Excerpts: The settlement of irrigated lands has become a serious problem in recent years because these lands have been opened for settlement rather faster than they have been effectively occupied. It is important that irrigated land be settled promptly, since the investments made in the construction and operation of irrigation works constitute a charge against the land whether it is used or not. Land seekers are of two kinds—those who are chiefly concerned in land speculation and those who desire to make homes on the land and engage in agricultural production. The majority of new settlers belong to the first class. It is the aim of the present paper is not so much to discuss the motives of land promotion and colonization schemes as to present some of the agricultural and sociological features of such undertakings for the consideration both of those who are engaged in promoting settlement and of the larger number who contemplate settlement in newly irrigated regions.
