REPORT
ON THE
LANDS OF THE ARID REGION
OF THE
UNITED STATES,

WITH A
MORE DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE LANDS OF UTAH.

WITH MAPS.

BY
J. W. POWELL.

SECOND EDITION.

WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1879.

Congress of the United States (3d Session),
In the House of Representatives,
March 3, 1879.

The following resolution, originating in the House of Representatives, has this day been concurred in by the Senate:

Resolved, by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That there be printed five thousand copies of the Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States, by J. W. Powell; one thousand for the use of the Senate, two thousand for the use of the House of Representatives, and two thousand for the use of the Department of the Interior.

Attest:

GEO. M. ADAMS, Clerk.

J. W. POWELL’S REPORT ON SURVEY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION.

LETTER
FROM
THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR,
TRANSMITTING

Report of J. W. Powell, geologist in charge of the United States Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, upon the lands of the Arid Region of the United States.

April 3, 1878.—Referred to the Committee on Appropriations and ordered to be printed.

Department of the Interior,
Washington, D. C., April 3, 1878.

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a report from Maj. J. W. Powell, geologist in charge of the United States Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, upon the lands of the Arid Region of the United States, setting forth the extent of said region, and making suggestions as to the conditions under which the lands embraced within its limit may be rendered available for agricultural and grazing purposes. With the report is transmitted a statement of the rainfall of the western portion of the United States, with reports upon the subject of irrigation by Capt. C. E. Dutton, U. S. A., Prof. A. H. Thompson, and Mr. G. K. Gilbert.

Herewith are also transmitted draughts of two bills, one entitled “A bill to authorize the organization of pasturage districts by homestead settlements on the public lands which are of value for pasturage purposes only”, and the other “A bill to authorize the organization of irrigation districts by homestead settlements upon the public lands requiring irrigation for agricultural purposes”, intended to carry into effect a new system for the disposal of the public lands of said region, and to promote the settlement and development of that portion of the country.

In view of the importance of rendering the vast extent of country referred to available for agricultural and grazing purposes, I have the honor to commend the views set forth by Major Powell and the bills submitted herewith to the consideration of Congress.

Very respectfully,
C. SCHURZ,
Secretary.
Hon. Samuel J. Randall,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Department of the Interior, General Land Office,
Washington, D. C., April 1, 1878.

Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith a report from Maj. J. W. Powell, in charge of the Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountains, in regard to the Arid Region of the United States, and draughts of two bills, one entitled “A bill to authorize the organization of pasturage districts by homestead settlements on the public lands which are of value for pasturage purposes only”, and the other “A bill to authorize the organization of irrigation districts by homestead settlements upon the public lands requiring irrigation for agricultural purposes”.

Major Powell reviews at length the features of, and furnishes statistics relative to, the Arid Region of the United States, which is substantially the territory west of the one hundredth meridian and east of the Cascade Range, and the bills named are intended, if passed, to carry into effect the views expressed in his report for the settlement and development of this region.

He has, in the performance of his duties in conducting the geological and geographical survey, been over much of the country referred to, and is qualified by observation, research, and study to speak of the topography, characteristics, and adaptability of the same.

I have not been able, on account of more urgent official duties, to give Major Powell’s report and proposed bills the careful investigation necessary, in view of their great importance, to enable me to express a decided opinion as to their merits. Some change is necessary in the survey and disposal of the lands, and I think his views are entitled to great weight, and would respectfully recommend that such action be taken as will bring his report and bills before Congress for consideration by that body.

Very respectfully,
J. A. WILLIAMSON,
Commissioner.
Hon. C. Schurz,
Secretary of the Interior.

Department of the Interior,
U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region,
Washington, D. C., April 1, 1878.

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a report on the lands of the Arid Region of the United States. After setting forth the general facts relating to the conditions under which these lands must be utilized, I have taken the liberty to suggest a system for their disposal which I believe would be adapted to the wants of the country.

I wish to express my sincere thanks for the assistance you have given me in the collection of many of the facts necessary to the discussion, and especially for the aid you have rendered in the preparation of the maps.

Permit me to express the hope that the great interest you take in the public domain will be rewarded by the consciousness that you have assisted many citizens in the establishment of farm homes thereon.

I am, with great respect, your obedient servant,
J. W. POWELL,
In charge U. S. G. and G. Survey Rocky Mountain Region.
Hon. J. A. Williamson,
Commissioner General Land Office, Washington, D. C.

PREFACE.

It was my intention to write a work on the Public Domain. The object of the volume was to give the extent and character of the lands yet belonging to the Government of the United States. Compared with the whole extent of these lands, but a very small fraction is immediately available for agriculture; in general, they require drainage or irrigation for their redemption.

It is true that in the Southern States there are some millions of acres, chiefly timber lands, which at no remote time will be occupied for agricultural purposes. Westward toward the Great Plains, the lands in what I have, in the body of this volume, termed the Humid Region have passed from the hands of the General Government. To this statement there are some small exceptions here and there—fractional tracts, which, for special reasons, have not been considered desirable by persons in search of lands for purposes of investment or occupation.

In the Sub-humid Region settlements are rapidly extending westward to the verge of the country where agriculture is possible without irrigation.

In the Humid Region of the Columbia the agricultural lands are largely covered by great forests, and for this reason settlements will progress slowly, as the lands must be cleared of their timber.

The redemption of the Arid Region involves engineering problems requiring for their solution the greatest skill. In the present volume only these lands are considered. Had I been able to execute the original plan to my satisfaction, I should have treated of the coast swamps of the South Atlantic and the Gulf slopes, the Everglade lands of the Floridian Peninsula, the flood plain lands of the great rivers of the south, which have heretofore been made available only to a limited extent by a system of levees, and the lake swamp lands found about the headwaters of the Mississippi and the region of the upper Great Lakes. All of these lands require either drainage or protection from overflow, and the engineering problems involved are of diverse nature. These lands are to be redeemed from excessive humidity, while the former are to be redeemed from excessive aridity. When the excessively humid lands are redeemed, their fertility is almost inexhaustible, and the agricultural capacity of the United States will eventually be largely increased by the rescue of these lands from their present valueless condition. In like manner, on the other hand, the arid lands, so far as they can be redeemed by irrigation, will perennially yield bountiful crops, as the means for their redemption involves their constant fertilization.

To a great extent, the redemption of all these lands will require extensive and comprehensive plans, for the execution of which aggregated capital or coöperative labor will be necessary. Here, individual farmers, being poor men, cannot undertake the task. For its accomplishment a wise prevision, embodied in carefully considered legislation, is necessary. It was my purpose not only to consider the character of the lands themselves, but also the engineering problems involved in their redemption, and further to make suggestions for the legislative action necessary to inaugurate the enterprises by which these lands may eventually be rescued from their present worthless state. When I addressed myself to the broader task as indicated above, I found that my facts in relation to some of the classes of lands mentioned, especially the coast swamps of the Gulf and some of the flood plain lands of the southern rivers, were too meager for anything more than general statements. There seemed to be no immediate necessity for the discussion of these subjects; but to the Arid Region of the west thousands of persons are annually repairing, and the questions relating to the utilization of these lands are of present importance. Under these considerations I have decided to publish that portion of the volume relating to the arid lands, and to postpone to some future time that part relating to the excessively humid lands.

In the preparation of the contemplated volume I desired to give a historical sketch of the legislation relating to swamp lands and executive action thereunder; another chapter on bounty lands and land grants for agricultural schools, and still another on land grants in aid of internal improvements—chiefly railroads. The latter chapter has already been prepared by Mr. Willis Drummond, jr., and as the necessary map is ready I have concluded to publish it now, more especially as the granted lands largely lie in the Arid Region. Mr. Drummond’s chapter has been carefully prepared and finely written, and contains much valuable information.

To the late Prof. Joseph Henry, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, I am greatly indebted for access to the records of the Institution relating to rainfall. Since beginning my explorations and surveys in the far west, I have received the counsel and assistance of the venerable professor on all important matters relating to my investigations; and whatever of value has been accomplished is due in no small part to his wisdom and advice. I cannot but express profound sorrow at the loss of a counselor so wise, so patient, and so courteous.

I am also indebted to Mr. Charles A. Schott, of the United States Coast Survey, to whom the discussion of the rain gauge records has been intrusted by the Smithsonian Institution, for furnishing to me the required data in advance of publication by himself.

Unfortunately, the chapters written by Messrs. Gilbert, Dutton, Thompson, and Drummond have not been proof-read by themselves, by reason of their absence during the time when the volume was going through the press; but this is the less to be regretted from the fact that the whole volume has been proof-read by Mr. J. C. Pilling, whose critical skill is all that could be desired.

J. W. P.

August, 1878.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

The first edition of this report having been exhausted in a few months and without satisfying the demand which the importance of the subject created, a second was ordered by Congress in March, 1879. The authors were thus given an opportunity to revise their text and eliminate a few formal errors which had crept in by reason of their absence while the first edition was passing through the press. The substance of the report is unchanged.

J. W. P.

July, 1879.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

REPORT ON THE LANDS OF THE ARID REGION OF THE UNITED STATES.

By J. W. Powell.

CHAPTER I.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ARID REGION.

The eastern portion of the United States is supplied with abundant rainfall for agricultural purposes, receiving the necessary amount from the evaporation of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico; but westward the amount of aqueous precipitation diminishes in a general way until at last a region is reached where the climate is so arid that agriculture is not successful without irrigation. This Arid Region begins about midway in the Great Plains and extends across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. But on the northwest coast there is a region of greater precipitation, embracing western Washington and Oregon and the northwest corner of California. The winds impinging on this region are freighted with moisture derived from the great Pacific currents; and where this water-laden atmosphere strikes the western coast in full force, the precipitation is excessive, reaching a maximum north of the Columbia River of 80 inches annually. But the rainfall rapidly decreases from the Pacific Ocean eastward to the summit of the Cascade Mountains. It will be convenient to designate this humid area as the Lower Columbia Region. Rain gauge records have not been made to such an extent as to enable us to define its eastern and southern boundaries, but as they are chiefly along high mountains, definite boundary lines are unimportant in the consideration of agricultural resources and the questions relating thereto. In like manner on the east the rain gauge records, though more full, do not give all the facts necessary to a thorough discussion of the subject; yet the records are such as to indicate approximately the boundary between the Arid Region, where irrigation is necessary to agriculture, and the Humid Region, where the lands receive enough moisture from the clouds for the maturing of crops. Experience teaches that it is not wise to depend upon rainfall where the amount is less than 20 inches annually, if this amount is somewhat evenly distributed throughout the year; but if the rainfall is unevenly distributed, so that “rainy seasons” are produced, the question whether agriculture is possible without irrigation depends upon the time of the “rainy season” and the amount of its rainfall. Any unequal distribution of rain through the year, though the inequality be so slight as not to produce “rainy seasons”, affects agriculture either favorably or unfavorably. If the spring and summer precipitation exceeds that of the fall and winter, a smaller amount of annual rain may be sufficient; but if the rainfall during the season of growing crops is less than the average of the same length of time during the remainder of the year, a greater amount of annual precipitation is necessary. In some localities in the western portion of the United States this unequal distribution of rainfall through the seasons affects agriculture favorably, and this is true immediately west of the northern portion of the line of 20 inches of rainfall, which extends along the plains from our northern to our southern boundary.

The isohyetal or mean annual rainfall line of 20 inches, as indicated on the rain chart accompanying this report, begins on the southern boundary of the United States, about 60 miles west of Brownsville, on the Rio Grande del Norte, and intersects the northern boundary about 50 miles east of Pembina. Between these two points the line is very irregular, but in middle latitudes makes a general curve to the westward. On the southern portion of the line the rainfall is somewhat evenly distributed through the seasons, but along the northern portion the rainfall of spring and summer is greater than that of fall and winter, and hence the boundary of what has been called the Arid Region runs farther to the west. Again, there is another modifying condition, namely, that of temperature. Where the temperature is greater, more rainfall is needed; where the temperature is less, agriculture is successful with a smaller amount of precipitation. But geographically this temperature is dependent upon two conditions—altitude and latitude. Along the northern portion of the line latitude is an important factor, and the line of possible agriculture without irrigation is carried still farther westward. This conclusion, based upon the consideration of rainfall and latitude, accords with the experience of the farmers of the region, for it is a well known fact that agriculture without irrigation is successfully carried on in the valley of the Red River of the North, and also in the southeastern portion of Dakota Territory. A much more extended series of rain-gauge records than we now have is necessary before this line constituting the eastern boundary of the Arid Region can be well defined. It is doubtless more or less meandering in its course throughout its whole extent from south to north, being affected by local conditions of rainfall, as well as by the general conditions above mentioned; but in a general way it may be represented by the one hundredth meridian, in some places passing to the east, in others to the west, but in the main to the east.

The limit of successful agriculture without irrigation has been set at 20 inches, that the extent of the Arid Region should by no means be exaggerated; but at 20 inches agriculture will not be uniformly successful from season to season. Many droughts will occur; many seasons in a long series will be fruitless; and it may be doubted whether, on the whole, agriculture will prove remunerative. On this point it is impossible to speak with certainty. A larger experience than the history of agriculture in the western portion of the United States affords is necessary to a final determination of the question.

In fact, a broad belt separates the Arid Region of the west from the Humid Region of the east. Extending from the one hundredth meridian eastward to about the isohyetal line of 28 inches, the district of country thus embraced will be subject more or less to disastrous droughts, the frequency of which will diminish from west to east. For convenience let this be called the Sub-humid Region. Its western boundary is the line already defined as running irregularly along the one hundredth meridian. Its eastern boundary passes west of the isohyetal line of 28 inches of rainfall in Minnesota, running approximately parallel to the western boundary line above described. Nearly one-tenth of the whole area of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, is embraced in this Sub-humid Region. In the western portion disastrous droughts will be frequent; in the eastern portion infrequent. In the western portion agriculturists will early resort to irrigation to secure immunity from such disasters, and this event will be hastened because irrigation when properly conducted is a perennial source of fertilization, and is even remunerative for this purpose alone; and for the same reason the inhabitants of the eastern part will gradually develop irrigating methods. It may be confidently expected that at a time not far distant irrigation will be practiced to a greater or less extent throughout this Sub-humid Region. Its settlement presents problems differing materially from those pertaining to the region to the westward. Irrigation is not immediately necessary, and hence agriculture does not immediately depend upon capital. The region may be settled and its agricultural capacities more or less developed, and the question of the construction of irrigating canals may be a matter of time and convenience. For many reasons, much of the sub-humid belt is attractive to settlers: it is almost destitute of forests, and for this reason is more readily subdued, as the land is ready for the plow. But because of the lack of forests the country is more dependent upon railroads for the transportation of building and fencing materials and for fuel. To a large extent it is a region where timber may be successfully cultivated. As the rainfall is on a general average nearly sufficient for continuous successful agriculture, the amount of water to be supplied by irrigating canals will be comparatively small, so that its streams can serve proportionally larger areas than the streams of the Arid Region. In its first settlement the people will be favored by having lands easily subdued, but they will have to contend against a lack of timber. Eventually this will be a region of great agricultural wealth, as in general the soils are good. From our northern to our southern boundary no swamp lands are found, except to some slight extent in the northeastern portion, and it has no excessively hilly or mountainous districts. It is a beautiful prairie country throughout, lacking somewhat in rainfall; but this want can be easily supplied by utilizing the living streams; and, further, these streams will afford fertilizing materials of great value.

The Humid Region of the lower Columbia and the Sub-humid Region of the Great Plains have been thus briefly indicated in order that the great Arid Region, which is the subject of this paper, may be more clearly defined.

THE ARID REGION.

The Arid Region is the great Rocky Mountain Region of the United States, and it embraces something more than four-tenths of the whole country, excluding Alaska. In all this region the mean annual rainfall is insufficient for agriculture, but in certain seasons some localities, now here, now there, receive more than their average supply. Under such conditions crops will mature without irrigation. As such seasons are more or less infrequent even in the more favored localities, and as the agriculturist cannot determine in advance when such seasons may occur, the opportunities afforded by excessive rainfall cannot be improved.

In central and northern California an unequal distribution of rainfall through the seasons affects agricultural interests favorably. A “rainy season” is here found, and the chief precipitation occurs in the months of December-April. The climate, tempered by mild winds from the broad expanse of Pacific waters, is genial, and certain crops are raised by sowing the seeds immediately before or during the “rainy season”, and the watering which they receive causes the grains to mature so that fairly remunerative crops are produced. But here again the lands are subject to the droughts of abnormal seasons. As many of these lands can be irrigated, the farmers of the country are resorting more and more to the streams, and soon all the living waters of this region will be brought into requisition.

In the tables of a subsequent chapter this will be called the San Francisco Region.

Again in eastern Washington and Oregon, and perhaps in northern Idaho, agriculture is practiced to a limited extent without irrigation. The conditions of climate by which this is rendered possible are not yet fully understood. The precipitation of moisture on the mountains is greater than on the lowlands, but the hills and mesas adjacent to the great masses of mountains receive a little of the supply condensed by the mountains themselves, and it will probably be found that limited localities in Montana, and even in Wyoming, will be favored by this condition to an extent sufficient to warrant agricultural operations independent of irrigation. These lands, however, are usually supplied with living streams, and their irrigation can be readily effected, and to secure greater certainty and greater yield of crops irrigation will be practiced in such places.

IRRIGABLE LANDS.

Within the Arid Region only a small portion of the country is irrigable. These irrigable tracts are lowlands lying along the streams. On the mountains and high plateaus forests are found at elevations so great that frequent summer frosts forbid the cultivation of the soil. Here are the natural timber lands of the Arid Region—an upper region set apart by nature for the growth of timber necessary to the mining, manufacturing, and agricultural industries of the country. Between the low irrigable lands and the elevated forest lands there are valleys, mesas, hills, and mountain slopes bearing grasses of greater or less value for pasturage purposes.

Then, in discussing the lands of the Arid Region, three great classes are recognized—the irrigable lands below, the forest lands above, and the pasturage lands between. In order to set forth the characteristics of these lands and the conditions under which they can be most profitably utilized, it is deemed best to discuss first a somewhat limited region in detail as a fair type of the whole. The survey under the direction of the writer has been extended over the greater part of Utah, a small part of Wyoming and Colorado, the northern portion of Arizona, and a small part of Nevada, but it is proposed to take up for this discussion only the area embraced in Utah Territory.

In Utah Territory agriculture is dependent upon irrigation. To this statement there are some small exceptions. In the more elevated regions there are tracts of meadow land from which small crops of hay can be taken: such lands being at higher altitudes need less moisture, and at the same time receive a greater amount of rainfall because of the altitude; but these meadows have been, often are, and in future will be, still more improved by irrigation. Again, on the belt of country lying between Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Mountains the local rainfall is much greater than the general rainfall of the region. The water evaporated from the lake is carried by the westerly winds to the adjacent mountains on the east and again condensed, and the rainfall thus produced extends somewhat beyond the area occupied by the mountains, so that the foot hills and contiguous bench lands receive a modicum of this special supply. In some seasons this additional supply is enough to water the lands for remunerative agriculture, but the crops grown will usually be very small, and they will be subject to seasons of extreme drought, when all agriculture will result in failure. Most of these lands can be irrigated, and doubtless will be, from a consideration of the facts already stated, namely, that crops will thereby be greatly increased and immunity from drought secured. Perhaps other small tracts, on account of their subsoils, can be profitably cultivated in favorable seasons, but all of these exceptions are small, and the fact remains that agriculture is there dependent upon irrigation. Only a small part of the territory, however, can be redeemed, as high, rugged mountains and elevated plateaus occupy much of its area, and these regions are so elevated that summer frosts forbid their occupation by the farmer. Thus thermic conditions limit agriculture to the lowlands, and here another limit is found in the supply of water. Some of the large streams run in deep gorges so far below the general surface of the country that they cannot be used; for example, the Colorado River runs through the southeastern portion of the Territory and carries a great volume of water, but no portion of it can be utilized within the Territory from the fact that its channel is so much below the adjacent lands. The Bear River, in the northern part of the Territory, runs in a somewhat narrow valley, so that only a portion of its waters can be utilized. Generally the smaller streams can be wholly employed in agriculture, but the lands which might thus be reclaimed are of greater extent than the amount which the streams can serve; hence in all such regions the extent of irrigable land is dependent upon the volume of water carried by the streams.

In order to determine the amount of irrigable land in Utah it was necessary to determine the areas to which the larger streams can be taken by proper engineering skill, and the amount which the smaller streams can serve. In the latter case it was necessary to determine first the amount of land which a given amount or unit of water would supply, and then the volume of water running in the streams; the product of these factors giving the extent of the irrigable lands. A continuous flow of one cubic foot of water per second was taken as the unit, and after careful consideration it was assumed that this unit of water will serve from 80 to 100 acres of land. Usually the computations have been made on the basis of 100 acres. This unit was determined in the most practical way—from the experience of the farmers of Utah who have been practicing agriculture for the past thirty years. Many of the farmers will not admit that so great a tract can be cultivated by this unit. In the early history of irrigation in this country the lands were oversupplied with water, but experience has shown that irrigation is most successful when the least amount of water is used necessary to a vigorous growth of the crops; that is, a greater yield is obtained by avoiding both scanty and excessive watering; but the tendency to overwater the lands is corrected only by extended experience. A great many of the waterways are so rudely constructed that much waste ensues. As irrigating methods are improved this wastage will be avoided; so in assuming that a cubic foot of water will irrigate from 80 to 100 acres of land it is at the same time assumed that only the necessary amount of water will be used, and that the waterways will eventually be so constructed that the waste now almost universal will be prevented.

In determining the volume of water flowing in the streams great accuracy has not been attained. For this purpose it would be necessary to make continuous daily, or even hourly, observations for a series of years on each stream, but by the methods described in the following chapters it will be seen that a fair approximation to a correct amount has been made. For the degree of accuracy reached much is due to the fact that many of the smaller streams are already used to their fullest capacity, and thus experience has solved the problem.

Having determined from the operations of irrigation that one cubic foot per second of water will irrigate from 80 to 100 acres of land when the greatest economy is used, and having determined the volume of water or number of cubic feet per second flowing in the several streams of Utah by the most thorough methods available under the circumstances, it appears that within the territory, excluding a small portion in the southeastern corner where the survey has not yet been completed, the amount of land which it is possible to redeem by this method is about 2,262 square miles, or 1,447,920 acres. Of course this amount does not lie in a continuous body, but is scattered in small tracts along the water courses. For the purpose of exhibiting their situations a map of the territory has been prepared, and will be found accompanying this report, on which the several tracts of irrigable lands have been colored. A glance at this map will show how they are distributed. Excluding that small portion of the territory in the southeast corner not embraced in the map, Utah has an area of 80,000 square miles, of which 2,262 square miles are irrigable. That is, 2.8 per cent. of the lands under consideration can be cultivated by utilizing all the available streams during the irrigating season.

In addition to the streams considered in this statement there are numerous small springs on the mountain sides scattered throughout the territory—springs which do not feed permanent streams; and if their waters were used for irrigation the extent of irrigable land would be slightly increased; to what exact amount cannot be stated, but the difference would be so small as not to materially affect the general statement, and doubtless these springs can be used in another way and to a better purpose, as will hereafter appear.

This statement of the facts relating to the irrigable lands of Utah will serve to give a clearer conception of the extent and condition of the irrigable lands throughout the Arid Region. Such as can be redeemed are scattered along the water courses, and are in general the lowest lands of the several districts to which they belong. In some of the states and territories the percentage of irrigable land is less than in Utah, in others greater, and it is probable that the percentage in the entire region is somewhat greater than in the territory which we have considered.

The Arid Region is somewhat more than four-tenths of the total area of the United States, and as the agricultural interests of so great an area are dependent upon irrigation it will be interesting to consider certain questions relating to the economy and practicability of distributing the waters over the lands to be redeemed.

ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION.

There are two considerations that make irrigation attractive to the agriculturist. Crops thus cultivated are not subject to the vicissitudes of rainfall; the farmer fears no droughts; his labors are seldom interrupted and his crops rarely injured by storms. This immunity from drought and storm renders agricultural operations much more certain than in regions of greater humidity. Again, the water comes down from the mountains and plateaus freighted with fertilizing materials derived from the decaying vegetation and soils of the upper regions, which are spread by the flowing water over the cultivated lands. It is probable that the benefits derived from this source alone will be full compensation for the cost of the process. Hitherto these benefits have not been fully realized, from the fact that the methods employed have been more or less crude. When the flow of water over the land is too great or too rapid the fertilizing elements borne in the waters are carried past the fields, and a washing is produced which deprives the lands irrigated of their most valuable elements, and little streams cut the fields with channels injurious in diverse ways. Experience corrects these errors, and the irrigator soon learns to flood his lands gently, evenly, and economically. It may be anticipated that all the lands redeemed by irrigation in the Arid Region will be highly cultivated and abundantly productive, and agriculture will be but slightly subject to the vicissitudes of scant and excessive rainfall.

A stranger entering this Arid Region is apt to conclude that the soils are sterile, because of their chemical composition, but experience demonstrates the fact that all the soils are suitable for agricultural purposes when properly supplied with water. It is true that some of the soils are overcharged with alkaline materials, but these can in time be “washed out”. Altogether the fact suggests that far too much attention has heretofore been paid to the chemical constitution of soils and too little to those physical conditions by which moisture and air are supplied to the roots of the growing plants.

COÖPERATIVE LABOR OR CAPITAL NECESSARY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF IRRIGATION.

Small streams can be taken out and distributed by individual enterprise, but coöperative labor or aggregated capital must be employed in taking out the larger streams.

The diversion of a large stream from its channel into a system of canals demands a large outlay of labor and material. To repay this all the waters so taken out must be used, and large tracts of land thus become dependent upon a single canal. It is manifest that a farmer depending upon his own labor cannot undertake this task. To a great extent the small streams are already employed, and but a comparatively small portion of the irrigable lands can be thus redeemed; hence the chief future development of irrigation must come from the use of the larger streams. Usually the confluence of the brooks and creeks which form a large river takes place within the mountain district which furnishes its source before the stream enters the lowlands where the waters are to be used. The volume of water carried by the small streams that reach the lowlands before uniting with the great rivers, or before they are lost in the sands, is very small when compared with the volume of the streams which emerge from the mountains as rivers. This fact is important. If the streams could be used along their upper ramifications while the several branches are yet small, poor men could occupy the lands, and by their individual enterprise the agriculture of the country would be gradually extended to the limit of the capacity of the region; but when farming is dependent upon larger streams such men are barred from these enterprises until coöperative labor can be organized or capital induced to assist. Before many years all the available smaller streams throughout the entire region will be occupied in serving the lands, and then all future development will depend on the conditions above described.

In Utah Territory coöperative labor, under ecclesiastical organization, has been very successful. Outside of Utah there are but few instances where it has been tried; but at Greeley, in the State of Colorado, this system has been eminently successful.

THE USE OF SMALLER STREAMS SOMETIMES INTERFERES WITH THE USE OF THE LARGER.

A river emerging from a mountain region and meandering through a valley may receive small tributaries along its valley course. These small streams will usually be taken out first, and the lands which they will be made to serve will often lie low down in the valley, because the waters can be more easily controlled here and because the lands are better; and this will be done without regard to the subsequent use of the larger stream to which the smaller ones are tributary. But when the time comes to take out the larger stream, it is found that the lands which it can be made to serve lying adjacent on either hand are already in part served by the smaller streams, and as it will not pay to take out the larger stream without using all of its water, and as the people who use the smaller streams have already vested rights in these lands, a practical prohibition is placed upon the use of the larger river. In Utah, church authority, to some extent at least, adjusts these conflicting interests by causing the smaller streams to be taken out higher up in their course. Such adjustment is not so easily attained by the great body of people settling in the Rocky Mountain Region, and some provision against this difficulty is an immediate necessity. It is a difficulty just appearing, but in the future it will be one of great magnitude.

INCREASE OF IRRIGABLE AREA BY THE STORAGE OF WATER.

Within the Arid Region great deposits of gold, silver, iron, coal, and many other minerals are found, and the rapid development of these mining industries will demand pari passu a rapid development of agriculture. Thus all the lands that can be irrigated will be required for agricultural products necessary to supply the local market created by the mines. For this purpose the waters of the non-growing season will be stored, that they may be used in the growing season.

There are two methods of storing the waste waters. Reservoirs may be constructed near the sources of the streams and the waters held in the upper valleys, or the water may be run from the canals into ponds within or adjacent to the district where irrigation is practiced. This latter method will be employed first. It is already employed to some extent where local interests demand and favorable opportunities are afforded. In general, the opportunities for ponding water in this way are infrequent, as the depressions where ponds can easily be made are liable to be so low that the waters cannot be taken from them to the adjacent lands, but occasionally very favorable sites for such ponds may be found. This is especially true near the mountains where alluvial cones have been formed at the debouchure of the streams from the mountain cañons. Just at the foot of the mountains are many places where ancient glaciation has left the general surface with many depressions favorable to ponding.

Ponding in the lower region is somewhat wasteful of water, as the evaporation is greater than above, and the pond being more or less shallow a greater proportional surface for evaporation is presented. This wastage is apparent when it is remembered that the evaporation in an arid climate may be from 60 to 80 inches annually, or even greater.

Much of the waste water comes down in the spring when the streams are high and before the growing crops demand a great supply. When this water is stored the loss by evaporation will be small.

The greater storage of water must come from the construction of great reservoirs in the highlands where lateral valleys may be dammed and the main streams conducted into them by canals. On most streams favorable sites for such water works can be found. This subject cannot be discussed at any length in a general way, from the fact that each stream presents problems peculiar to itself.

It cannot be very definitely stated to what extent irrigation can be increased by the storage of water. The rainfall is much greater in the mountain than in the valley districts. Much of this precipitation in the mountain districts falls as snow. The great snow banks are the reservoirs which hold the water for the growing seasons. Then the streams are at flood tide; many go dry after the snows have been melted by the midsummer sun; hence they supply during the irrigating time much more water than during the remainder of the year. During the fall and winter the streams are small; in late spring and early summer they are very large. A day’s flow at flood time is greater than a month’s flow at low water time. During the first part of the irrigating season less water is needed, but during that same time the supply is greatest. The chief increase will come from the storage of this excess of water in the early part of the irrigating season. The amount to be stored will then be great, and the time of this storage will be so short that it will be but little diminished by evaporation. The waters of the fall and winter are so small in amount that they will not furnish a great supply, and the time for their storage will be so great that much will be lost by evaporation. The increase by storage will eventually be important, and it would be wise to anticipate the time when it will be needed by reserving sites for principal reservoirs and larger ponds.

TIMBER LANDS.

Throughout the Arid Region timber of value is found growing spontaneously on the higher plateaus and mountains. These timber regions are bounded above and below by lines which are very irregular, due to local conditions. Above the upper line no timber grows because of the rigor of the climate, and below no timber grows because of aridity. Both the upper and lower lines descend in passing from south to north; that is, the timber districts are found at a lower altitude in the northern portion of the Arid Region than in the southern. The forests are chiefly of pine, spruce, and fir, but the pines are of principal value. Below these timber regions, on the lower slopes of mountains, on the mesas and hills, low, scattered forests are often found, composed mainly of dwarfed piñon pines and cedars. These stunted forests have some slight value for fuel, and even for fencing, but the forests of principal value are found in the Timber Region as above described.

Primarily the growth of timber depends on climatic conditions—humidity and temperature. Where the temperature is higher, humidity must be greater, and where the temperature is lower, humidity may be less. These two conditions restrict the forests to the highlands, as above stated. Of the two factors involved in the growth of timber, that of the degree of humidity is of the first importance; the degree of temperature affects the problem comparatively little, and for most of the purposes of this discussion may be neglected. For convenience, all these upper regions where conditions of temperature and humidity are favorable to the growth of timber may be called the timber regions.

Not all these highlands are alike covered with forests. The timber regions are only in part areas of standing timber. This limitation is caused by fire. Throughout the timber regions of all the arid land fires annually destroy larger or smaller districts of timber, now here, now there, and this destruction is on a scale so vast that the amount taken from the lands for industrial purposes sinks by comparison into insignificance. The cause of this great destruction is worthy of careful attention. The conditions under which these fires rage are climatic. Where the rainfall is great and extreme droughts are infrequent, forests grow without much interruption from fires; but between that degree of humidity necessary for their protection, and that smaller degree necessary to growth, all lands are swept bare by fire to an extent which steadily increases from the more humid to the more arid districts, until at last all forests are destroyed, though the humidity is still sufficient for their growth if immunity from fire were secured. The amount of mean annual rainfall necessary to the growth of forests if protected from fire is probably about the same as the amount necessary for agriculture without irrigation; at any rate, it is somewhere from 20 to 24 inches. All timber growth below that amount is of a character so stunted as to be of little value, and the growth is so slow that, when once the timber has been taken from the country, the time necessary for a new forest growth is so great that no practical purpose is subserved.

The evidence that the growth of timber, if protected from fires, might be extended to the limits here given is abundant. It is a matter of experience that planted forests thus protected will thrive throughout the prairie region and far westward on the Great Plains. In the mountain region it may be frequently observed that forest trees grow low down on the mountain slopes and in the higher valleys wherever local circumstances protect them from fires, as in the case of rocky lands that give insufficient footing to the grass and shrubs in which fires generally spread. These cases must not be confounded with those patches of forest that grow on alluvial cones where rivers leave mountain cañons and enter valleys or plains. Here the streams, clogged by the material washed from the adjacent mountains by storms, are frequently turned from their courses and divided into many channels running near the surface. Thus a subterranean watering is effected favorable to the growth of trees, as their roots penetrate to sufficient depth. Usually this watering is too deep for agriculture, so that forests grow on lands that cannot be cultivated without irrigation.

Fire is the immediate cause of the lack of timber on the prairies, the eastern portion of the Great Plains, and on some portions of the highlands of the Arid Region; but fires obtain their destructive force through climatic conditions, so that directly and remotely climate determines the growth of all forests. Within the region where prairies, groves, and forests appear, the local distribution of timber growth is chiefly dependent upon drainage and soil, a subject which needs not be here discussed. Only a small portion of the Rocky Mountain Region is protected by climatic conditions from the invasion of fires, and a sufficiency of forests for the country depends upon the control which can be obtained over that destructive agent. A glance at the map of Utah will exhibit the extent and distribution of the forest region throughout that territory, and also show what portions of it are in fact occupied by standing timber. The area of standing timber, as exhibited on the map, is but a part of the Timber Region as there shown, and includes all of the timber, whether dense or scattered.

Necessarily the area of standing timber has been generalized. It was not found practicable to indicate the growth of timber in any refined way by grading it, and by rejecting from the general area the innumerable small open spaces. If the area of standing timber were considered by acres, and all acres not having timber valuable for milling purposes rejected, the extent would be reduced at least to one-fourth of that colored. Within the territory represented on the map the Timber Region has an extent of 18,500 square miles; that is, 23 per cent. belongs to the Timber Region. The general area of standing timber is about 10,000 square miles, or 12.5 per cent. of the entire area. The area of milling timber, determined in the more refined way indicated above, is about 2,500 square miles, or 3¹⁄₈ per cent. of the area embraced on the map. In many portions of the Arid Region these percentages are much smaller. This is true of southern California, Nevada, southern Arizona, and Idaho. In other regions the percentages are larger. Utah gives about a fair average. In general it may be stated that the timber regions are fully adequate to the growth of all the forests which the industrial interests of the country will require if they can be protected from desolation by fire. No limitation to the use of the forests need be made. The amount which the citizens of the country will require will bear but a small proportion to the amount which the fires will destroy; and if the fires are prevented, the renewal by annual growth will more than replace that taken by man. The protection of the forests of the entire Arid Region of the United States is reduced to one single problem—Can these forests be saved from fire? The writer has witnessed two fires in Colorado, each of which destroyed more timber than all that used by the citizens of that State from its settlement to the present day; and at least three in Utah, each of which has destroyed more timber than that taken by the people of the territory since its occupation. Similar fires have been witnessed by other members of the surveying corps. Everywhere throughout the Rocky Mountain Region the explorer away from the beaten paths of civilization meets with great areas of dead forests; pines with naked arms and charred trunks attesting to the former presence of this great destroyer. The younger forests are everywhere beset with fallen timber, attesting to the rigor of the flames, and in seasons of great drought the mountaineer sees the heavens filled with clouds of smoke.

In the main these fires are set by Indians. Driven from the lowlands by advancing civilization, they resort to the higher regions until they are forced back by the deep snows of winter. Want, caused by the restricted area to which they resort for food; the desire for luxuries to which they were strangers in their primitive condition, and especially the desire for personal adornment, together with a supply of more effective instruments for hunting and trapping, have in late years, during the rapid settlement of the country since the discovery of gold and the building of railroads, greatly stimulated the pursuit of animals for their furs—the wealth and currency of the savage. On their hunting excursions they systematically set fire to forests for the purpose of driving the game. This is a fact well known to all mountaineers. Only the white hunters of the region properly understand why these fires are set, it being usually attributed to a wanton desire on the part of the Indians to destroy that which is of value to the white man. The fires can, then, be very greatly curtailed by the removal of the Indians.

These forest regions are made such by inexorable climatic conditions. They are high among the summer frosts. The plateaus are scored by deep cañons, and the mountains are broken with crags and peaks. Perhaps at some distant day a hardy people will occupy little glens and mountain valleys, and wrest from an unwilling soil a scanty subsistence among the rigors of a sub-arctic climate. Herdsmen having homes below may in the summer time drive their flocks to the higher lands to crop the scanty herbage. Where mines are found mills will be erected and little towns spring up, but in general habitations will be remote. The forests will be dense here or scattered there, as the trees may with ease or difficulty gain a foothold, but the forest regions will remain such, to be stripped of timber here and there from time to time to supply the wants of the people who live below; but once protected from fires, the forests will increase in extent and value. The first step to be taken for their protection must be by prohibiting the Indians from resorting thereto for hunting purposes, and then slowly, as the lower country is settled, the grasses and herbage of the highlands, in which fires generally spread, will be kept down by summer pasturage, and the dead and fallen timber will be removed to supply the wants of people below. This protection, though sure to come at last, will be tardy, for it depends upon the gradual settlement of the country; and this again depends upon the development of the agricultural and mineral resources and the establishment of manufactories, and to a very important extent on the building of railroads, for the whole region is so arid that its streams are small, and so elevated above the level of the sea that its few large streams descend too rapidly for navigation.

AGRICULTURAL AND TIMBER INDUSTRIES DIFFERENTIATED.

It is apparent that the irrigable lands are more or less remote from the timber lands; and as the larger streams are employed for irrigation, in the future the extended settlements will be still farther away. The pasturage lands that in a general way intervene between the irrigable and timber lands have a scanty supply of dwarfed forests, as already described, and the people in occupying these lands will not resort, to any great extent, to the mountains for timber; hence timber and agricultural enterprises will be more or less differentiated; lumbermen and woodmen will furnish to the people below their supply of building and fencing material and fuel. In some cases it will be practicable for the farmers to own their timber lands, but in general the timber will be too remote, and from necessity such a division of labor will ensue.

CULTIVATION OF TIMBER.

In the irrigable districts much timber will be cultivated along the canals and minor waterways. It is probable that in time a sufficient amount will thus be raised to supply the people of the irrigable districts with fuel wherever such fuel is needed, but often such a want will not exist, for in the Rocky Mountain Region there is a great abundance of lignitic coals that may be cheaply mined. All these coals are valuable for domestic purposes, and many superior grades are found. These coals are not uniformly distributed, but generally this source of fuel is ample.

PASTURAGE LANDS.

The irrigable lands and timber lands constitute but a small fraction of the Arid Region. Between the lowlands on the one hand and the highlands on the other is found a great body of valley, mesa, hill, and low mountain lands. To what extent, and under what conditions can they be utilized? Usually they bear a scanty growth of grasses. These grasses are nutritious and valuable both for summer and winter pasturage. Their value depends upon peculiar climatic conditions; the grasses grow to a great extent in scattered bunches, and mature seeds in larger proportion perhaps than the grasses of the more humid regions. In general the winter aridity is so great that the grasses when touched by the frosts are not washed down by the rains and snows to decay on the moist soil, but stand firmly on the ground all winter long and “cure”, forming a quasi uncut hay. Thus the grass lands are of value both in summer and winter. In a broad way, the greater or lesser abundance of the grasses is dependent on latitude and altitude; the higher the latitude the better are the grasses, and they improve as the altitude increases. In very low altitudes and latitudes the grasses are so scant as to be of no value; here the true deserts are found. These conditions obtain in southern California, southern Nevada, southern Arizona, and southern New Mexico, where broad reaches of land are naked of vegetation, but in ascending to the higher lands the grass steadily improves. Northward the deserts soon disappear, and the grass becomes more and more luxuriant to our northern boundary. In addition to the desert lands mentioned, other large deductions must be made from the area of the pasturage lands. There are many districts in which the “country rock” is composed of incoherent sands and clays; sometimes sediments of ancient Tertiary lakes; elsewhere sediments of more ancient Cretaceous seas. In these districts perennial or intermittent streams have carved deep waterways, and the steep hills are ever washed naked by fierce but infrequent storms, as the incoherent rocks are unable to withstand the beating of the rain. These districts are known as the mauvaises terres or bad lands of the Rocky Mountain Region. In other areas the streams have carved labyrinths of deep gorges and the waters flow at great depths below the general surface. The lands between the streams are beset with towering cliffs, and the landscape is an expanse of naked rock. These are the alcove lands and cañon lands of the Rocky Mountain Region. Still other districts have been the theater of late volcanic activity, and broad sheets of naked lava are found; cinder cones are frequent, and scoria and ashes are scattered over the land. These are the lava-beds of the Rocky Mountain Region. In yet other districts, low broken mountains are found with rugged spurs and craggy crests. Grasses and chaparral grow among the rocks, but such mountains are of little value for pasturage purposes.

After making all the deductions, there yet remain vast areas of valuable pasturage land bearing nutritious but scanty grass. The lands along the creeks and rivers have been relegated to that class which has been described as irrigable, hence the lands under consideration are away from the permanent streams. No rivers sweep over them and no creeks meander among their hills.

Though living water is not abundant, the country is partially supplied by scattered springs, that often feed little brooks whose waters never join the great rivers on their way to the sea, being able to run but a short distance from their fountains, when they spread among the sands to be reëvaporated. These isolated springs and brooks will in many cases furnish the water necessary for the herds that feed on the grasses. When springs are not found wells may be sometimes dug, and where both springs and wells fail reservoirs may be constructed. Wherever grass grows water may be found or saved from the rains in sufficient quantities for all the herds that can live on the pasturage.

PASTURAGE FARMS NEED SMALL TRACTS OF IRRIGABLE LAND.

The men engaged in stock raising need small areas of irrigable lands for gardens and fields where agricultural products can be raised for their own consumption, and where a store of grain and hay may be raised for their herds when pressed by the severe storms by which the country is sometimes visited. In many places the lone springs and streams are sufficient for these purposes. Another and larger source of water for the fertilization of the gardens and fields of the pasturage farms is found in the smaller branches and upper ramifications of the larger irrigating streams. These brooks can be used to better advantage for the pasturage farms as a supply of water for stock gardens and small fields than for farms where agriculture by irrigation is the only industry. The springs and brooks of the permanent drainage can be employed in making farms attractive and profitable where large herds may be raised in many great districts throughout the Rocky Mountain Region.

The conditions under which these pasturage lands can be employed are worthy of consideration.

THE FARM UNIT FOR PASTURAGE LANDS.

The grass is so scanty that the herdsman must have a large area for the support of his stock. In general a quarter section of land alone is of no value to him; the pasturage it affords is entirely inadequate to the wants of a herd that the poorest man needs for his support.

Four square miles may be considered as the minimum amount necessary for a pasturage farm, and a still greater amount is necessary for the larger part of the lands; that is, pasturage farms, to be of any practicable value, must be of at least 2,560 acres, and in many districts they must be much larger.[1]

[1] For the determination of the proper unit for pasturage farms the writer has conferred with many persons living in the Rocky Mountain Region who have had experience. His own observations have been extensive, and for many years while conducting surveys and making long journeys through the Arid Region this question has been uppermost in his mind. He fears that this estimate will disappoint many of his western friends, who will think he has placed the minimum too low, but after making the most thorough examination of the subject possible he believes the amount to be sufficient for the best pasturage lands, especially such as are adjacent to the minor streams of the general drainage, and when these have been taken by actual settlers the size of the pasturage farms may be increased as experience proves necessary.

REGULAR DIVISION LINES FOR PASTURAGE FARMS NOT PRACTICABLE.

Many a brook which runs but a short distance will afford sufficient water for a number of pasturage farms; but if the lands are surveyed in regular tracts as square miles or townships, all the water sufficient for a number of pasturage farms may fall entirely within one division. If the lands are thus surveyed, only the divisions having water will be taken, and the farmer obtaining title to such a division or farm could practically occupy all the country adjacent by owning the water necessary to its use. For this reason divisional surveys should conform to the topography, and be so made as to give the greatest number of water fronts. For example, a brook carrying water sufficient for the irrigation of 200 acres of land might be made to serve for the irrigation of 20 acres to each of ten farms, and also supply the water for all the stock that could live on ten pasturage farms, and ten small farmers could have homes. But if the water was owned by one man, nine would be excluded from its benefits and nine-tenths of the land remain in the hands of the government.

FARM RESIDENCES SHOULD BE GROUPED.

These lands will maintain but a scanty population. The homes must necessarily be widely scattered from the fact that the farm unit must be large. That the inhabitants of these districts may have the benefits of the local social organizations of civilization—as schools, churches, etc., and the benefits of coöperation in the construction of roads, bridges, and other local improvements, it is essential that the residences should be grouped to the greatest possible extent. This may be practically accomplished by making the pasturage farms conform to topographic features in such manner as to give the greatest possible number of water fronts.

PASTURAGE LANDS CANNOT BE FENCED.

The great areas over which stock must roam to obtain subsistence usually prevents the practicability of fencing the lands. It will not pay to fence the pasturage fields, hence in many cases the lands must be occupied by herds roaming in common; for poor men coöperative pasturage is necessary, or communal regulations for the occupancy of the ground and for the division of the increase of the herds. Such communal regulations have already been devised in many parts of the country.

RECAPITULATION.

The Arid Region of the United States is more than four-tenths of the area of the entire country excluding Alaska.

In the Arid Region there are three classes of lands, namely, irrigable lands, timber lands, and pasturage lands.

IRRIGABLE LANDS.

Within the Arid Region agriculture is dependent upon irrigation.

The amount of irrigable land is but a small percentage of the whole area.

The chief development of irrigation depends upon the use of the large streams.

For the use of large streams coöperative labor or capital is necessary.

The small streams should not be made to serve lands so as to interfere with the use of the large streams.

Sites for reservoirs should be set apart, in order that no hinderance may be placed upon the increase of irrigation by the storage of water.

TIMBER LANDS.

The timber regions are on the elevated plateaus and mountains.

The timber regions constitute from 20 to 25 per cent. of the Arid Region.

The area of standing timber is much less than the timber region, as the forests have been partially destroyed by fire.

The timber regions cannot be used as farming lands; they are valuable for forests only.

To preserve the forests they must be protected from fire. This will be largely accomplished by removing the Indians.

The amount of timber used for economic purposes will be more than replaced by the natural growth.

In general the timber is too far from the agricultural lands to be owned and utilized directly by those who carry on farming by irrigation.

A division of labor is necessary, and special timber industries will be developed, and hence the timber lands must be controlled by lumbermen and woodmen.

PASTURAGE LANDS.

The grasses of the pasturage lands are scant, and the lands are of value only in large quantities.

The farm unit should not be less than 2,560 acres.

Pasturage farms need small tracts of irrigable land; hence the small streams of the general drainage system and the lone springs and streams should be reserved for such pasturage farms.

The division of these lands should be controlled by topographic features in such manner as to give the greatest number of water fronts to the pasturage farms.

Residences of the pasturage farms should be grouped, in order to secure the benefits of local social organizations, and coöperation in public improvements.

The pasturage lands will not usually be fenced, and hence herds must roam in common.

As the pasturage lands should have water fronts and irrigable tracts, and as the residences should be grouped, and as the lands cannot be economically fenced and must be kept in common, local communal regulations or coöperation is necessary.

CHAPTER II.
THE LAND SYSTEM NEEDED FOR THE ARID REGION.

The growth and prosperity of the Arid Region will depend largely upon a land system which will comply with the requirements of the conditions and facts briefly set forth in the former chapter.

Any citizen of the United States may acquire title to public lands by purchase at public sale or by ordinary “private entry”, and in virtue of preëmption, homestead, timber culture, and desert land laws.

Purchase at public sale may be effected when the lands are offered at public auction to the highest bidder, either pursuant to proclamation by the President or public notice given in accordance with instructions from the General Land Office. If the land is thus offered and purchasers are not found, they are then subject to “private entry” at the rate of $1.25 or $2.50 per acre. For a number of years it has not been the practice of the Government to dispose of the public lands by these methods; but the public lands of the southern states are now, or soon will be, thus offered for sale.

Any citizen may preëmpt 160 acres of land, and by settling thereon, erecting a dwelling, and making other improvements, and by paying $1.25 per acre in some districts, without the boundaries of railroad grants, and $2.50 within the boundaries of railroad grants in others, may acquire title thereto. The preëmption right can be exercised but once. No person can exercise the preëmption right who is already the owner of 320 acres of land.

Any citizen may, under the homestead privilege, obtain title to 160 acres of land valued at $1.25 per acre, or 80 acres valued at the rate of $2.50, by payment of $5 in the first case and $10 in the last, and by residing on the land for the term of five years and by making certain improvements.

The time of residence is shortened for persons who have served in the army or navy of the United States, and any such person may homestead 160 acres of land valued at $2.50 per acre.

Any citizen may take advantage of both the homestead and preëmption privileges.

Under the timber culture act, any citizen who is the head of a family may acquire title to 160 acres of land in the prairie region by cultivating timber thereon in certain specific quantities; the title can be acquired at the expiration of eight years from the date of entry.

Any citizen may acquire title to one section of desert land (irrigable lands as described in this paper) by the payment at the time of entry of 25 cents per acre, and by redeeming the same by irrigation within a period of three years and by the payment of $1 per acre at the expiration of that time, and a patent will then issue.

Provision is also made for the disposal of public lands as town sites.

From time to time land warrants have been issued by the Government as bounties to soldiers and sailors, and for other purposes. These land warrants have found their way into the market, and the owners thereof are entitled to enter Government lands in the quantities specified in the warrants.

Agricultural scrip has been issued for the purpose of establishing and endowing agricultural schools. A part of this scrip has been used by the schools in locating lands for investment. Much of the scrip has found its way into the market and is used by private individuals. Warrants and scrip can be used when lands have been offered for sale, and preëmptors can use them in lieu of money.

Grants of lands have been made to railroad and other companies, and as these railroads have been completed in whole or in part, the companies have obtained titles to the whole or proportional parts of the lands thus granted.

Where the railroads are unfinished the titles are inchoate to an extent proportional to the incomplete parts.

With small exceptions, the lands of the Arid Region have not been offered for sale at auction or by private entry.

The methods, then, by which the lands under consideration can be obtained from the Government are by taking advantage of the preëmption, homestead, timber culture, or desert land privileges.

IRRIGABLE LANDS.

By these methods adequate provision is made for actual settlers on all irrigable lands that are dependent on the waters of minor streams; but these methods are insufficient for the settlement of the irrigable lands that depend on the larger streams, and also for the pasturage lands and timber lands, and in this are included nearly all the lands of the Arid Region. If the irrigable lands are to be sold, it should be in quantities to suit purchasers, and but one condition should be imposed, namely, that the lands should be actually irrigated before the title is transferred to the purchaser. This method would provide for the redemption of these lands by irrigation through the employment of capital. If these lands are to be reserved for actual settlers, in small quantities, to provide homes for poor men, on the principle involved in the homestead laws, a general law should be enacted under which a number of persons would be able to organize and settle on irrigable districts, and establish their own rules and regulations for the use of the water and subdivision of the lands, but in obedience to the general provisions of the law.

TIMBER LANDS.

The timber lands cannot be acquired by any of the methods provided in the preëmption, homestead, timber culture, and desert land laws, from the fact that they are not agricultural lands. Climatic conditions make these methods inoperative. Under these laws “dummy entries” are sometimes made. A man wishing to obtain the timber from a tract of land will make homestead or preëmption entries by himself or through his employés without intending to complete the titles, being able thus to hold these lands for a time sufficient to strip them of their timber.

This is thought to be excusable by the people of the country, as timber is necessary for their industries, and the timber lands cannot honestly be acquired by those who wish to engage in timber enterprises. Provision should be made by which the timber can be purchased by persons or companies desiring to engage in the lumber or wood business, and in such quantities as may be necessary to encourage the construction of mills, the erection of flumes, the making of roads, and other improvements necessary to the utilization of the timber for the industries of the country.

PASTURAGE LANDS.

If divisional surveys were extended over the pasturage lands, favorable sites at springs and along small streams would be rapidly taken under the homestead and preëmption privileges for the nuclei of pasturage farms.

Unentered lands contiguous to such pasturage farms could be controlled to a greater or less extent by those holding the water, and in this manner the pasturage of the country would be rendered practicable. But the great body of land would remain in the possession of the Government; the farmers owning the favorable spots could not obtain possession of the adjacent lands by homestead or preëmption methods, and if such adjacent lands were offered for sale, they could not afford to pay the Government price.

Certain important facts relating to the pasturage farms may be advantageously restated.

The farm unit should not be less than 2,560 acres; the pasturage farms need small bodies of irrigable land; the division of these lands should be controlled by topographic features to give water fronts; residences of the pasturage lands should be grouped; the pasturage farms cannot be fenced—they must be occupied in common.

The homestead and preëmption methods are inadequate to meet these conditions. A general law should be enacted to provide for the organization of pasturage districts, in which the residents should have the right to make their own regulations for the division of the lands, the use of the water for irrigation and for watering the stock, and for the pasturage of the lands in common or in severalty. But each division or pasturage farm of the district should be owned by an individual; that is, these lands could be settled and improved by the “colony” plan better than by any other. It should not be understood that the colony system applies only to such persons as migrate from the east in a body; any number of persons already in this region could thus organize. In fact very large bodies of these lands would be taken by people who are already in the country and who have herds with which they roam about seeking water and grass, and making no permanent residences and no valuable improvements. Such a plan would give immediate relief to all these people.

This district or colony system is not untried in this country. It is essentially the basis of all the mining district organizations of the west. Under it the local rules and regulations for the division of mining lands, the use of water, timber, etc., are managed better than they could possibly be under specific statutes of the United States. The association of a number of people prevents single individuals from having undue control of natural privileges, and secures an equitable division of mineral lands; and all this is secured in obedience to statutes of the United States providing general regulations.

Customs are forming and regulations are being made by common consent among the people in some districts already; but these provide no means for the acquirement of titles to land, no incentive is given to the improvement of the country, and no legal security to pasturage rights.

If, then, the irrigable lands can be taken in quantities to suit purchasers, and the colony system provided for poor men who wish to coöperate in this industry; if the timber lands are opened to timber enterprises, and the pasturage lands offered to settlement under a colony plan like that indicated above, a land system would be provided for the Arid Region adapted to the wants of all persons desiring to become actual settlers therein. Thousands of men who now own herds and live a semi-nomadic life; thousands of persons who now roam from mountain range to mountain range prospecting for gold, silver, and other minerals; thousands of men who repair to that country and return disappointed from the fact that they are practically debarred from the public lands; and thousands of persons in the eastern states without employment, or discontented with the rewards of labor, would speedily find homes in the great Rocky Mountain Region.

In making these recommendations, the wisdom and beneficence of the homestead system have been recognized and the principles involved have been considered paramount.

To give more definite form to some of the recommendations for legislation made above, two bills have been drawn, one relating to the organization of irrigation districts, the other to pasturage districts. These bills are presented here. It is not supposed that these forms are the best that could be adopted; perhaps they could be greatly improved; but they have been carefully considered, and it is believed they embody the recommendations made above.

A BILL to authorize the organization of irrigation districts by homestead settlements upon the public lands requiring irrigation for agricultural purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be lawful for any nine or more persons who may be entitled to acquire a homestead from the public lands, as provided for in sections twenty-two hundred and eighty-nine to twenty-three hundred and seventeen, inclusive, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, to settle an irrigation district and to acquire titles to irrigable lands under the limitations and conditions hereinafter provided.

Sec. 2. That it shall be lawful for the persons mentioned in section one of this act to organize an irrigation district in accordance with a form and general regulations to be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, which shall provide for a recorder; and said persons may make such by-laws, not in conflict with said regulations, as they may deem wise for the use of waters in such district for irrigation or other purposes, and for the division of the lands into such parcels as they may deem most convenient for irrigating purposes; but the same must accord with the provisions of this act.

Sec. 3. That all lands in those portions of the United States where irrigation is necessary to agriculture, which can be redeemed by irrigation and for which there is accessible water for such purpose, not otherwise utilized or lawfully claimed, sufficient for the irrigation of three hundred and twenty acres of land, shall, for the purposes set forth in this act, be classed as irrigable lands.

Sec. 4. That it shall be lawful for the requisite number of persons, as designated in section one of this act, to select from the public lands designated as irrigable lands in section three of this act, for the purpose of settling thereon, an amount of land not exceeding eighty acres to each person; but the lands thus selected by the persons desiring to organize an irrigation district shall be in one continuous tract, and the same shall be subdivided as the regulations and by-laws of the irrigation district shall prescribe: Provided, That no one person shall be entitled to more than eighty acres.

Sec. 5. That whenever such irrigation district shall be organized the recorder of such district shall notify the register and receiver of the land district in which such irrigation district is situate, and also the Surveyor-General of the United States, that such irrigation district has been organized; and each member of the organization of said district shall file a declaration with the register and receiver of said land district that he has settled upon a tract of land within such irrigation district, not exceeding the prescribed amount, with the intention of residing thereon and obtaining a title thereto under the provisions of this act.

Sec. 6. That if within three years after the organization of the irrigation district the claimants therein, in their organized capacity, shall apply for a survey of said district to the Surveyor-General of the United States, he shall cause a proper survey to be made, together with a plat of the same; and on this plat each tract or parcel of land into which the district is divided, such tract or parcel being the entire claim of one person, shall be numbered, and the measure of every angle, the length of every line in the boundaries thereof, and the number of acres in each tract or parcel shall be inscribed thereon, and the name of the district shall appear on the plat in full; and this plat and the field-notes of such survey shall be submitted to the Surveyor-General of the United States; and it shall be the duty of that officer to examine the plat and notes therewith and prove the accuracy of the survey in such manner as the Commissioner of the General Land Office may prescribe; and if it shall appear after such examination and proving that correct surveys have been made, and that the several tracts claimed are within the provisions of this act, he shall certify the same to the register of the land district, and shall thereupon furnish to the said register of the land district, and to the recorder of the irrigation district, and to the recorder or clerk of the county in which the irrigation district is situate, and to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, a copy thereof to each, and the original shall be retained in the office of the Surveyor-General of the United States for preservation.

Sec. 7. That each person applying for the benefits of this act shall, in addition to compliance therewith, conform to the methods provided for the acquirement of a homestead in sections twenty-two hundred and eighty-nine to twenty-three hundred and seventeen, inclusive, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, so far as they are applicable and consistent with this act, and shall also furnish such evidence as the Commissioner of the General Land Office may require that such land has actually been redeemed by irrigation, and may thereupon obtain a patent: Provided, That no person shall obtain a patent under this act to any coal lands, town sites, or tracts of public lands on which towns may have been built, or to any mine of gold, silver, cinnabar, copper, or other mineral for the sale or disposal of which provision has been made by law.

Sec. 8. That the lands patented under the provisions of this act shall be described as irrigation farms, and designated by the number of the tract or parcel and the name of the irrigation district.

Sec. 9. That the right to the water necessary to the redemption of an irrigation farm shall inhere in the land from the time of the organization of the irrigation district, and in all subsequent conveyances the right to the water shall pass with the title to the land. But if after the lapse of five years from the date of the organization of the district the owner of any irrigation farm shall have failed to irrigate the whole or any part of the same, the right to the use of the necessary water to irrigate the unreclaimed lands shall thereupon lapse, and any subsequent right to water necessary for the cultivation of said unreclaimed land shall be acquired only by priority of utilization.

Sec. 10. That it shall be lawful for any person entitled to acquire a homestead from the public lands as designated in section one of this act to settle on an irrigation farm contiguous to any irrigation district after such district has been organized by making the notifications and declaration provided for in section five of this act, and by notifying the recorder of such irrigation district, and also by complying with the rules and regulations of such district; and such person may thereupon become a member of the district and entitled to the same privileges as the other members thereof; and it shall be the duty of the recorder of the irrigation district to notify the register and receiver of the land district, and also the Surveyor-General of the United States, that such claim has been made; and such person may obtain a patent to the same under the conditions and by conforming to the methods prescribed in this act: Provided, That the water necessary for the irrigation of such farm can be taken without injury to the rights of any person who shall have entered an irrigation farm in such district: And provided further, That the right to the water necessary to the redemption of such irrigation farm shall inhere in the land from the time when said person becomes a member of said district, and in all subsequent conveyances the right to the water shall pass with the title to the land; but if, after the lapse of five years from the date of said notifications and declaration, the owner of said irrigation farm shall have failed to irrigate the whole or any part of the same, the right to the use of the necessary water to irrigate the unreclaimed lands shall thereupon lapse, and any subsequent right to the water necessary for the cultivation of the said unreclaimed land shall be acquired only by priority of utilization.

A BILL to authorize the organization of pasturage districts by homestead settlements on the public lands which are of value for pasturage purposes only.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be lawful for any nine or more persons who may be entitled to acquire a homestead from the public lands, as provided for in section twenty-two hundred and eighty-nine to twenty-three hundred and seventeen, inclusive, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, to settle a pasturage district and to acquire titles to pasturage lands under the limitations and conditions hereinafter provided.

Sec. 2. That it shall be lawful for the persons mentioned in section one of this act to organize a pasturage district in accordance with a form and general regulations to be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, which shall provide for a recorder; and said persons may make such by-laws, not in conflict with said regulations, as they may deem wise for the use of waters in such district for irrigation or other purposes, and for the pasturage of the lands severally or conjointly; but the same must accord with the provisions of this act.

Sec. 3. That all lands in those portions of the United States where irrigation is necessary to agriculture shall be, for the purposes set forth in this act, classed as pasturage lands, excepting all tracts of land of not less than three hundred and twenty acres which can be redeemed by irrigation, and where there is sufficient accessible water for such purpose not otherwise utilized or lawfully claimed, and all lands bearing timber of commercial value.

Sec. 4. That it shall be lawful for the requisite number of persons, as designated in section one of this act, to select from the public lands designated as pasturage lands in section three of this act, for the purpose of settling thereon, an amount of land not exceeding two thousand five hundred and sixty acres to each person; but the lands thus selected by the persons desiring to organize a pasturage district shall be in one continuous tract, and the same shall be subdivided as the regulations and by-laws of the pasturage district shall prescribe: Provided, That no one person shall be entitled to more than two thousand five hundred and sixty acres, and this may be in one continuous body, or it may be in two parcels, one for irrigation, the other for pasturage purposes; but the parcel for irrigation shall not exceed twenty acres: And provided further, That no tract or tracts of land selected for any one person shall be entitled to a greater amount of water for irrigating purposes than that sufficient for the reclamation and cultivation of twenty acres of land; nor shall the tract be selected in such a manner along a stream as to monopolize a greater amount.

Sec. 6. That whenever such pasturage district shall be organized, the recorder of such district shall notify the register and receiver of the land district in which such pasturage district is situate, and also the Surveyor-General of the United States, that such pasturage district has been organized; and each member of the organization of said district shall file a declaration with the register and receiver of said land district that he has settled upon a tract of land within such pasturage district, not exceeding the prescribed amount, with the intention of residing thereon and obtaining a title thereto under the provisions of this act.

Sec. 6. That if within three years after the organization of the pasturage district the claimants therein, in their organized capacity, shall apply for a survey of said district to the Surveyor-General of the United States, he shall cause a proper survey to be made, together with a plat of the same; and on this plat each tract or parcel of land into which the district is divided shall be numbered, and the measure of every angle, the length of every line in the boundaries thereof, and the number of acres in each tract or parcel, shall be inscribed thereon, and the name of the district shall appear on the plat in full; and this plat and the field-notes of such survey shall be submitted to the Surveyor-General of the United States; and it shall be the duty of that officer to examine the plat and notes therewith and prove the accuracy of the survey in such manner as the Commissioner of the General Land Office may prescribe; and if it shall appear after such examination and proving that correct surveys have been made, and that the several tracts claimed are within the provisions of this act, he shall certify the same to the register of the land district, and shall furnish to the said register of the land district, and to the recorder of the pasturage district, and to the recorder or clerk of the county in which the pasturage district is situate, and to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, a copy thereof to each; and the original shall be retained in the office of the Surveyor-General of the United States for preservation.

Sec. 7. That each person applying for the benefits of this act shall, in addition to compliance therewith, conform to the methods provided for the acquirement of a homestead in sections twenty-two hundred and eighty-nine to twenty-three hundred and seventeen, inclusive, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, so far as they are applicable and consistent with this act, and may thereupon obtain a patent: Provided, That no person shall obtain a patent under this act to any coal lands, town sites, or tracts of public lands on which towns may have been built, or to any mine of gold, silver, cinnabar, copper, or other mineral for the sale or disposal of which provision has been made by law.

Sec. 8. That the lands patented under the provisions of this act shall be described as pasturage farms, and designated by the number of the tract or parcel and the name of the pasturage district.

Sec. 9. That the right to the water necessary to the redemption of an irrigation tract of a pasturage farm shall inhere in the land from the time of the organization of the pasturage district, and in all subsequent conveyances the right to the water shall pass with the title to the tract; but if after a lapse of five years from the date of the organization of the pasturage district the owner of any pasturage farm shall have failed to irrigate the whole or any part of the irrigable tract the right to the use of the necessary water to irrigate the unreclaimed land shall thereupon lapse, and any subsequent right to water necessary for the cultivation of such unreclaimed land shall be acquired only by priority of utilization.

Sec. 10. That it shall be lawful for any person entitled to acquire a homestead from the public lands designated in section one of this act to settle on a pasturage farm contiguous to any pasturage district after such district has been organized, by making the notifications and declaration provided for in section five of this act, and by notifying the recorder of such pasturage district, and also by complying with the rules and regulations of such district; and such person may thereupon become a member of the district and entitled to the same privileges as the other members thereof; and it shall be the duty of the recorder of the pasturage district to notify the register and receiver of the land district, and also the Surveyor-General of the United States, that such claim has been made; and such person may obtain a patent to the same under the conditions and by conforming to the methods prescribed in this act: Provided, That the water necessary for such farm can be taken without injury to the rights of any person who shall have entered a pasturage farm in such district: And provided further, That the right to the water necessary to the redemption of the irrigable tract of such pasturage farm shall inhere in the land from the time when said person becomes a member of said district, and in all subsequent conveyances the right to the water shall pass with the title to the land; but if, after the lapse of five years from the date of such notifications and declaration, the owner of said irrigable tract shall have failed to irrigate the whole or any part of the same, the right to the use of the necessary water to irrigate the unreclaimed land shall thereupon lapse, and any subsequent right to the water necessary to the cultivation of the said unreclaimed land shall be acquired only by priority of utilization.

The provisions in the submitted bills by which the settlers themselves may parcel their lands may need further comment and elucidation. If the whole of the Arid Region was yet unsettled, it might be wise for the Government to undertake the parceling of the lands and employ skilled engineers to do the work, whose duties could then be performed in advance of settlement. It is manifest that this work cannot be properly performed under the contract system; it would be necessary to employ persons of skill and judgment under a salary system. The mining industries which have sprung up in the country since the discovery of gold on the Pacific coast, in 1849, have stimulated immigration, so that settlements are scattered throughout the Arid Region; mining towns have sprung up on the flanks of almost every great range of mountains, and adjacent valleys have been occupied by persons desiring to engage in agriculture. Many of the lands surveyed along the minor streams have been entered, and the titles to these lands are in the hands of actual settlers. Many pasturage farms, or ranches, as they are called locally, have been established throughout the country. These remarks are true of every state and territory in the Arid Region. In the main these ranches or pasturage farms are on Government land, and the settlers are squatters, and some are not expecting to make permanent homes. Many other persons have engaged in pasturage enterprises without having made fixed residences, but move about from place to place with their herds. It is now too late for the Government to parcel the pasturage lands in advance of the wants of settlers in the most available way, so as to closely group residences and give water privileges to the several farms. Many of the settlers are actually on the ground, and are clamoring for some means by which they can obtain titles to pasturage farms of an extent adequate to their wants, and the tens of thousands of individual interests would make the problem a difficult one for the officers of the Government to solve. A system less arbitrary than that of the rectangular surveys now in vogue, and requiring unbiased judgment, overlooking the interests of single individuals and considering only the interests of the greatest number, would meet with local opposition. The surveyors themselves would be placed under many temptations, and would be accused—sometimes rightfully perhaps, sometimes unjustly—of favoritism and corruption, and the service would be subject to the false charges of disappointed men on the one hand, and to truthful charges against corrupt men on the other. In many ways it would be surrounded with difficulties and fall into disrepute.

Under these circumstances it is believed that it is best to permit the people to divide their lands for themselves—not in a way by which each man may take what he pleases for himself, but by providing methods by which these settlers may organize and mutually protect each other from the rapacity of individuals. The lands, as lands, are of but slight value, as they cannot be used for ordinary agricultural purposes, i. e., the cultivation of crops; but their value consists in the scant grasses which they spontaneously produce, and these values can be made available only by the use of the waters necessary for the subsistence of stock, and that necessary for the small amount of irrigable land which should be attached to the several pasturage farms. Thus, practically, all values inhere in the water, and an equitable division of the waters can be made only by a wise system of parceling the lands; and the people in organized bodies can well be trussed with this right, while individuals could not thus be trusted. These considerations have led to the plan suggested in the bill submitted for the organization of pasturage districts.

In like manner, in the bill designed for the purpose of suggesting a plan for the organization of irrigation districts, the same principle is involved, viz, that of permitting the settlers themselves to subdivide the lands into such tracts as they may desire.

The lands along the streams are not valuable for agricultural purposes in continuous bodies or squares, but only in irrigable tracts governed by the levels of the meandering canals which carry the water for irrigation, and it would be greatly to the advantage of every such district if the lands could be divided into parcels, governed solely by the conditions under which the water could be distributed over them; and such parceling cannot be properly done prior to the occupancy of the lands, but can only be made pari passu with the adoption of a system of canals; and the people settling on these lands should be allowed the privilege of dividing the lands into such tracts as may be most available for such purposes, and they should not be hampered with the present arbitrary system of dividing the lands into rectangular tracts.

Those who are acquainted with the history of the land system of the eastern states, and know the difficulty of properly identifying or determining the boundaries of many of the parcels or tracts of land into which the country is divided, and who appreciate the cumbrous method of describing such lands by metes and bounds in conveyances, may at first thought object to the plan of parceling lands into irregular tracts. They may fear that if the system of parceling the lands into townships and sections, and describing the same in conveyances by reference to certain great initial points in the surveys of the lands, is abandoned, it will lead to the uncertainties and difficulties that belonged to the old system. But the evils of that system did not belong to the shape into which the lands were divided. The lands were often not definitely and accurately parceled; actual boundary lines were not fixed on the ground and accurate plats were not made, and the description of the boundary lines was usually vague and uncertain. It matters not what the shape of tracts or parcels may be; if these parcels are accurately defined by surveys on the ground and plotted for record, none of these uncertainties will arise, and if these tracts or parcels are lettered or numbered on the plats, they may be very easily described in conveyances without entering into a long and tedious description of metes and bounds.

In most of our western towns and cities lots are accurately surveyed and plotted and described by number of lot, number of block, etc., etc., and such a simple method should be used in conveying the pasturage lands. While the system of parceling and conveying by section, township, range, etc., was a very great improvement on the system which previously existed, the much more simple method used in most of our cities and towns would be a still further improvement.

The title to no tract of land should be conveyed from the Government to the individual until the proper survey of the same is made and the plat prepared for record. With this precaution, which the Government already invariably takes in disposing of its lands, no fear of uncertainty of identification need be entertained.

WATER RIGHTS.

In each of the suggested bills there is a clause providing that, with certain restrictions, the right to the water necessary to irrigate any tract of land shall inhere in the land itself from the date of the organization of the district. The object of this is to give settlers on pasturage or irrigation farms the assurance that their lands shall not be made worthless by taking away the water to other lands by persons settling subsequently in adjacent portions of the country. The men of small means who under the theory of the bill are to receive its benefits will need a few years in which to construct the necessary waterways and bring their lands under cultivation. On the other hand, they should not be permitted to acquire rights to water without using the same. The construction of the waterways necessary to actual irrigation by the land owners may be considered as a sufficient guarantee that the waters will subsequently be used.

The general subject of water rights is one of great importance. In many places in the Arid Region irrigation companies are organized who obtain vested rights in the waters they control, and consequently the rights to such waters do not inhere in any particular tracts of land.

When the area to which it is possible to take the water of any given stream is much greater than the stream is competent to serve, if the land titles and water rights are severed, the owner of any tract of land is at the mercy of the owner of the water right. In general, the lands greatly exceed the capacities of the streams. Thus the lands have no value without water. If the water rights fall into the hands of irrigating companies and the lands into the hands of individual farmers, the farmers then will be dependent upon the stock companies, and eventually the monopoly of water rights will be an intolerable burden to the people.

The magnitude of the interests involved must not be overlooked. All the present and future agriculture of more than four-tenths of the area of the United States is dependent upon irrigation, and practically all values for agricultural industries inhere, not in the lands but in the water. Monopoly of land need not be feared. The question for legislators to solve is to devise some practical means by which water rights may be distributed among individual farmers and water monopolies prevented.

The pioneers in the “new countries” in the United States have invariably been characterized by enterprise and industry and an intense desire for the speedy development of their new homes. These characteristics are no whit less prominent in the Rocky Mountain Region than in the earlier “new countries”; but they are even more apparent. The hardy pioneers engage in a multiplicity of industrial enterprises surprising to the people of long established habits and institutions. Under the impetus of this spirit irrigation companies are organized and capital invested in irrigating canals, and but little heed is given to philosophic considerations of political economy or to the ultimate condition of affairs in which their present enterprises will result. The pioneer is fully engaged in the present with its hopes of immediate remuneration for labor. The present development of the country fully occupies him. For this reason every effort put forth to increase the area of the agricultural land by irrigation is welcomed. Every man who turns his attention to this department of industry is considered a public benefactor. But if in the eagerness for present development a land and water system shall grow up in which the practical control of agriculture shall fall into the hands of water companies, evils will result therefrom that generations may not be able to correct, and the very men who are now lauded as benefactors to the country will, in the ungovernable reaction which is sure to come, be denounced as oppressors of the people.

The right to use water should inhere in the land to be irrigated, and water rights should go with land titles.

Those unacquainted with the industrial institutions of the far west, involving the use of lands and waters, may without careful thought suppose that the long recognized principles of the common law are sufficient to prevent the severance of land and water rights; but other practices are obtaining which have, or eventually will have, all the force of common law, because the necessities of the country require the change, and these practices are obtaining the color of right from state and territorial legislation, and to some extent by national legislation. In all that country the natural channels of the streams cannot be made to govern water rights without great injury to its agricultural and mining industries. For the great purposes of irrigation and hydraulic mining the water has no value in its natural channel. In general the water cannot be used for irrigation on the lands immediately contiguous to the streams—i. e., the flood plains or bottom valleys—for reasons more fully explained in a subsequent chapter. The waters must be taken to a greater or less extent on the bench lands to be used in irrigation. All the waters of all the arid lands will eventually be taken from their natural channels, and they can be utilized only to the extent to which they are thus removed, and water rights must of necessity be severed from the natural channels. There is another important factor to be considered. The water when used in irrigation is absorbed by the soil and reëvaporated to the heavens. It cannot be taken from its natural channel, used, and returned. Again, the water cannot in general be properly utilized in irrigation by requiring it to be taken from its natural channel within the limits ordinarily included in a single ownership. In order to conduct the water on the higher bench lands where it is to be used in irrigation, it is necessary to go up the stream until a level is reached from which the waters will flow to the lands to be redeemed. The exceptions to this are so small that the statement scarcely needs qualification. Thus, to use the water it must be diverted from its natural course often miles or scores of miles from where it is to be used.

The ancient principles of common law applying to the use of natural streams, so wise and equitable in a humid region, would, if applied to the Arid Region, practically prohibit the growth of its most important industries. Thus it is that a custom is springing up in the Arid Region which may or may not have color of authority in statutory or common law; on this I do not wish to express an opinion; but certain it is that water rights are practically being severed from the natural channels of the streams; and this must be done. In the change, it is to be feared that water rights will in many cases be separated from all land rights as the system is now forming. If this fear is not groundless, to the extent that such a separation is secured, water will become a property independent of the land, and this property will be gradually absorbed by a few. Monopolies of water will be secured, and the whole agriculture of the country will be tributary thereto—a condition of affairs which an American citizen having in view the interests of the largest number of people cannot contemplate with favor.

Practically, in that country the right to water is acquired by priority of utilization, and this is as it should be from the necessities of the country. But two important qualifications are needed. The user right should attach to the land where used, not to the individual or company constructing the canals by which it is used. The right to the water should inhere in the land where it is used; the priority of usage should secure the right. But this needs some slight modification. A farmer settling on a small tract, to be redeemed by irrigation, should be given a reasonable length of time in which to secure his water right by utilization, that he may secure it by his own labor, either directly by constructing the waterways himself, or indirectly by coöperating with his neighbors in constructing systems of waterways. Without this provision there is little inducement for poor men to commence farming operations, and men of ready capital only will engage in such enterprises.

The tentative bills submitted have been drawn on the theory thus briefly enunciated.

If there be any doubt of the ultimate legality of the practices of the people in the arid country relating to water and land rights, all such doubts should be speedily quieted through the enactment of appropriate laws by the national legislature. Perhaps an amplification by the courts of what has been designated as the natural right to the use of water may be made to cover the practices now obtaining; but it hardly seems wise to imperil interests so great by intrusting them to the possibility of some future court made law.

THE LANDS SHOULD BE CLASSIFIED.

Such a system of disposing of the public lands in the Arid Region will necessitate an authoritative classification of the same. The largest amount of land that it is possible to redeem by irrigation, excepting those tracts watered by lone springs, brooks, and the small branches, should be classed as irrigable lands, to give the greatest possible development to this industry. The limit of the timber lands should be clearly defined, to prevent the fraudulent acquirement of these lands as pasturage lands. The irrigable and timber lands are of small extent, and their boundaries can easily be fixed. All of the lands falling without these boundaries would be relegated to the greater class designated as pasturage lands. It is true that all such lands will not be of value for pasturage purposes, but in general it would be difficult to draw a line between absolutely desert lands and pasturage lands, and no practical purposes would be subserved thereby. Fix the boundaries of the timber lands that they may be acquired by proper methods; fix the boundaries of the irrigable lands that they may also be acquired by proper methods, and then permit the remaining lands to be acquired by settlers as pasturage lands, to the extent that they may be made available, and there will be no fear of settlers encroaching on the desert or valueless lands.

Heretofore we have been considering only three great classes of lands—namely, irrigable, timber, and pasturage lands, although practically and under the laws there are two other classes of lands to be recognized—namely, mineral lands, i. e., lands bearing lodes or placers of gold, silver, cinnabar, etc., and coal lands. Under the law these lands are made special. Mineral lands are withheld from general sale, and titles to the mines are acquired by the investment of labor and capital to an amount specified in the law. Coal lands are sold for $20 per acre. The mineral lands proper, though widely scattered, are of small extent. Where the mines are lodes, the lands lie along the mountains, and are to a greater or less extent valueless for all other purposes. Where the mines are placers, they may also be agricultural lands, but their extent is very limited. To withhold these lands from purchase and settlement as irrigable, timber, and pasturage lands will in no material way affect the interests of the industries connected with the last mentioned lands. The General Government cannot reasonably engage in the research necessary to determine the mineral lands, but this is practically done by the miners themselves. Thousands of hardy, skilful men are vigorously engaged in this work, and as mines are discovered mining districts are organized, and on the proper representation of these interested parties the mineral lands are withheld from general sale by the Land Department. Thus, proper provision is already made for this branch of the work of classification.

In many parts of the Arid Region there are extensive deposits of coal. These coal fields are inexhaustible by any population which the country can support for any length of time that human prevision can contemplate. To withhold from general settlement the entire area of the workable coal fields would be absurd. Only a small fraction will be needed for the next century. Only those lands should be classed as coal lands that contain beds of coal easily accessible, and where there is a possibility of their being used as such within the next generation or two. To designate or set apart these lands will require the highest geological skill; a thorough geological survey is necessary.

In providing for a general classification of the lands of the Arid Region, it will, then, be necessary to recognize the following classes, namely: mineral lands, coal lands, irrigable lands, timber lands, and pasturage lands. The mineral lands are practically classified by the miners themselves, and for this no further legal provision is necessary. The coal lands must be determined by geological survey. The work of determining the areas which should be relegated to the other classes—namely, irrigable, timber, and pasturage lands—will be comparatively inexpensive.

CHAPTER III.
THE RAINFALL OF THE WESTERN PORTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

The Smithsonian Institution conducted for a number of years an extensive system of measurements of rainfall in the United States, and at the same time diligently collected pluvial records from every possible source. The accumulated data thus collected were placed in the hands of Mr. Charles A. Schott for reduction and discussion, and he prepared the “Smithsonian Tables of Precipitation in Rain and Snow”, which appeared in 1868. Since that time much additional material has been acquired by the continuation of the work to the present time, and also by a great increase in the number of observation stations, and so valuable is this new material that it has been determined to recompile the tables and issue a second edition. By the time the present report was called for, the preliminary computations for the tables had developed an important body of facts bearing on the climate of the Arid Region, and through the courtesy of Prof. Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and of Mr. Schott, they were placed at my disposal. Mr. Schott also made such a change in the order of computation as to give precedence to the states and territories which form the subject of this investigation, and by this timely favor made it possible to base the following discussion on the very latest determinations of rainfall.

The results thus made available exhibit the mean precipitation at each station of observation west of the Mississippi River for each month, for each season, and for the year. A number of other data are also tabulated, including the latitude, longitude, and altitude of each station, and the extent of each series of observations in years and months. In selecting material for the present purpose the shorter records were ignored. The variations from year to year are so great that an isolated record of a single year is of no value as an indication of the average rainfall. The mean of two or three years is almost equally liable to mislead, and only a long series of observations can afford accurate results. In the following tables no stations are included (with one exception) which show records of less than five years’ extent.

[Table I] shows the precipitation of the Sub-humid Region; [Table II], of the Arid Region; [Table III], of the San Francisco Region; and [Table IV], of the Region of the Lower Columbia. The limits of each region have been given in a former chapter, and need not be repeated. In each table the first column contains the names of the stations of observation; the second, their latitudes; the third, their longitudes (west from Greenwich); and the fourth, their altitudes in feet above the level of the sea. The next four columns show for each season of the year the mean observed rainfall in inches, and their sum appears in the following column as the mean yearly rainfall. In the last column the extent of each series of observations is given in years and months. In [Table I] the stations are arranged by latitudes, in [Tables II], [III], and [IV], alphabetically.

Table I.—Precipitation of Sub-humid Region.

Table II.—Precipitation of the Arid Region.

Table III.—Precipitation of the San Francisco Region.

Table IV.—Precipitation of the Region of the Lower Columbia.

DISTRIBUTION OF RAIN THROUGH THE YEAR.

In a general way the limit of agriculture without irrigation, or “dry farming”, is indicated by the curve of 20 inches rainfall, and where the rainfall is equally distributed through the year this limitation is without exception. But in certain districts the rainfall is concentrated in certain months so as to produce a “rainy season”, and wherever the temperature of the rainy season is adapted to the raising of crops it is found that “dry farming” can be carried on with less than 20 inches of annual rain. There are two such districts upon the borders of the Arid Region, and within its limits there may be a third.

First District.—Along the eastern border of the Arid Region a contrast has been observed between the results obtained at the north and at the south. In Texas 20 inches of rain are not sufficient for agriculture, while in Dakota and Minnesota a less amount is sufficient. The explanation is clearly developed by a comparison of the tables of rainfall with reference to the distribution of rain in different seasons.

Table V.—Precipitation of Texas.

Table VI.—Precipitation of Dakota.

[Table V] includes every station in Texas that has a record of five years or more, in all twenty stations. If the means of rainfall for the state be compared with the means for single stations, it will be seen that there is a general correspondence in the ratios pertaining to the different seasons, so that the former can fairly be considered to represent for the state the distribution through the year. [Table VI] presents the data for Dakota in the same way, and the correspondence between the general mean and the station mean is here exceedingly close. At each of the nine stations, the greatest rainfall is recorded in summer, the next greatest in spring, and the least in winter. Placing the two series of results in the form of percentages, they show a decided contrast:

In Dakota a rainy season is well marked, and 73 per cent. of the rain falls in spring and summer, or at the time when it is most needed by the farmer. In Texas only 52 per cent. of the rain falls in the season of agriculture. The availability of rain in the two regions is therefore in the ratio of 73 to 52, and for agricultural purposes 20 inches of rainfall in Texas is equivalent to about 15 inches in Dakota.

For the further exhibition of the subject, [Table VII] has been prepared, comprising stations in the Region of the Plains all the way from our northern to our southern boundary. By way of restricting attention to the practical problem of the limit of “dry farming”, only those stations are admitted which exhibit a mean annual rainfall of more than 15 and less than 25 inches. The order of arrangement is by latitudes, and in the columns at the right the seasonal rainfalls are expressed in percentages of the yearly. The column at the extreme right gives the sum of the spring and summer quotas, and is taken to express the availability of the rainfall.

Table VII.—Seasonal precipitation in the Region of the Plains.

The graduation of the ratios from north to south is apparent to inspection, but is somewhat irregular. The irregularity, however, is not greater than should be anticipated from the shortness of the terms of observation at the several stations, and it disappears when the stations are combined in natural groups. Dividing the whole series into three groups, as indicated by the cross lines in [Table VII], and computing weighted means of the seasonal ratios, we have—

Table VII (a).[2]

[2] In computing the several means of [Table VII] (a) from the seasonal means of [Table VII], the latter were weighted according to the lengths of the records by which they had been obtained.

A moment’s inspection will show that the middle group is intermediate between the northern and southern in all its characters. The spring quota of rainfall progressively diminishes from north to south, and so does the summer, while the fall and winter quotas increase. What is lost in summer is gained in winter, and thereby the inequality of rainfall from season to season is diminished, so that a rainy season is not so well defined in Texas as in Dakota. What is lost in spring is gained in autumn, and thereby the place of the rainy season in the year is shifted. In Dakota the maximum of rain is earlier than in Texas, and corresponds more nearly with the maximum of temperature.

Table VIII.—Seasonal precipitation in the San Francisco Region.

Total extent of record = 130 years.
Mean of yearly rainfalls = 15.90.

Second District.—In the San Francisco Region a rainy season is still more definitely marked, but occurs at a different time of year. It will be seen by [Tables III] and [VIII] that no rain falls in summer, while the winter months receive 60 per cent. of the annual precipitation, and the spring 25 per cent. The general yearly rainfall of the district is only about 16 inches, but by this remarkable concentration a period of five months is made to receive 13 inches. The winter temperature of the district is no less remarkable, and supplies the remaining condition essential to agriculture. Frosts are rare, and in the valleys all the precipitation has the form of rain. The nine stations which afford the rainfall records given above show a mean spring temperature of 57° (see [Table IX]). Thirteen inches of rain coming in a frostless winter and spring have been found sufficient for remunerative agriculture.

Table IX.—Mean temperatures, by seasons, for the San Francisco Region.

The same winter maximum of rainfall is characteristic of the whole Pacific coast. The Region of the Lower Columbia, with an average rainfall of 46 inches, receives 47 per cent. of it in winter and 24 per cent. in spring. Southward on the coast, Drum Barracks (near Los Angeles) and San Diego receive more than half their rain in winter, but as the whole amount is only 9 inches agriculture is not benefited. The eastern bases of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range exhibit the winter maximum of rainfall, and this feature can be traced eastward in Idaho and Nevada, but in these districts it is accompanied by no amelioration of winter temperature. (See [Table X.])

Table X.—Seasonal precipitation and temperatures on the Pacific coast, etc.

Third District.—In Arizona and New Mexico there is a general maximum of rainfall in summer, and a restricted maximum in winter. The principal minimum is in spring. In [Table XI] the stations are arranged according to longitudes, a disposition well suited to exhibit their relations. In eastern New Mexico the distribution of rainfall has the same character as in adjacent Texas, but with a more decided maximum. Half of the total rainfall is in summer and half of the remainder in autumn. Westward the maximum diminishes slightly, but it appears in every station of the two territories. In western Arizona the winter maximum of the Pacific coast asserts itself, and it can be traced eastward as far as Fort Wingate, New Mexico. Except at Camp Mohave, on the western border of Arizona, it is inferior in amount to the summer maximum.

Table XI.—Seasonal precipitation in Arizona and New Mexico.

In all this region the daily range of temperature is great, and frosts occur so early in autumn that no use can be made of the autumnal rainfall. The yearly precipitation is very small, and the summer quota rarely exceeds seven or eight inches. Nevertheless the Pueblo Indians have succeeded, in a few localities, and by a unique method, in raising maize without irrigation. The yield is too meagre to tempt the white man to follow their example, and for his use the region is agricultural only where it can be watered artificially.

CHAPTER IV.
WATER SUPPLY.

By G. K. Gilbert.

The following discussion is based upon a special study of the drainage-basin of Great Salt Lake.

INCREASE OF STREAMS.

The residents of Utah who practice irrigation have observed that many of the streams have increased in volume since the settlement of the country. Of the actuality of this increase there can be no question. A popular impression in regard to the fluctuations of an unmeasured element of climate may be very erroneous, as, for example, the impression that the rainfall of the timbered states has been diminished by the clearing of the land, but in the case of these streams relative measurements have practically been made. Some of them were so fully in use twenty years ago that all of their water was diverted from its channels at the “critical period”, and yet the dependent fields suffered from drought in the drier years. Afterward, it was found that in all years there was enough water and to spare, and operations were extended. Additional canals were dug and new lands were added to the fields; and this was repeated from time to time, until in many places the service of a stream was doubled, and in a few it was increased tenfold, or even fiftyfold. It is a matter of great importance to the agricultural interests, not only of Utah but of the whole district dependent on irrigation, that the cause or causes of this change shall be understood. Until they are known we cannot tell whether the present gain is an omen of future gain or of future loss, nor whether the future changes are within or beyond our control. I shall therefore take the liberty to examine somewhat at length the considerations which are supposed by myself or others to bear upon the problem.

Fortunately we are not compelled to depend on the incidental observations of the farming community for the amount of the increase of the streams, but merely for the fact of their increase. The amount is recorded in an independent and most thorough manner, by the accumulation of the water in Great Salt Lake.

RISE OF GREAT SALT LAKE.

A lake with an outlet has its level determined by the height of the outlet. Great Salt Lake, having no outlet, has its level determined by the relation of evaporation to inflow. On one hand the drainage of a great basin pours into it a continuous though variable tribute; on the other, there is a continuous absorption of its water by the atmosphere above it. The inflow is greatest in the spring time, while the snows are melting in the mountains, and least in the autumn after the melting has ceased, but before the cooling of the air has greatly checked evaporation on the uplands. The lake evaporation is greatest in summer, while the air is warm, and least in winter. Through the winter and spring the inflow exceeds the evaporation, and the lake rises. In the latter part of the summer and in autumn the loss is greater than the gain, and the lake falls. The maximum occurs in June or July, and the minimum probably in November. The difference between the two, or the height of the annual tide, is about 20 inches.

But it rarely happens that the annual evaporation is precisely equal to the annual inflow, and each year the lake gains or loses an amount which depends upon the climate of the year. If the air which crosses the drainage basin of the lake in any year is unusually moist, there is a twofold tendency to raise the mean level. On one hand there is a greater precipitation, whereby the inflow is increased, and on the other hand there is a less evaporation. So, too, if the air is unusually dry, the inflow is correspondingly small, the loss by evaporation is correspondingly great, and the contents of the lake diminish. This annual gain or loss is an expression, and a very delicate expression, of the mean annual humidity of a large district of country, and as such is more trustworthy than any result which might be derived from local observations with psychrometer and rain gauge. A succession of relatively dry years causes a progressive fall of the lake, and a succession of moist years a progressive rise. As the water falls it retires from its shore, and the slopes being exceedingly gentle the area of the lake is rapidly contracted. The surface for evaporation diminishes and its ratio to the inflow becomes less. As the water rises the surface of the lake rapidly increases, and the ratio of evaporation to inflow becomes greater. In this way a limit is set to the oscillation of the lake as dependent on the ordinary fluctuations of climate, and the cumulation of results is prevented. Whenever the variation of the water level from its mean position becomes great, the resistance to its further advance in that direction becomes proportionally great. For the convenience of a name, I shall speak of this oscillation of the lake as the limited oscillation. It depends on an oscillation of climate which is universally experienced, but which has not been found to exhibit either periodicity, or synchrony over large areas, or other features of regularity.

Beside the annual tide and the limited oscillation, the lake has been found to exhibit a third change, and this third or abnormal change seems to be connected with the increase of the tributary streams. In order to exhibit it, it will be necessary to discuss somewhat fully the history of the rise and fall of the lake, and I shall take occasion at the same time to call attention to the preparations that have recently been made for future observations.

Previous to the year 1875 no definite record was made. In 1874 Prof. Joseph Henry, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, began a correspondence with Dr. John R. Park, of Salt Lake City, in regard to the fluctuations and other peculiarities of the lake, and as a chief result a systematic record was begun. With the coöperation of Mr. J. L. Barfoot and other citizens of Utah, Dr. Park erected a graduated pillar at Black Rock, a point on the southern shore which was then a popular summer resort. It consisted of a granite block cut in the form of an obelisk and engraved on one side with a scale of feet and inches. It was set in gravel beneath shallow water, with the zero of its scale near the surface. The water level was read on the pillar by Mr. John T. Mitchell at frequent intervals from September 14, 1875, to October 9, 1876, when the locality ceased to be used as a watering place, and the systematic record was discontinued. Two observations were made by the writer in 1877, and it was found in making the second that the shifting gravel of the beach had buried the column so deeply as to conceal half the graduation.

Dr. Park has kindly furnished me a copy of Mr. Mitchell’s record. The observer was instructed to choose such times of observation that the influence of wind storms upon the level of the lake would be eliminated, and the work appears to have been faithfully performed.

Record of the height of Great Salt Lake above the zero of the granite pillar at Black Rock.

Comparing the October observations for three years, it appears that the lake rose 13 inches from 1875 to 1876, and fell in the next year 6¹⁄₂ inches.

SKETCH OF BLACK ROCK AND VICINITY, UTAH TERRITORY.

Prepared to show the position of the graduated pillar erected by Dr. John Park for observations on the water-level of Great Salt Lake, and the position of the granite bench-mark.

The Black Rock pillar has not the permanence that is desirable. Although it has thus far been only the more firmly established by the action of the waves, it is still true that the lake is encroaching on the land in this part of the coast, and a storm may at any time undermine and overthrow the pillar. To provide for such a contingency it was determined to establish a bench mark out of reach of the waves, and connect it with the pillar by leveling, so that if the existing standard should be destroyed its record would still have a definite meaning, and the relative height of a new standard could be ascertained with precision. In this undertaking I was joined by Mr. Jesse W. Fox, a gentleman who has long held the office of territorial surveyor of Utah. A suitable stone was furnished by the Hon. Brigham Young, and was carried to Black Rock without charge through the courtesy of Mr. Heber P. Kimball, superintendent of the Utah Western Railroad. The block is of granite, and is three feet in length. It was sunk in the earth, all but a few inches, on the northern slope of a small limestone knoll just south of the railroad track at Black Rock. Its top is dressed square, about 10 × 10 inches, and is marked with a +. It will be convenient to speak of the top of this monument as the Black Rock bench. On the 11th of July, 1877, the surface of the lake was 34.5 feet below the bench, and it then marked 2.0 feet on the pillar erected by Dr. Park. The zero of the observation pillar is therefore 36.5 feet below the bench.

The accompanying topographic sketch will serve at any time to identify the position of the bench.

After consultation with Dr. Park, I concluded that it would be better not to depend on the Black Rock station for observations in the future—at least in the immediate future—and other points were discussed. Eventually it was determined to establish a new station near Farmington, on the eastern shore of the lake. The point selected is in an inlet so sheltered that a heavy swell in the lake will not interfere with accurate observation. At the present stage of water the spot is well adapted to the purpose, and it can be used with the water 2 feet lower or 5 feet higher. I was not able to attend personally to the erection of the pillar, but left the matter in the hands of Mr. Jacob Miller, of Farmington, who writes me that it was placed in position and the record begun on the 24th of November, 1877. The pillar is of wood, and is graduated to inches for 9 feet of its length.

On the day of its establishment the reading of the water surface was 2 feet 1 inch. On the 21st of January, 1878, the reading was 2 feet 1¹⁄₂ inches.

The Farmington and Black Rock pillars are 23 miles apart. The relative height of their zeros will be ascertained as soon as practicable by making coincident readings, during still weather, of the water surface at the two stations. It is already known that the Farmington zero is approximately 16 inches lower than the Black Rock.