acre tract is examined and the limit set for that particular tract according to its fertility and irrigability. In the case of privately owned lands the limits of 80 acres or 160 acres are usually allowed.

On projects or units begun since the act of June 25, 1910, the public lands within a project become open to entry only upon the issuance of public notice by the Secretary, after the water supply system is for practical purposes already in operation. On projects begun prior to that time, however, under the provisions of the original Reclamation Act, the public lands within a project, not deemed to be necessary for the irrigation works, remained open to homestead entry from the very beginning of the project. As a result, frequently much of this land was entered previous to the issuance of public notice. Upon such notice, announcing the limit of area per entry, it became necessary generally for the entryman to reduce the size of his entry to conform to the limit fixed.

The limits of area per entry, which have been fixed by the Secretary of the Interior, vary from 10 acres in Arizona and California to 160 acres in Montana or other cold areas, the average being about 60 acres. The disposal of the public lands within an irrigation project remains throughout under the control of the General Land Office, and it is the duty of that bureau to enforce the limit of area per entry imposed by the Secretary.

Fiscal Management of Projects. The General Land Office administers the disposal of the public lands within reclamation projects, but the Reclamation Service itself collects the charges imposed upon such lands for the construction of the irrigation works and for the maintenance and operation of the works.

By the original act, construction charges were required to be paid to the receiver of the local land office of the district in which the land was situated. All operation and maintenance charges were, however, paid to the project manager or

his representative. By act of August 12, 1912, the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to appoint fiscal agents on the several projects to receive all payments, and this was promptly done.

Payment of Construction Charges. The Reclamation Act provides that the "charges which shall be made per acre upon the land entries, and upon the lands in private ownership which may be irrigated by the waters of the said irrigation. project... shall be determined with a view to returning to the reclamation fund the estimated cost of the construction of the project."

The construction charges per acre upon the projects completed to date by the Service vary from $22 to $93. Large variations are in some cases found between different portions. of the same project, as in the case of the Minidoka project in Idaho where the charges on the several areas as developed in succession were $22, $30, $40, $56.50 and $57.50, the pioneers or those first coming and taking up the heavier burden of development paying less than those who arrived later after the roads, railroads, towns, and schools had been established.

Prior to the passage of the Reclamation Extension Act of August 13, 1914, the law required repayments in ten annual installments. By that act, the period of repayment has been extended to twenty years. Moreover, after an initial payment. of 5 per cent, there is a five year period during which no payments are to be made; for five years thereafter the annual installment required is but 5 per cent, and for the remaining ten years it is 7 per cent. The purpose of this plan is of course to enable the settler in the earlier years to use all of his capital in cultivating his lands to bring about maximum production.

The requirement of an initial payment is intended as a test of the financial ability of the prospective entryman, and also of his intention actually to work the land; for it has been found by experience that where no advance charge was. required, large numbers of individuals without experience or

money made entries of irrigable lands merely for the purpose of selling relinquishments, often holding the land out of use for a considerable period. It was expected, moreover, that by reason of his advance payment the entryman would acquire a financial interest such as would insure his continued good faith and increase the probability that he would utilize the land.

It should be noted that the Reclamation Extension Act, in addition to thus revising the plan of repayments as to lands subsequently subjected to the Reclamation Act, extended relief to the settlers on projects already initiated, many of whom had experienced difficulty in meeting the charges, by providing that all balances of construction charges still unpaid should be paid in twenty annual installments, the first four of 2 per cent each, the next two, 4 per cent, and the remaining fourteen, 6 per cent.

Operation and maintenance charges, although not mentioned in the original Reclamation Act, have been imposed from the very beginning of operation under the act. By act of August 13, 1914 (sec. 5), the imposition of such charges was specifically authorized, and it was further provided that "such charge shall be made for each acre-foot of water delivered; but each acre of irrigable land, whether irrigated or not, shall be charged with a minimum operation and maintenance charge based upon the charge for delivery of not less than one acre-foot of water."

Operation and maintenance charges average about $1 per acre or when computed on the basis of water used they run from 50 cents to 75 cents per acre-foot, the number of acrefeet required for cultivation varying of course on the several projects and from season to season. These charges are applied equally to public lands entered under the terms of the Reclamation Act, and to lands within the project already in private ownership.

The repayment of construction charges is secured, as respects the public lands entered after the commencement of

the project, by the provision that "a failure to make any twopayments when due shall render the entry subject to cancellation, with the forfeiture of all rights under this Act, as well as of all moneys already paid thereon." As to private lands. embraced in an irrigation project, security is obtained by the mortgage of the private water users' association, to which reference has already been made.

Under authority conferred by the act of February 21, 1911, surplus water may be sold under contract to state or private irrigation projects. The act provides that "in fixing the charges under any such contract for impounding, storing, or carrying water for any irrigation system, . . . the Secretary Ishall take into consideration the cost of construction and maintenance of the reservoir by which such water is to be impounded or stored, and the canal by which it is to be carried, and such charges shall be just and equitable as to water users under the Government project." The sale of surplus water may be made under the act only "for the purpose of distribution to individual water users by the party with whom the contract is made;" and it further provides that the charge for the use of water made by such party shall not be "in excess of the charge paid to the United States except to such an extent as may reasonably be necessary to cover cost of carriage and delivery of such water through their works."

Operation of Works. On the engineering side the problem of operating irrigation works consists in so regulating the flow of water as to deliver to the highest point to be irrigated, at the proper season, a supply of water adequate to the needs of the crop. In addition, on the projects of the Reclamation Service it is necessary to deliver to each person having a right to water a definite amount. It, therefore, becomes necessary to have measuring devices of some kind in all distributaries and in all farm turnouts.

As stated by the Director of the Reclamation Service in

his annual report for 1914, no well recognized standard of practice has yet been developed in connection with the problems of operation and maintenance. It is of great importance, not merely for the benefit of the government reclamation projects but for that of other large systems built by private capital, that good standards be established. An important step toward such systematization of the management has been taken by the Reclamation Service in the issuance of what is known as the Use Book or Manual of Operation and Maintenance, defining such practices as are now generally accepted.

To secure efficient operation it has been found necessary to install records of delivery of water and systems of cost keeping similar to those maintained during construction. Accurate statistics are also kept to determine the cost per acre of land actually irrigated, per acre of land to which the irrigation system is ready to supply water, and per acre-foot of water stored, carried, and distributed. As the effectiveness of different designs or types of structures and ditches is determined largely by operation and maintenance costs, these cost-records are of great value in the design of future works.

Record is kept also of the amount of water delivered to each farm and its relation to crop production, thus facilitating the beneficial operation of the works.

In the operation of irrigation works, it was at first assumed that if the government employees took charge of the reservoirs and main line canals the irrigators would attend to the distribution works themselves and thus reduce the number of paid employees and consequently the annual cost, in this respect following the custom of the pioneer private canals. It was found, however, that with the heterogeneous population brought in from all parts of the country with differing nationality, religion, and experience, it was impracticable at first to secure unity of action and fairness of distribution of water among the smaller groups. For example, on a long sandy lateral where considerable care is necessary in order to force water to flow down to the farms at the lower end, the ma