As early as 1894 the company surveyed the site and prepared for construction by hewing tamarack timbers for the dam, but this was to be the work of the Federal Government and belongs to another epoch. In 1902 Walter N. Granger claimed this project to be the fourth largest irrigation system in the United States and the largest in the Northwest. One million dollars had been expended. Forty thousand dollars had been expended for the headgates. Counting the smaller laterals at the lower end, an aggregate between 600 and 700 miles in length; the main canal had a top width of 6212 feet, bottom 32 feet, banks 8 feet high, initial capacity 800 second-feet. The canal covered an area of 64,000 acres of irrigable land, of which 32,000 are now under cultivation.

Besides this project, the Yakima Valley had many others, far too many to give more than a passing mention; for this valley was and is today the center of greatest irrigation interest. In January, 1892, arrangements were made for the construction of a canal from Horn Rapids on the Yakima to the Columbia, the ditch to extend along the south side of the Yakima. This work was by the Yakima Irrigation and Improvement Company. The operations made things lively in the vicinity of Kennewick during the whole of 1892 and 1893. This ditch proved inadequate, but has since been enlarged, and now claims to be the finest of its kind in the state.

On April 19, 1894, was completed, with appropriate exercises, the opening of the Yakima Irrigation and Land Company Canal, which would irrigate 4,000 acres.

In 1892, an attempt was made to irrigate the arid lands around Kennewick by the Yakima Irrigation and Improvement Company. It was not a complete success, though the company spent much money constructing a canal from the Horn Rapids some seven miles below Kiona. The ditch proved too small, but, with the financial depression, the company could not enlarge it, and so suspended development.

In 1902, the ditch, water right and realty holdings passed into the hands of the Northern Pacific, Yakima and Kittitas Irrigating Company, who soon enlarged the ditch and under the supervision of John Russell was built what is "claimed to be the finest irrigation canal in the state." At Kennewick, twenty-one miles from the headgate, it is five feet deep, eighteen feet wide at the bottom, and about 15,000 acres can be irrigated. A perpetual water right costs about $35 an acre.

Some plans never reached a realization. In 1895 the survey for a large canal called the Naches and Columbia River Irrigation Canal was made under the direction of the State Arid Land Com

mission. The intake was to be at the north side of the Naches River three miles below the intake of the Selah Valley Canal; it was to cross the Naches by means of an immense inverted syphon, circle Moxee Valley, pass through the ridge east of Union Gap by a tunnel 6,100 feet long, continue down the Yakima Valley to Rattlesnake Mountain and pass around it to the lands overlooking the Columbia. It was to be 140 miles long and to carry at its head 2,000 second-feet water. Bumping Lake was to be used as a storage reservoir.

The Prosser Fall Irrigation Company spent much money in a project to irrigate the high lands south of the Columbia, by raising it 100 feet. The water supplied would have irrigated 4,000 acres, but they could not stem the financial depression, and in 1899 the company went into the hands of a receiver.

In 1892, the Cowiche and Wide Hollow Irrigation District held an election at which was carried by a vote of fifty-two to fifteen the proposition to bond the district for half a million dollars for the construction of an irrigation canal. The plan was to take water out of the Tieton River by a canal ten and one-half miles long and to distribute the same by three laterals, one to cover the Cowiche and Naches ridge, one the valley and a third the foothills. It was to cover 46,000 acres.

Nor were the activities limited to the Yakima-Benton country. The Kittitas Valley Irrigation Company surveyed a canal. The intake was at Easton from the Yakima River and portions were constructed previous to 1901. The Bull Ditch belongs to this portion of the late '80s. It takes its water from the Yakima, is seven miles long and serves 1,500 acres.

The Hawley Ditch, according to Professor Lyman (private letter), was the first in Walla Walla County, having been built in 1891 or 1892. We now have the West Side Ditch and the East Side Ditch with their sources in the Touchet River and combined length of about nine miles. These Hawley ditches serve 1,000 acres.

According to the Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics, January 1, 1896, Kittitas County is estimated as having about 30,000 acres under ditches and 100,000 more irrigable.

The Wenatchee country has developed little, for there, like the Okanogan country, cattle raising was carried on, since the means of transportation were still lacking. Fifteen thousand acres are firstclass irrigable lands, of which not more than one-tenth were under irrigation in 1896. In 1891 Arthur Gunn, financially assisted by J. J. Hill, constructed the Gunn Ditch. The water was taken from

the Wenatchee River near Monitor, and about 12,000 acres were irrigated.

A canal had by 1896 been constructed in Franklin County, utilizing the waters from the Palouse River, irrigating 6,000 acres. In Walla Walla County was built the canal which utilizes the water from the Walla Walla River. It covers 8,000 acres between Pasco and Wallula Junction.

The Spokane Falls Irrigation Company had twenty miles of main ditch and expected to serve 75,000 acres.

Douglas County had the Coöperative Irrigation Company whose canal extended twenty miles, and with the Moses Lake Irrigation Company, made that county among the active ones.

Though the Federal Government did much to encourage irrigation, it continued to give actual aid to the wards of the government living on the reservations. It was estimated by William Redman, engineer, in his report of June, 1897, that by constructing more lateral ditches, 50,000 acres could be irrigated from the system then in existence. This same year shows the main canal to be 12 45-100 miles long with a capacity of 210 second-feet with 11 and 8-10 miles of laterals; the Toppenish Canal to be 3 2-10 miles long with 1 86-100 miles of laterals with a capacity of 104 second-feet; the Waneto, a natural slough, 12 miles long. In 1896 the Government built the Irwin Canal, naming it after the then Indian agent. In 1894 Congress appropriated $30,000 for irrigating machinery and appliances on the Indian Reservation.

Connected with the Reservation was passed by Congress an interesting act, July 23, 1894, granting the Columbia Irrigation Company a right of way through the Indian Reservation provided that the grantee should at all times furnish the Indian allotees along said right of way with water sufficient for domestic and agricultural purposes of irrigation, and these rights should be free.

Yet in spite of our seemingly great development, state comparison reveals some surprising facts. Bulletin 16, Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census, gives as follows: "In total of number of acres irrigated in 1889-1899-1902, as also in total number of farms, Washington stands lowest in state comparison-but Washington shows the greatest relative increase in the total construction cost of irrigation systems." In 1902, Washington ranked ninth in number of irrigated farms; last in number of irrigated acres; ninth in constructive cost of system; last in length of main canal and ditches. The state had one-fourth of one per cent of its acreage un

der irrigation in 1902, but nearly four-fifths of this acreage and onehalf of the irrigated farms are in the Yakima Valley.

The year 1900 dawned rosy and red for it ushered in the period of colossal enterprises, and the Federal Government came on the scene as a doer of things, and not as an onlooker. The change was perhaps due to the effective work of the National Irrigation Congress which will be discussed later, or to the apparent failure of the Carey Act, or to the new spirit which believed that government is beneficial and should be active along industrial lines. The surveys made by the Geological Department as a result of an act passed March 20, 1888, authorizing the Secretary of the Interior, through the Director of the Geological Survey, to make examinations of that portion of the United States where agriculture is carried on by means of irrigation, as to the natural advantages of storages for the storage of water for irrigating purposes, with the practicability of constructing reservoirs, under I. C. Russell in 1892, who examined Central and Southern Washington with special regard to its water resources, and under George Otis Smith in 1901, who made a detailed study and discussed a number of available sites for storage reservoirs, did much towards getting this state before the country.

To President Roosevelt may be given the title of "Father of National Reclamation." He urged it upon all occasions and that part of his Message of December 3, 1901, relating to the subject has become "a classic upon the subject." His was undoubtedly the first definite step taken by one in authority. This led, June 17, 1902, to the passing of the famous National Reclamation Act. This provided that all moneys received from the sale and disposal of public lands beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901, including the fees and commissions in excess of allowances to registers and receivers, and excepting the five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public lands set aside by law for educational purposes, shall be set aside as a fund known as the "reclamation fund," to be used in the examination and survey, for the construction and maintenance of irrigation work, for the storage, diversion and development of waters for the reclamation of arid lands. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to make examinations, then withdrew from entry all lands required for constructing the irrigation works. When it is determined that any irrigation project is practicable, he may cause to be let contracts for the construction of the same, payment shall come from the reclamation fund and the limit of area per entry shall be determined according to the amount required to support a family; also of the charges which shall be made per acre upon the said en

tries. The said charges shall be determined with a view of returning to the fund the amount expended. The entryman must comply with the homestead laws and reclaim at least one-half of the total irrigable area of his entry for agriculture. No right to the use of water for land exceeding 160 acres to any land owner. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to use the fund for the operation and maintenance of all reservoirs and irrigation works constructed under the provisions of this act. When the major portions of the payment have been made, the management and operation shall pass to the owners of the land irrigated thereby. Nothing in this act shall in any way affect or interfere with the laws of the State.

In 1915, the reclamation fund, according to the Smithsonian Institute Report for that year was $100,000,000. The time over which the payments were extended was changed from ten to twenty years. It is believed that the absence of any test or qualification for settlers on the projects or a lack of capital to tide them over may mean failure to themselves and the Government. Unfair benefits are derived by private land owners, though the act was supposed to have provided against this; again it is claimed that private development is hampered by the withdrawal of Government lands. This could be easily remedied and perfect harmony made to exist. The short period in which the settler must pay could be remedied by extending it to thirty or forty years, and not demanding payment on the principal for the first five or eight years, but expecting the settler to pay up his interest only.

With the machinery organized, Washington was fortunate in the almost immediate attention which it received and almost simultaneously two projects were begun, the Okanogan and the Sunnyside. The reconnaissance and preliminary surveys for each began in 1903. The construction was recommended by the Board of Engineers, October 9, 1905, for Okanogan, and October 16, 1905, for Sunnyside; and the construction was authorized by the Secretary, December 2, 1905, for the Okanogan, and December 12, 1905, for the Tieton and Sunnyside; June 16, 1906, for the Wapato; the first irrigation by the Reclamation Service, season of 1907, by the Sunnyside unit, of 1908, by the Okanogan unit. The Okanogan project was practically completed October, 1910, a year before the Sunnyside unit.

We need not go into the details of building these projects, for what dweller in this great commonwealth has not watched them build? The Okanogan Project includes the storage dam in Salmon Lake and the Conconnully Reservoir, controlled by the dam on the Salmon Creek, two miles below Conconnully, Washington. The Salmon Lake Reser