advantage to the people.

But there is no necessity for the United States to engage in such expenditures. If the opportunity is furnished to the people of this country they will reclaim these desert lands so far as reclamation is necessary. The use of industrial co-operation in developing the mineral resources of the far West demonstrates the capacity of the people for great un

dertakings which in other countries require vast expenditures of accu-. mulated capital. A person who will visit these mining States and Territories, and see the hundreds of miles of canal constructed for mining purposes in the most difficult parts of the Sierra and Rocky Mountains, the bed-rock tunnels miles in length, the deep shafts, the reduction works, and other vast enterprises which the people themselves have conducted by co-operation and without accumulated capital, will not question the capacity of the pioneers to reclaim the deserts. If he will then turn his attention to Utah, Colorado, California, and other localities where irrigation is practiced, and witness what the people have already accomplished, all doubt as to the ultimate result will be removed. It is necessary, however, for the development of this arid country to give the people an opportunity by laws suitable to the situation and adapted to the purpose.

GOVERNMENTAL ACTION.

On the 3d day of March, 1873, the following act of Congress was approved:

That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to assign two engineers of the Army and one officer of the Coast Survey now stationed on the Pacific coast, for the purpose of examining and reporting on a system of irrigation in the San Joaquin, Tulare, and Sacramento Valleys of the State of California, and for that purpose the officers so assigned may associate with themselves the chief of the geological survey of California, and also one other civilian distinguished for his knowledge of the subject.

SEC. 2. That these five persons shall constitute a board, with power to fill vacancies, whose duty it shall be to make a full report to the President on the best system of irrigation for said valleys, with all necessary plaus, details, engineering, statistical, and otherwise; which report the President shall transmit to Congress at its next session with such recommendations as he shall think proper.

Under this act a commission was organized composed of General Barton S. Alexander, Col. George H. Mendell, Prof. George Davidson, and R. M. Brereton, a civil engineer who had large experience in irrigation in India. A most comprehensive and instructive report was made by the commission and published by Congress. (H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 290, Forty-third Congress, first session.)

This report gives much valuable information on the whole subject of irrigation in India and other countries, and furnished material to guide the people of this country. The report was exceedingly beneficial, pointing out the way to the development of the great valleys of California, and has resulted in great good.

The Department of Agriculture, without any operative or executive powers, has done a good deal to extend a knowledge of the character and resources of the arid region. It begun in 1865 with a report by a former delegate from Arizona, Charles D. Poston, and continued be tween that and 1886-'87 to publish valuable reports by the late George P. Marsh, Professor Hilgard, of California, ex-Governor Furness, of Nebraska, and others, closing with the important and valuable volume on "Irrigation in the United States," which the Senate ordered published in 1887. This very useful report was prepared by Mr. Richard J. Hinton, who has also efficiently served your committeee during the past year as irrigation engineer and expert.

POLICY PURSUED BY THE DIRECTOR OF THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

Subsequently the whole subject was turned over to the Director of the Geological Survey with general provisions for the classification of the public lands, he having previously prepared a valuable report on

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the arid lands of the United States. The most important action by the Government in aid of the reclamation of desert lands was the passage of the acts of October 2, 1888, and of March 2, 1889. By the first of these acts $199,000 was appropriated for topographic surveys, and $100,000 for surveys pertaining to irrigation. Of the sum appropriated for irrigation $60,000 was diverted by the Director from that purpose and added to the appropriation for topographic surveys, making the sum of $259,000 for topography, and leaving only $40,000 for irrigation. By the act of March 2, 1889, $200,000 was a propriated for topographic surveys, and $250,000 for irrigation surveys. Of the sum appropriated for irrigation surveys $120,000 was diverted from that purpose by the Director and added to the $200,000 for topographic surveys, making the aggregate of $320,000 for topography, and leaving only $130,000 for irrigation surveys and the office and other expenses incidental thereto. Your committee regard this as a plain violation of the statute and a misapplication of the money.

In fairness to the Director, however, it is proper to state the substance of the reasons assigned by him for this use of the public money, together with the views of the engineers of the Irrigation Survey.

The provision of law authorizing this last appropriation sets forth in some detail the purposes to which it is to be applied, etc. Among those purposes it mentions "the necessary maps." The Director of the survey has construed the words "necessary maps" to mean topographic maps of the same kind as those that are provided for specifically in the first item of $200,000, and he has applied more than half the irriga tion item to that purpose, leaving less than half of the $250,000 for the objects for which it was intended. It has always been held, both in Congress and by many decisions of attorneys-general and comptrollers, that when an appropriation is made for any specific purpose it is not lawful to apply any other appropriation to that purpose unless the law explicitly authorizes it. It would have been a most unjustifiable straining of interpretation to conclude that such vague and indefinite words as "necessary maps" meant so vast and costly an undertaking as a topographic map of the whole arid region, even if no specific appropriation for topography had been made. But when such an appropriation was specifically made, it should clearly have been held to be the only money which could be applied to topographical purposes.

It has been represented by the Director that a general topographic map of the arid region is necessary for the Irrigation Survey; that unless it is made the cost of that survey will be increased many fold. This statement it is impossible to comprehend. It is, of course, easy to see that such a map would give useful information of a general kind and would be convenient for many minor purposes. But the engineers, while admitting this, testify with one voice that its usefulness goes no farther; that such a map is not at all necessary in any imperative sense; that it will not save them any important amount of labor or expense; that the engineering surveys would be of the same character and cost the same whether they have the maps or not, and that no use has been made of any topographic map by any of the engineers engaged in the Irrigation Survey, except as a general map of the country. The Director asserts that the maps will make trial lines unnecessary. The engineers say that trial lines are seldom necessary, and when they are, they are run for the purpose of settling questions upon which a topographic map could not possibly give any information whatever. The Director seems to entertain the idea that it will often be doubtful whether the slopes of a country in the trough of a stream will admit of leading