The state land board is hereby authorized and directed on behalf of the state to make and enter into suitable contracts with the secretary of the interior to provide for the irrigation of state lands within or adjacent to the national irrigation projects constructed or to be constructed in this state under the provisions of the act of congress of June 17, 1902, known as the reclamation act, and to provide for increasing the capacity of the irrigation works of such projects and extending them and perfecting them to provide for the irrigation of such state lands.