In this region lies one of the garden spots of the country. Here waste land has been made to grow bountiful harvests by the construction of the famous Roosevelt dam, which holds back the flood waters of Salt River. At the proper season, and nearly all the year around is the proper season in this warm country, the water is allowed to flow down the original Salt River bed at a uniform rate. There is a heavy fall below the dam and when needed this may be harnessed to develop electrical energy. At the lower end of the rocky canyon of Salt River the water flows into canals and is distributed over many square miles.

Journeying from the city of Phoenix, located in the heart of Salt River Valley, to the Roosevelt Dam, one passes through varied and wonderful forms of vegetation. Magnificent date palms, fragrant almond trees and orange groves succeed each other. Alfalfa, sugar beets and wheat are among the abundant crops (Plate XIII). These scenes change with startling suddenness to one of death and desolation as we follow the Government road for twenty miles out across the desert (Plate XIV).

The desert vegetation is interesting. We come upon the Sahaura, the giant cactus, the sentinel of the desert, clothed from base to top with thorns, yet bearing delicate and waxen yellow blossoms. Singly and in pairs they grow, some attaining a height of forty-five feet. Sometimes we find them in groves. As we enter the mountain country changeful, charming landscape panorama are unfolded before us. The colors illusive and divinely artistic, shift, and change, and blend as we gaze in wonder.

We are now entering upon what many travelers have described as the most wonderful highway ever made by man. The Government thoroughfare continues for forty miles through the heart of a rugged range of mountains, and for the most part literally carved from the living rock.

Our road has brought us to the top of the narrow gorge Salt River has cut through the mountains, and we look down upon one of the world's greatest engineering works, the Roosevelt Dam (Plate XV). This wonderful structure of sandstone and cement rises 280 feet above the river. It is 1,080 feet long on top and 170 feet thick at the base. Its foundation covers an acre of ground. Across its top is a roadway twenty feet wide. When the massive gates of iron in the big dam weighing 60,000 pounds closed, a reservoir was created covering an area of twenty-five square miles an average depth of more than 150 feet.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

Owing to the remoteness from transportation, the Government engineer had to engage in many enterprises. He built roads to get machinery in. He sawed millons of feet of lumber from the national forests nearby. He turned farmer and raised his own products. In the construction of the dam 240,000 barrels of cement were required, and the lowest bid from the cement manufacturers was prohibitive. This engineer, undaunted, found a limestone ledge near the dam and proceeded to erect a cement mill. It turned out 340,000 barrels of cement and saved $600,000. Power was essential, so a dam was built sixteen miles upstream, turning a part of the river into a power canal. Near the dam site it passes through a tunnel and downward into the mountain a drop of 220 feet, generating 4,400 horse-power. The power is utilized by the contractor, it operated the cement plant, it runs the electric light plant, and is used for other purposes.

The most difficult problem for the engineers to solve was the labor question. The common laborer did not like the job, chiefly, it is said, because he could not spend his money fast enough. This was a Government reservation; there were no saloons; no gambling was permitted there. There were no towns nearer than sixty miles, so he did not look with favor on the work. The real worth of the engineer came out when he turned missionary and held a pow wow with the Apache Indians, who have lived in the basin for generations. It seems incredible, yet it is nevertheless true, he succeeded in inducing several hundred of them to go on the pay-roll, and, largely through their labors, the wonderful highway to the dam was built.

Sixty miles below Roosevelt another enormous structure was built to divert the stored waters into canals on each side of the river which lead it to the fields below.

If the thousands of inquiries which are addressed to the Statistician of the Reclamation Service at Washington, D. C., can be accepted as any indication, the West will be the Mecca for hundreds of homeseekers during the next year. Many other projects of the Government which are ready for irrigation contain large areas of land for sale by private owners who are under agreement with the United States to dispose of their holdings. By the terms of the Reclamation Law no farm will contain more than 160 acres. Every settler must reside upon the land, and must cultivate it for three years before he can secure a patent. The homestead rights of soldiers and sailors

are not abridged by the Reclamation Act. Homeseekers should have money - how much depends of course upon the settler, and the kind of farming he expects to do. While there are numerous opportunities to secure work, the settler with money and equipment will be able to get his land in condition for irrigation and will thus secure an early income from his farm.

A knowledge of irrigation is not absolutely essential. On several projects the most successful farmers are men who had no previous experience. On several projects there are demonstration farms on which are grown the crops adapted to that section. Whenever practicable the Government gives employment to settlers in constructing canals, laterals and building roads.

Progress has been rapid and the activities of the bureau have been extended to over thirty projects, which to date involve the expenditure of over $120,000,000. In the fifteen years of its work the Service has built about 15,000 miles of canals, many of which carry whole rivers. It has excavated about thirty miles of tunnels.

It has completed three of the highest dams in the world. Its excavation of rock and earth amount to the enormous total of over 140,000,000 cubic yards.

Its roads have a total length of nearly 900 miles; telephones about 2,500 miles; levees 100 miles.

It has purchased over 11⁄2 million barrels of cement, and has manufactured in its own mill 340,000 barrels.

As a result of its work water is available for nearly 2,000,000 acres of land.

The gross value of crops produced on the lands irrigated by the Government projects in 1916 was $33,000,000, or $38.25 per acre irrigated. As a result of the work of the Government it is estimated that land values have increased more than approximately $150,000,000.

Approximately 20,000 families are now residing on farms which are being watered by the Government canals. Not less than 35,000 people have been added to the population of the cities, towns and villages as a direct result of the Government work.