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Introductory 
 
 T is the aim of this Booklet to present the larger aspects 
 of certain National Irrigation Projects on the Pacific 
 Coast and on the lines of the Southern Pacific Railroad. 
 It does not answer questions of detail, nor supply 
 information about acquiring public lands and settling on these projects. 
 That has been done quite fully by the Reclamation Service in a 
 series of convenient little handbooks. They are written in answer to 
 a great variety of questions and will be sent to all inquirers upon 
 application to the constructive engineers of the various projects at the 
 addresses given below, or the Southern Pacific Passenger Department. 
 
 Our aim is to show the varied natural advantages of the irrigable 
 lands included in the projects we describe, and to help the prospective 
 settler decide between them. We try also to present some of the 
 larger features of the National Irrigation Movement, and to interest 
 the settler in the work which the Government is doing in his behalf. 
 
 A chapter is added to include Imperial Valley, which though 
 privately irrigated is an object lesson for any who may still doubt 
 the value of irrigated agriculture, but who are debating the new 
 opportunities offered the homeseeker under the terms and with the 
 facilities afforded by the United States Reclamation Service. 
 
 Orland Project, address Constructive Engineer at Orland, California. 
 
 Klamath Project, address Constructive Engineer at Klamath Falls, Oregon. 
 
 Truckee-Carson Project, address Constructive Engineer at Fallon, Nevada. 
 
 Salt River Project, address Constructive Engineer at Phoenix, Arizona. 
 
 Yuma Project, address Constructive Engineer at Yuma, Arizona. 
 
 The Statistician, U. S. R. S., Washington, D. C. 
 
 Information Bureau, U. S. R. S., 777 Federal Building (P. O.), Chicago, III. 
 
Government Irrigation 
 
 and the 
 
 Settler 
 
 CALIFORNIA, OREGON, NEVADA and ARIZONA 
 INCLUDING A DESCRIPTION 
 
 of the 
 IMPERIAL VALLEY PROJECT 
 
 A. J. WELLS 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 Published by the 
 
 PASSENGER DEPARTMENT SOUTHERN PACIFIC 
 San Francisco, California 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTHERN PACIFIC 
 
(SP 
 
 Government Irrigation 
 
 IT is not quite eight years since the Reclamation Act was passed. In that brief period 
 a great national movement has been organized, and more than $50,000,000 invested 
 by the Reclamation Service. Not only so, but it will require $50,000,000 more to 
 complete the projects now under way in the West, the Northwest and Southwest, and 
 this amount will be expended in the next three years if Congress will meet the special 
 exigency and advance the money. The results of this vast expenditure are placed at the 
 service of the settler, at the actual cost of work done and without asking for interest 
 on the money invested. Not a dollar has been taken from the pocket of the tax payer, 
 and not an acre has gone into the hands of a speculator. The working of no system 
 is perfect, but here the work has been safeguarded with much care, and has been done 
 for the benefit of bona-fide settlers, and homes have been erected for many thousands 
 under the most promising conditions. Opportunities have been made for a large body 
 of citizens to own land good land, passed upon by experts after careful examination 
 land well watered, in area sufficient to support a family, and under the best irrigation 
 systems which money and skill could construct. 
 
 No charge has been made for the land. The land is given away under the terms 
 of the Homestead Act, and the Government simply recovers the actual cost of the water. 
 Where lands are held in private ownership, this ownership is limited to 1 60 acres, and 
 the rest is required to be sold to actual settlers. The practical working of the Service 
 is to reduce the acreage under one holding, and to provide as many homes as possible 
 on the lands available for reclamation. 
 
 Now it is worth while to ask what all this means. It is a new thing in our history, 
 a new departure in the functions of government. What is behind it? 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF RESOURCES 
 
 The nation is actively engaged in adding to the productive area of the country. 
 Exclusive of Alaska and outlying possessions, one third of the whole United States is 
 vacant public land. Most of this is untillable, but a vast area can be made productive 
 and capable of sustaining a large population. The reclaimable area is estimated at 
 30,000,000 acres, and this will provide homes for a million families in part on the land 
 itself, in part in the urban communities which will spring up in the midst of the new 
 farms. 
 
 205695 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SO UTHE RN PACIFIC 
 
If we consider only the twenty-five projects upon which the Government is now at 
 work, these will add 3,198,000 acres to the crop producing acreage of the country. 
 Thirteen other projects are in abeyance, pending completion of the first series, and these 
 will add 3,270,000 acres, or a grand total of 6,468,000 acres. This great area is 
 today practically worthless, yet potentially it is fertile and productive. It has been 
 pointed out that if we take only the acreage now being reclaimed, it represents an area 
 equal to the cultivated acreage of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and 
 Florida. Suppose these new lands return equal revenues per acre with the states 
 mentioned, and make homes on farms and in towns and villages for 80,000 families, 
 the taxable property of the nation would be increased $232,000,000 and the value of 
 farm crops by $60,000,000. This is worth while. It is home making; it is the develop- 
 ment of natural resources; it involves national prosperity; it adds stability to national 
 life. The most valuable citizen, other things being equal, is the man who owns the 
 land from which he makes his living. The wandering laborer, the restless miner, the 
 lonely herdsman, add little to the strength or safety of a community. But attach one 
 of these men to the soil, let him own a small farm and he becomes a citizen who can 
 be depended on and will add to the stability of those institutions which we most highly 
 prize. 
 
 DEMAND FOR FARM LANDS 
 
 The need of homes for men who live by the soil is a present need. It is but fifty 
 years ago that unoccupied farm land could be found within 100 miles of Chicago. 
 Now from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific the land is opened up and fairly popu- 
 lated, and the wave of emigration is turning back and filling up the places that were 
 passed over. For the first time in our history as a nation, thousands from the Middle 
 West have gone into British Columbia, seeking cheap lands in the bleak Canadian 
 Northwest. What explains it? The increase of population; the speculative abuses of 
 our land laws; the exhaustion of the land itself by unwise farming; and the waste by 
 floods due to forest destruction. We hardly realize the destruction over wide areas by 
 soil erosion due to the cutting of timber on the hills, nor do we realize the extent of soil 
 exhaustion in the older states. Farm life is unprofitable over much of New England; 
 the hilly sections will no longer yield the farmer a support. New Hampshire, Vermont, 
 Northern New York and Western Massachusetts have "abandoned farms," and the 
 process of deterioration is affecting the farm lands of Western New York, Ohio, 
 Indiana, Maryland and Virginia. The average yield per acre over the whole United 
 States shows a farm product of but $1 1.38 but little more than a respectable rental 
 for first-class land. Only two states in the Union show a total value of farm products 
 exceeding $30.00 per acre of improved land. 
 
 That this is partly due to single cropping and to want of fertilization, is doubtless 
 true, and as an abuse may be remedied, but the fact remains that from various causes 
 the land will no longer provide for its increasing population. Experts figure that at 
 the present ratio of increase we will have a total population of 130,000,000 in 1925. 
 How then will men without farms get them? 
 
 This is behind the work of the Reclamation Service- the needs of the farming popu- 
 lation the demand for good land the necessity for providing for an increasing rural 
 population, and of developing lands now unproductive upon which can be built inde- 
 pendent homes for the nation's citizens. 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTHERN PACIFIC 
 
NATIONAL HOME-MAKING 
 
 "A free home for every family" is the American ideal. The natural unit of society 
 is the family, and the homestead is the condition of independence. It is the first acquired 
 capital. The ambition of the normal American citizen is to own a home and the bit 
 of land upon which it stands, and to pay toll to no man for the rooftree that shelters 
 him. Especially does he aspire to own the land that feeds him. We do not take kindly 
 to tenant farming, and are proud of the host of men who live on their own {and calling 
 no man master. But the independence of the American farmer is slipping away from 
 him. The ownership of the American home is declining. Glance at this table: 
 
 PROPORTION OF FARM OWNERS AND TENANTS 
 
 1880 1890 1900 
 
 Farm Owners 74.5% 71.6% 64.7%. 
 
 Farm Tenants 25.5% 28.4% 35.3% 
 
 This shows that in twenty years one-tenth of all the American farmers were changed 
 from owners to tenants. The decline is not sectional, but is nearly uniform throughout 
 the country. It is a grave situation. The roots of national prosperity are deeply fixed 
 in the soil and in the individual ownership of the farm. And no movement so power- 
 fully combats the tendency toward tenant farming as the creation of homesteads under 
 the Reclamation Act. The free man is the man who controls the sources of his own 
 support. The tenant must take the most overworked and impoverished land and raise 
 the least profitable crops. He has no fixed place of abode. His annual rent is a 
 perpetual debt and himself and family are mere driftwood. He shares but little in the 
 general prosperity. All times to him are hard times. The most important step in national 
 progress is the effort to provide homes for the men who desire to be independent and own 
 the land they live on. 
 
 THE NEW FARM LANDS 
 
 They are in the arid and semi-arid belt. Some of them are under desert skies. But 
 it will occur to you that the Reclamation Service is not developing these lands as a make- 
 shift; that the Government cannot afford to provide water at great expense for poor 
 lands. These western lands are selected not simply because they are irrigable, but because 
 they are fertile and will respond at once to cultivation when moisture is supplied. 
 
 You are familiar with the fact that the ancient civilizations began in the arid lands, but 
 it has remained for modern inquiry to show why. The ancient races chose the arid lands 
 because they were better than the humid lands. The soil expert today will tell you that 
 the extraordinary fertility of arid lands is a quality inherent in aridity itself. The 
 soluble substances which make for fertility are not leached out by the rainfall of cen- 
 turies, carried into the country drainage, and thence into the sea. 
 
 They remain in the soil and accumulate by the weathering of rocks in the hill regions, 
 by the chemical processes which go on in the soil, and they become available for the 
 plant life in the farmers' fields to draw upon. And the soil analyst will tell you that 
 the soils of the arid region lying west of the 1 00th meridian, as compared with the soils of 
 the humid region lying east of the Mississippi, contain on an average three times as much 
 potash, six times as much magnesia, and fourteen times as much lime. This is the 
 scientific explanation of the fertility of arid lands, and it may be accepted as true, that 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRI G ATI O N SO UTH E R N PACIFIC 
 
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the average arid soil is equal to the most phenomenal soil of the east. And Egypt, 
 India, China and other regions of the ancient world, phenomenally productive for thou- 
 sands of years, are in evidence to assure the settler that these Western Arid lands will 
 not disappoint him. 
 
 THE GAIN OF IRRIGATION 
 
 It is too late to discuss the advantages of irrigated agriculture, and we call attention 
 to it chiefly to say that the man who comes to settle on land in any of these projects 
 should come with definite convictions and not as an experimenter. Irrigation is ancient; 
 it is becoming modern. It is scientific agriculture. It is common sense applied to the 
 chief problem of the farm, that of production. It is an insurance against crop failure, 
 and with sure crops, larger crops, and crops of better quality, the farmer's business 
 ceases to be a lottery and he becomes master of the situation. This is especially true 
 under right climatic conditions. Over the dry lands we have mild airs, the maximum 
 of sunshine, an absence of cyclones and atmospheric disturbances, and great equality 
 of temperature. With helpful weather as one of the certainties, and with moisture at 
 command, the intelligent farmer knows very definitely what he can do: his work is 
 taken out of the realm of uncertainty and himself off the rack of anxiety. 
 
 The social side of irrigation is seen in the smaller farms and closer neighborhood, and 
 this brings good roads, schools, farm telephones, churches, libraries, rural delivery of 
 mail and a social situation impossible where big ranches keep families far apart. In 
 irrigated districts in California, the town and the country grow together so that it is 
 difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. 
 
 THE BEST FARMERS WANTED 
 
 The Director of the United States Reclamation Service, Mr. F. H. Newell, says: 
 "The West is developing rapidly. We are putting good substantial settlers on forty-acre 
 tracts. They are men of large families. This dense population means much for the 
 country and for the settler." 
 
 But the Director adds a word of caution: "The irrigated countries are no place for 
 the poor farmer. The man who goes there must use his brains in all his farming. He 
 must be willing to learn. He must work hard, and he must have some capital." 
 
 This, of course, is but common sense. The amount of capital which a man must 
 have cannot be well stated. It will vary with conditions, and will depend largely upon 
 the man himself. Fair estimates are made by the Reclamation Service of the cost of 
 living, and provisions are made to help the settler by advice, by expert knowledge, and 
 by actual demonstrations on experimental farms, where tests of soil and seed of plants, 
 and of crops adapted to the region, will be constantly made by the Service and not at the 
 expense of the settler. The best methods of cultivation, the best way of applying water, 
 the best fruits to grow, when to sow this crop or that all will be proffered the farmer 
 who is willing to learn. As compared with the old days of hard knocks, of exhausting 
 labor, of bitter and costly experience in hewing out a farm from the thick woods, in an 
 unknown region and subject to the vagaries of a harsh and uncertain climate, this 
 irrigation is but kindergarten work, where the learner is supplied with soil especially 
 selected, with water when his crops need moisture, and with expert advice how to plant 
 and sow, how to cultivate, and how to spread water. 
 
 11 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIG ATI ON SO UTH E R N PACIFIC 
 
 GLENN COUNTY 
 COLUSA COUNTY 
 
 Map of the Orland Project Irrigable lands shown in shaded sections. 
 
Yet it is true that this new agriculture requires brains, and that success is conditioned 
 upon intelligence. It is high class farming and involves planning, attention to details, 
 careful cultivation, knowledge of plant life, and ability to decide what to do next. The 
 man who merely works never gets on. If working could take the place of thinking, 
 every mule might get rich. 
 
 It is of first importance that men settle upon these irrigated lands who have imbibed 
 the spirit of the new agriculture, and know, as their fathers did not, the possibilities of an 
 acre. To such the Government is offering opportunities, and the right kind of farmers 
 will "make gbod." The faith of the Government is pledged to this, and the sale of 
 these irrigated lands and the success of the farmers on them, will add greatly to the 
 prosperity of individuals and to the permanent wealth of the nation. 
 
 In what follows descriptive of the general situation on several of the great irrigation 
 projects of the Pacific Coast, the writer has the advantage of long residence in the West 
 and of intimate personal knowledge of the lands described. There is no purpose to 
 "Boost" these projects, but to give them a fair setting, and show them to the prospective 
 settler as they are, letting the facts speak for themselves. We can say many things 
 about these lands which the officers of the Reclamation Service do not care to say, and 
 our aim is to supply such information as the settler needs and cannot find elsewhere. 
 
 The Orland Project 
 California 
 
 ORLAND is in Glenn County in the upper portion of the Sacramento Valley. The 
 project located here is one of the smallest, but there are reasons why it is of special 
 interest and importance. These reasons are, briefly, that it is the first step in a 
 great and comprehensive system of irrigation and drainage, under Government control in a 
 valley which is naturally as fertile and productive as the Nile Valley of Egypt. In 
 considering the Orland Lands the settler will naturally take into account not simply 
 these particular lands, but their location, their setting, the general character of the soil 
 area to which they belong, the climate and products and probable future of the region. 
 
 THE SACRAMENTO VALLEY 
 
 This is one of the great valleys of the world, great in area, in fertility, in beauty and 
 productiveness. It has a level surface of 2,661,120 acres and a foothill region which 
 is extensive, fertile and attractive for homes. The whole forms an almost continuous 
 body of very desirable land, the percentage of waste being relatively small, and the most of 
 that capable of being reclaimed and made productive. The great width of the main 
 valley gives it the appearance of a plain, and as much of it is dotted with wide-topped 
 oaks, standing singly and in groups, it has the beauty of an English park. Over it all 
 spreads the charm of the typical California climate and all that has made the fame 
 of Southern California in recent years is here in climate, in products, in far greater 
 area, in a more abundant water supply and greater natural resources. 
 
 The settlement of the Sacramento Valley has been delayed by the ownership of the 
 land in great tracts, but the decline of wheat farming, the development of irrigation in 
 
 13 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTH ERN PACIFIC 
 
 
 I 
 
 .!> 
 
 
 
various parts of the valley and the increase of the population has given to the land a 
 greater value and it is now being subdivided and placed on the market. 
 
 VALLEY SOILS 
 
 Once a part of the sea, or a northward extension of the bay of San Francisco, the 
 valley of the Sacramento clearly shows that it has been created by rivers and streams, 
 by erosion from the giant hills which shut it in. The soil is of very great depth, gen- 
 erally it is loamy, and the difference between soil and subsoil is here very slight. Hardly 
 a perceptible change of tint or texture is found in going down several feet, and material 
 from a considerable depth when thrown up is fairly equal in fertility to the original 
 surface soil. That it is at once productive, and does not have to lie and be weathered, 
 or to be cultivated, stirred and mingled with the surface soil is one of the surprises of the 
 man from the humid states. It is all probably an effect of climate. 
 
 The newcomer from clayey lands will look askance at some of the light textured soils 
 of this valley, but experience shows them to be very fertile and lasting. He will need 
 to remember that the soil here is semi-arid, that there are no torrential rains and no rains 
 at all throughout half the year and that therefore the chemical elements upon which plant 
 life depend have not been wasted. Plant food has accumulated and the process which 
 created these rich acres goes on repeating itself, recreating the soil year after year. 
 
 For half a century these valley lands have been farmed not only without fertilizing, 
 but the stubble of the fields has been systematically burned every season. Farmed to 
 one crop, and after the most reckless and exhaustive forms of agriculture, the land is 
 not worn out, but under irrigation and crop rotation these old wheat fields produce 
 heavily, and the new agriculture is increasing both the tonnage and the value of the 
 products of the land. 
 
 This the Orland settler will find around him; a great valley and a great body of 
 fertile and beautiful land. 
 
 A GREAT POPULATION 
 
 This will come in time, and the time will not be long. The waiting period is 
 past. The necessary evolutionary steps have been taken; the order of industrial develop- 
 ment has been progressive ; first the stock ranges then the big wheat ranches and now 
 the diversified and intensive agriculture made possible by irrigation. Growth has begun in 
 the only way in which it could go on to the full development of the soil-wealth, and to 
 the creation of an adequate agricultural population. It will go on by the attraction of 
 the agricultural opportunity here, and by the pressure of the agricultural situation else- 
 where. The soil, the climate, the special fruits of the region and the wide range of 
 farm products will so attract settlers that there will not be room for the many who 
 will seek a foothold here, while the exhaustion of our public lands, now practically at 
 hand, and the pressure of population in the older sections of the country, will send a 
 tide of homeseekers streaming into this valley of the West until every acre is occupied. 
 
 This again is the situation of the settler on the lands of the Orland Project; he will 
 not want for neighbors. A vast community is organizing on every side of him. This 
 is the first reason for interest in the Orland Irrigation Project; a great fertile valley, that 
 in time will have an immense population. 
 
 A second reason for your interest in this project relates to the reclamation of the 
 whole valley. 
 
 15 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTHERN PACIFIC 
 
PLAN A GREAT FUTURE 
 
 It has been the hope of the Reclamation Service to provide a comprehensive system 
 so that it might be irrigated, drained, its flood waters controlled and the river made 
 available for navigation. It is worth while to understand the relation of the Orland 
 Project to this plan. It was considered the first step. The engineers spoke of it as the 
 "first unit." The whole enterprise was so vast, so expensive, and involved so much time 
 in its execution that it was proposed to do the work in sections or units as rapidly as 
 funds would permit. In acknowledging the application of land owners above Orland 
 for the construction of a second unit the then Secretary, James R. Garfield, said that it 
 was the intention of the Department to proceed with this and other units as funds became 
 available, and he took further occasion to say that "the plan was of national importance." 
 
 It is only fair to say that this larger plan is now "in the air," owing to developments 
 in the general work of reclamation, but there will be no delay in providing water for the 
 irrigable area, both by the Reclamation Service and by private enterprise. 
 
 Since these paragraphs were written large sums have been invested in this part of the 
 valley by Eastern capitalists, greatly extending the area to be irrigated and colonized, 
 and by the time the settler is well established on his Orland lands he will find himself 
 in the midst of a great irrigation district, reaching far beyond the county lines. 
 
 The Officers of the Reclamation Service have been profoundly interested in this 
 valley, seeing in it one of the greatest of all the fields for the practice of irrigation. 
 They have been attracted by the large area of available lands, by the facilities offered for 
 storage reservoirs, by the abundance of water, and the natural facilities for its easy 
 distribution, and by the especial advantages of the climate. 
 
 While the Orland Project covers but 14,000 acres it is believed that this will be 
 increased to 50,000 acres by the construction of additional reservoirs on Stony Creek, 
 three more having been surveyed and recommended. 
 
 The valley has awaited settlement for years, chiefly because of the occupation of the 
 land, in large tracts, and when the great ranches began to be broken up, settlers still 
 stood aloof because of the impossibility of doing diversified farming successfully by 
 dependence on the rainfall. Now that the Government has taken up the plan of a 
 comprehensive system of irrigation, settlers are coming into the valley, lands are being 
 occupied, private irrigation is expanding on every side, and the valley is certain to have 
 a great future. This affects of course, the question of a holding in the Orland lands, 
 as it affects the value of his lands, and a man may count himself fortunate to get a foot- 
 hold where in time he will pay for his land and his water right, and by that time be 
 part of such an enlarged community that the very increase of population will add 
 immensely to the market value of his own acreage. 
 
 THE CLIMATIC FACTOR 
 
 Do not shy at the word "Northern" applied to California. It has no significance. 
 Northern California has substantially the same climate as Southern California, as warm 
 summers and as mild winters. Here we are in the latitude of Central Spain and of 
 Southern Italy, and the same physical causes which affect that classic region around the 
 Mediterranean, determines the climate of Interior California. It is even a fact that 
 oranges ripen here some weeks in advance of Southern California, the reason being that 
 this valley is more remote from the ocean and shut away from the sea breezes, has a 
 higher aggregation of heat units without being appreciably warmer. 
 
 17 
 
GOVERNMENT IRR I G ATI O N SO UTH E R N PACIFIC 
 
Now this is a fact of practical value. Coming here, you come into the climate of 
 the orange and the palm, of the fig, the almond and the magnolia, and you have the 
 same wide range of products which in the south has made the fame of California, while 
 here the lands at present cost very much less. 
 
 Let the farmer emphasize the long growing season, the possibility of two crops on the 
 same land in one year; the fact that the great planting month is February, and that 
 plows are going from November to March, that he can plant something every month in 
 the year, and choose from a wide range what he will grow ; that the cost of getting started 
 in such a region is affected by the rapidity with which things grow, the slight shelter 
 which stock require, the inexpensive house which he builds and the little fuel it takes 
 to warm it and the little cost of wintering stock where they have green feed in the fields 
 at all times let him give these things due weight and he will have the general relation of 
 climate to his work. It has a cash value. 
 
 RANGE OF PRODUCTS 
 
 The staple crop here at Orland under private irrigation is alfalfa, but oranges and 
 lemons will now be largely planted. Table grapes are grown, figs and deciduous fruits 
 of all kinds, berries and vegetables and corn, rice, sorghum, millet, maize and hemp, 
 can all be successfully grown. We could put into a line what cannot be grown here, 
 but the catalogue of available products is very large. 
 
 The dairy will be a feature of farm life, and the production of live stock. Under 
 irrigation, alfalfa can be cut six times, and that valuable forage is most profitable when 
 fed to stock. 
 
 Sugar beets will be largely grown in the region, a large factory being on the river 
 in the immediate vicinity, but what the individual on these project lands will elect to 
 grow, will depend upon himself and upon the size of his holding. 
 
 THE SMALL FARM 
 
 By the terms of the Reclamation Law, no farm under any project will contain more 
 than 1 60 acres. In this project the lands are all in private ownership and holders of 
 tracts in excess of 1 60 acres are under agreement with the Government to dispose of excess 
 holdings. The farm limit here is forty acres, and large tracts will be subdivided into 
 tracts not exceeding forty acres in size. That many units will not exceed ten acres is 
 fairly certain, as the land is very productive and capable of intense cultivation. The 
 best informed men believe that in this valley forty acres are luxury, and that comfort 
 will be found in half as much. A good living may be found on ten acres, and the 
 Reclamation officers believe "that as these lands are settled and increase in value, the 
 farm units will be reduced to five and ten acre tracts." If so, it will be at once a matter 
 of economy and a matter of experience. Few men would trust themselves on five acres if 
 it had not been shown again and again, in every country of the world, what an acre will 
 produce. Denmark is one of the prosperous countries of Europe, and Denmark has 
 150,000 farms of from seven to ten acres, and supports 167 persons to the square mile. 
 The Netherlands have a smaller area and a larger population supporting 448 people to 
 every square mile. 
 
 We may not care to live as European farmers do, but the small farm is coming 
 chiefly as a result of better methods of farming. The average man will take better care of 
 twenty acres of irrigated land and cannot practice intensive culture on more without hiring 
 
GOVERNMENT I RRIG AT I ON SOUTH ERN PACIFIC 
 
 
 -** 
 
UNIVLRSITY I 
 
 J 
 
 help. But here it is not a question of twenty acres, if you wish forty, and in this climate 
 and out of this soil the skillful farmer can lay up money for the proverbial "rainy day." 
 
 LAND VALUES 
 
 If these seem high, remember that this is not a region of cheap lands. Several things 
 affect land values. Thus, this land is rated high in intrinsic value, because its soil is 
 among the best in the world; because it is land with a climate; because it is land with 
 a superb water system; because it is easily irrigated and finely drained. 
 
 It will be difficult to water-log this land by wasteful methods of using water. 
 
 But the real value of the land must, after all, be based on its income producing 
 power. Thus, land that will return ten per cent on a valuation of $400 an acre is 
 not high priced at $250 per acre. Lands in alfalfa are now worth this amount, where 
 raw land can be bought for $ 1 00 an acre. Add to this the cost of water right, not yet 
 fixed, but approximately $50 an acre, and very valuable lands are acquired at a normal 
 price. The cost of delivering water is now assessed upon a small acreage. Additional 
 reservoirs can be constructed without great expense, and the cost to the settler reduced by 
 covering a larger total acreage. 
 
 That the time will soon come when irrigated lands in this valley will be worth $300 
 an acre is among the certainties. 
 
 POPULATION AND MARKETS 
 
 There is a growing movement into this valley. Private irrigating companies are at 
 work developing water for large tracts of land aggregating several hundred thousand 
 acres. Large sums are being expended to fit these lands for immediate occupancy, and 
 this in view of the present prospective demand. There will be here many times the pres- 
 ent population. This will create values, and stimulate the growth of towns and cities. 
 
 Transportation facilities are good. The Southern Pacific occupies both sides of the 
 valley and operates various branch lines; the Western Pacific reaches Oroville, half way 
 up the valley, and then turns eastward across the mountains; there is an expanding 
 system of inter-urban electric lines, and boats run on the river almost to the head of the 
 valley. San Francisco is 1 66 miles distant, and Sacramento 1 00 miles, the region 
 between being full of growing towns that feel the stimulus of the development from 
 irrigation, from the subdivision of great ranches, and the multiplication of farms, schools 
 and homes. This provides an expanding market, here at home, while fruit products 
 have all the East and the Northwest, to say nothing of the cities of Europe which show 
 an increasing demand for many kinds of fruit. 
 
 The most important feature of Western progress for the years just ahead of us 
 will be the settlement of the Sacramento Valley, and the Orland Project is sure to be the 
 center of a great farming community. Water is abundant, the climate is delightful, and 
 the soil is of the highest type adapted to a wide range of products. 
 
 The great growth of Orland in the last year is proof of the wide interest in irrigation. 
 Land owners under the Project have increased 100% and the size of land holdings 
 under one ownership has decreased from an average of one hundred acres to forty-seven 
 acres. 
 
 21 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTH ERN PACIFIC 
 
 Head-gates on the north bank of the Link River, part of the Klamath Project. 
 
The Klamath Project 
 Oregon-California 
 
 HERE Southeastern Oregon and Northeastern California are united by the Recla- 
 mation Service in a great irrigation system, which involves lake drainage as well as 
 the irrigation of dry upland valleys, and is destined to create on the edge of the 
 wilderness a large productive area. Long a stock-growing region on the margin of ex- 
 tensive forests, this is a promising field for the general farm, and opened now by the advent 
 of railroads will develop rapidly. Details of the irrigation scheme and the methods of 
 acquiring land are left out, and we are here concerned with the general situation, the 
 setting of these lands, their producing capacity, and the outlook for population and agri- 
 cultural growth. 
 
 AN INTER-MOUNTAIN BASIN 
 
 The Klamath Country takes its name from a series of mountain lakes on the borders 
 of California and Oregon. On the north the mountains are heavily timbered, but in 
 other directions the spurs and ridges have but scant arid growths of brush and shrubs 
 with scattering pines. 
 
 The principal and central lakes in the basin are the Upper and Lower Klamath and 
 Tule Lake, and the valleys are Klamath, Lost River, Poe, Yonna and Langells. 
 
 South of the interstate boundary line the low hills encroach upon the margin of Lower 
 Klamath Lake and then open out into Butte Valley. This valley has perhaps 40,000 
 acres, and a prosperous settlement with several small towns has grown up. It is the 
 nearest farm neighborhood having a large acreage, and the irrigable lands of the Klamath 
 Project reach down nearly to the borders of Butte Valley. 
 
 The two Klamath Lakes are joined by a short waterway one and one-quarter miles 
 long, and having in that short distance a fall of sixty-three feet, showing the different level 
 of the two lakes. They are drained by Klamath River, which flows into the ocean, and 
 they are fed by numerous large springs and by two small rivers. 
 
 Tule Lake has no outlet. East of it lies a small lake named Clear, which gives 
 rise to Lost River. This winding stream, starting in California passes into Oregon, 
 wanders through all the upper tier of valleys, and coming back to within a few miles 
 of its starting point falls into Tule Lake on the California side. The source of the 
 river will be cut off and Tule Lake drained and reclaimed. 
 
 The average elevation of the Klamath Basin is 4 1 00 feet, or a little lower than the 
 Salt Lake Valley in Utah. The whole area to be reclaimed embraces about 1 80,000 
 acres, 50,000 of which are of the marsh type and the remainder volcanic or basaltic. 
 
 THE CLIMATE 
 
 The climate has two relations, one to the farmer's health, another to his crops. It 
 is worth while to study them both. Do not be misled by the terms "basin," "marsh 
 lands" and "drainage." This is a mountain basin in which the drainage is naturally 
 good, and where the valley lands are so high up in the free air that no miasms are 
 afloat and chills and fevers are not in the experience of the oldest settlers. It is not 
 only a high air but a dry air. 
 
 23 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTH ERN PACIFIC 
 
 Map of the Klamath Project, showing irrigable lands in shaded section. 
 
The annual precipitation averages but fourteen inches and falls chiefly during the winter 
 months. Snow falls occasionally, though some winters are "open" and have but 
 slight "flurries" of snow. The temperature has fallen to zero but a few times in the 
 past fifteen years. 
 
 The summers are not hot and have uniformly cool nights. There are occasional late 
 frosts in the spring, but a general absence of severe storms and high winds. The 
 prevailing summer weather shows little variation, and is marked by an abundance of 
 sunshine and by those atmospheric conditions which produce at once bountiful crops 
 and good health. The air in general is dry and bracing, and full of the ozone of 
 mountains and forests. 
 
 As the great bulk of farm products in this series of valleys will come from irrigated 
 lands, the relation of climate to production is of consequence. Far removed from the 
 sea, and with little cloudy weather, the growing season is long and favorable, and with 
 water at command the question of production is not a difficult one. The countries 
 in which irrigation is the great factor, are of course, the dry countries, where summers 
 are warm and the air is dry. Here the seasons are mild, and the farmer is not 
 likely to be buffeted by unfavorable weather. He finds a fairly uniform temperature, 
 and with moisture when his crops need it, he can count with much certainty on his 
 harvests. - 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE SOIL 
 
 This is a lake district. It is surrounded on three sides by mountains. The wash from 
 the higher areas has been going on for many centuries. The result is the shallowing of 
 the lakes and the creation of much desirable land on the lake margins. The Upper 
 Klamath Lake is surrounded by wooded mountains reaching to its shore line but its 
 northern end has been filled in by erosion, and is now occupied by farms and a small 
 town. The lower lake has receded until several thousand acres have been uncovered 
 and are under cultivation. It is easily seen that the water surface of both lakes was 
 formerly much more extensive than it is now. Nature's process of reclaiming waste lands 
 by soil washed from the hills is going on here with considerable rapidity and will go on 
 even more rapidly as the forests are cut away and erosion increases. 
 
 To this natural process is now added the direct work of the Reclamation engineers 
 in the draining and reclaiming of marsh and tule lands in shutting off supplies from large 
 lakes and providing for the drainage and uncovering of lake beds by evaporation. The 
 result will be the recovery of large areas of the best lands in the world, the marshy 
 margins and actual lake beds of the great basin. 
 
 These constitute the most distinct type of soil in the Klamath Country. It appeals 
 at once to the farmer-instinct, and the man of the slightest experience in handling soil 
 knows that this is immensely fertile and productive. These marsh lands are of the same 
 general character as the marsh soils of the great Sacramento Valley, but have in them 
 less river silt, since these soils are in the main lake sediments. They are lighter too in 
 weight and color, having in them some volcanic matter and an unusual amount of 
 vegetable material. They are well supplied with the elements of fertility and will 
 respond rapidly to cultivation. Like all other soils of this character, these marsh lands 
 will improve under cultivation, being less tractable the first year, and becoming more 
 productive as they are stirred and exposed to the sun and air. The preparation of this 
 land for cropping will not be heavy, as it will be fully reclaimed before settlement is 
 
 25 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTHERN PACIFIC 
 
 ... 
 
 
 mm, 
 
 
 > 
 
made. The experts of the Reclamation Service consider that the possibilities of this 
 type of land, once under cultivation are obviously very great. The other soil in the 
 area to be irrigated is called upland and belongs to the dry valleys at some distance 
 from the lakes. These are largely sagebrush lands and are lava or basaltic soils. They 
 belong to the class of soils found in the great wheat belt of Eastern Washington and 
 Northern Idaho, and which in the Yakima Valley are today producing such excellent 
 orchard and fruit crops. These soils have not only shown amazing fertility under 
 most imperfect modes of cultivation, but give the greatest promise of continued fertility. 
 
 This is primarily a stock country, but the upland valleys of recent years have 
 produced good crops of grain without irrigation. They are light in texture, easily 
 worked, sufficiently deep for thorough cultivation and drainage, and have lain unoccupied 
 or been roughly dry farmed, but have developed small villages, post offices and schools, 
 and are surrounded by wide areas fit for ranging stock. Under irrigation these valleys 
 will cut up into prosperous farms. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES 
 
 We put it thus, because the Klamath lands have not been largely developed. There 
 were some old canal systems in the basin and under the ditch, and by means of dry 
 farming alfalfa and grain have been the principal crops. Alfalfa makes two good crops 
 and generally a third partial crop. Where the cuttings are made, the land then is 
 often pastured with stock cattle in large herds. This superb forage crop is staple, and 
 aside from the common grains no special development of diversified farm crops has been 
 attempted. It must be remembered that the region has been isolated, has been a stock 
 country and that, until within a year, it was without a railroad. This explains why 
 general farming has not developed, and why the opportunity for great growth is now at 
 hand. 
 
 The possibilities of production are very great and the lands are suited to a wide 
 variety of crops. 
 
 That this will continue to be a stock raising country, and become in addition a 
 prosperous dairy country seems evident. Forage grasses grow here to perfection. Alfalfa 
 and timothy are staple. The climate is not harsh. There are no extremes of heat 
 and cold to interfere with growth and production. The range lands will welcome 
 the farm crops for winter fattening, and there will be enough live stock to consume all 
 the irrigated lands can produce. 
 
 Potatoes are becoming an important crop here, owing to their excellent quality. 
 Cabbage, celery and root crops generally produce well; and in sheltered or protected 
 areas the hardier fruits will grow successfully. Apples will become a profitable crop if 
 wisely planted. 
 
 OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 Klamath Falls is the commercial center of the project, having a population of 3,500. 
 It is the present terminus of the Southern Pacific, which is building into Oregon by a 
 new route, flanking the Siskiyou Mountains. The Nevada-California-Oregon Railroad 
 is building in from Alturas on the east, and the Oregon Trunk Railroad is now building 
 down the Des Chutes River, and will open this lake country to the Columbia River, 
 Klamath Falls will thus become a shipping point of some importance. It will also 
 become a manufacturing point. Great lumber interests find a natural center here, 
 
 27 
 
rRUCKEEGARSON 
 
 IRRIGATION PROJECT 
 
 N EVADA 
 
 rirh 
 
 a I , i L. 
 
 Map of the Truckee-Carson Project Irrigable lands shown in shaded sections boundaries of farm units 
 indicated by heavy lines, private lands by dotted lines, railroad land farm units by shaded border. 
 Total acreage of each farm unit indicated by plain figures figures in circles indicate 
 irrigable acreage in units when less than total area. 
 
and extensive mills will be erected. The certain growth of the town will mean new 
 stores and shops, business chances of various kinds, and employment. Merrill is the 
 second town in the district, twenty miles from Klamath Falls in the Tule Lake Valley. 
 Bonanza is at the junction of Yonna and Langell's Valleys, and the irrigated lands have 
 two town sites. Other towns are in the region, mostly small local centers of trade. 
 
 The lands in market are largely in private ownership, and the government land is not 
 yet subject to entry, as it lies mostly within the area to be reclaimed by drainage. 
 
 The farm unit here is 1 60 acres, an unusual size in Government projects, and 
 attractive to the general farmer. 
 
 There is at this writing, room for about 300 families and larger areas will soon be 
 open to settlement. An Experiment Farm has been established, and a site for an upland 
 farm is being leased, so that the settler will find aid in cultivating both types of soil, 
 and will not have to conduct costly experiments. These Experiment Farms are for 
 the benefit of the settler. 
 
 This project is full of promise, and the inquirer will do well to secure such additional 
 information as the Reclamation Service can supply. 
 
 Truckee-Carson Project 
 Nevada 
 
 THIS great project takes its name from the Carson and Truckee Rivers, which furnish 
 the water. They rise in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and flow eastward into 
 western Nevada, finding no outlet. The rivers lie in the drainage area of what is 
 known as the Great Basin, and none of their waters reach the ocean. In order to utilize 
 the waters of both rivers, and secure an ample supply for a large area of desirable land, 
 the Truckee has been turned into the Carson by means of a large canal. 
 
 Both rivers have their rise on the eastern slope of the Sierra at an altitude of from 
 5,000 to 11,000 feet, and include a large forested area where the precipitation is 
 mainly in the form of snow. The Little Truckee flows into Lake Tahoe, and the 
 main Truckee issues from it on the northwest side. The Carson River Basin adjoins 
 the Truckee on the southwest, and obtains its water mainly from the east slope of the 
 Sierra. Both furnish natural reservoir sites, and the storage of surplus waters forms an 
 essential part of the project. The total water supply exceeds 700,000 acre feet. 
 
 THE LAND AND ITS LOCATION 
 
 The tract reclaimed lies on the main overland line of the Southern Pacific, though 
 out of sight of the railroad. The station is Hazen, and an alkali flat of considerable 
 extent lies between the railroad and the irrigable lands. A short drive across this 
 brings the visitor to the main body of reclaimed land. The chief town of the project is 
 Fallen, to which a branch line of ten miles has been constructed. Fallon is the county- 
 seat of Churchill County, but until the location of this project had a population of but 
 twenty-five people. It has now upwards of 1,000 and promises to be a town of 2,500 
 in a few years. 
 
 29 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTH ERN PACIFIC 
 
it u fN i * - * 
 
 V cf 
 
 The irrigable area of the first unit is 200,000 acres, of which about half is under the 
 canal and 50,000 acres are open to settlement. 
 
 The elevation is 3,950 feet above sea level or 200 feet lower than Salt Lake City. 
 The mountains, visible on three sides, are barren, but on the west sixty miles away are the 
 forested and snowy heights of the Sierra Nevada. 
 
 The locality chosen has long passed for desert, but it is in reality the bed of a pre- 
 historic lake, and its soil is formed of river and lake deposits. The selection of an 
 irrigation project is based first of all upon the soil, its quality and area. A scientific and 
 chemical examination of the land is made at many points, and only lands of the best 
 quality are made to bear the expense of water development. The soil here is of many 
 varieties, sandy, loamy, clayey, adobe and black peat. On the upper benches are 
 found a little gravel; otherwise the soils are not gravelly. They have the advantage 
 of being virgin, and are shown by results to be highly productive. Experience shows 
 also that the condition of this soil generally is improved by use for two or three years, 
 becoming more productive. This the soil expert readily understands. It is due to 
 "weathering" or the exposure of the soil particles to the sun and air. It is to be looked 
 for in reclaimed marsh lands, in old lake beds, and in all places where water has stood, 
 or the soil has been shut away from the air. All soils are improved by culture, and 
 cannot be exhausted by right methods of cropping. It is part of the new agriculture 
 to give attention to tillage, and to put new emphasis upon the meaning of the word 
 agriculture, which signifies field culture, and the improvement of the soil by stirring. 
 This is the first lesson which the settler learns on the Truckee-Carson lands. They are 
 improved by cultivation, and will not do their level best the first year. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL NEVADA 
 
 You may raise the question whether Nevada is an agricultural state, so long has 
 it been thought of as a desert, and valuable only for the minerals hidden in its hills. But 
 any state is agricultural which has good soil and a favorable climate, and soil to which 
 water can be applied in an arid region. This famous mining state has some very 
 productive farm lands, and small areas have been under cultivation for half a century. 
 
 The returns from the Experiment Farm near Reno, and connected with the State 
 University, show very satisfactory results, and the farms about Carson City, around 
 the Truckee Meadows, and in the Lovelock Valley and elsewhere are as productive and 
 profitable as the average farm lands in the Middle West. The very limitation of the 
 irrigable lands in Nevada is an advantage to the resident farmer, insuring a home 
 market for his farm products. Even were water plentiful, the lands that can be irrigated 
 are limited, and the farmers of Nevada will never be crowded, or troubled by over 
 production. Staple crops will always be in demand, and intelligent selection of locations 
 will produce large orchard crops for which the mining towns constitute a ready market. 
 
 It is important to keep this in mind. The farmer's problem here is not production, 
 but disposal of products. Mountain regions are proverbially prolific in all 
 that is best in plant and animal life, and Nevada is no exception. If her lands are 
 desert lands in appearance, they are rich in phosphates, and water makes an oasis, 
 turning the desert into a garden. Farmers make the state. Always the enduring 
 commonwealth is built around the farms. The wealth of Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, 
 is built upon their agriculture. It takes a rural population to make a city, to build 
 
 31 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTHERN PACIFIC 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRI G AT I O N SO UTH E R N PACIFIC 
 
 W%' V** 
 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRI G ATI O N SO UTH E R N PACIFIC 
 
railroads and trolley lines, and there is no country on earth where men can find fruitful 
 soil and a congenial climate, where good honest farming will not make a successful and 
 prosperous state. 
 
 There is nothing like farming. When you take minerals out of the ground you leave 
 a hole; but when you take agricultural products out of the ground you can take 
 just as much next year and every year. That nation that is founded upon its cultivation 
 of the soil is the greatest nation; and no nation ever continued to exist which did not 
 conserve its soil. 
 
 In the case of Nevada, her mineral wealth will long engage the attention of the miner, 
 and mines that fail in one place will be succeeded by others in other localities, these 
 mountain ranges being seamed by veins of ore, but her farms once developed are 
 abiding. Their products are in no sense competitive with those of the other states. 
 Statistics show that nearly eighty per cent of the desert crops are forage and consumed 
 at home. Here the demand for home-grown crops is at the door and assures the 
 farmers prosperity. The cultivated acreage, as we have said, cannot be greatly increased 
 while the irrigated lands will develop towns, the ranges will continue to grow stock and 
 to require alfalfa and grain for winter feeding, and the established mining districts will 
 need all kinds of farm products. 
 
 The population of Nevada is now about 1 00,000 as compared with 40,000 in 1 900. 
 
 Growth is going on rapidly, and it will be a long time before the farmers can supply 
 the needs of the state. 
 
 CLIMATIC CONDITIONS 
 
 These touch the agricultural side very closely, though the farmer often ignores them. 
 Right temperature has a close relation to crop production. 
 
 The Nevada Basin is part of an elevated plateau extending far eastward, and it is 
 one of the driest regions of the West. The rainfall ranges from two to five inches in 
 the year, and there is practically no rainy season. Snow falls occasionally snow squalls 
 rather than storms. This means an inch or two of snow at a time, which seldom lies 
 more than two or three successive days. The summers are warm and dry. The 
 thermometer may go to 1 00 now and then, but the sensible temperature is only about 
 seventy degrees, owing to the dryness of the air, which produces rapid evaporation, leaving 
 the skin with an agreeable sense of coolness. 
 
 A feature of the region is the large number of cloudless days, probably 300 in the 
 year. The sun shines some portion of nearly every day. This produces evaporation 
 from leaf surfaces, promotes circulation and makes plant growth rapid. There are few 
 storms, no cyclones, and high winds are not common. 
 
 As compared with the Middle West, the Northwest, or New England, the winters 
 are very mild. By the first of March the alfalfa is starting, and by May first it is 
 a foot and a half high. After May first all tender garden vegetables can be planted 
 with safety. 
 
 There are few regions of the world where general health conditions are better than in 
 this part of Nevada. Pulmonary troubles are not generated, asthma seems to cease at once 
 the air is breathed, and many ills of the Mississippi Valley and other rainy regions 
 are unheard of. The clear skies, the altitude, the dryness and even temperature favor 
 good health, and these conditions are a specific for malaria. 
 
 Water for domestic use is secured from wells at from twenty to forty feet and is good. 
 
 35 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTH ERN PACIFIC 
 
 
 
FARM PRODUCTS 
 
 The great forage crop of Nevada as elsewere is alfalfa. The absence of organic 
 matter in the soil makes this crop a very important one to begin with. It leaves organic 
 matter among the soil grains and once in alfalfa a year, any crop can be produced 
 which can be grown in the Middle West. Alfalfa yields from five to seven tons per acre 
 and sells from $8 to $ 1 per ton in the stack. 
 
 In other crops the yield averages higher than in states farther east, even higher than 
 in the Mississippi Valley, and the quality is superior. This is due to the unleached soils 
 of this valley and to the dry air and abundant sunshine. Wheat will average thirty 
 perhaps thirty-five bushels to the acre. 
 
 The Experiment Farm connected with the University has produced sixty-seven bushels 
 to the acre and if this shows exceptional care and skill it also shows that better methods 
 on the farm will increase the average yield. 
 
 Wheat, barley, oats, rye, potatoes, onions, all vegetables, are grown easily and 
 yield abundantly. Corn is not grown extensively, owing to the cool nights of summer, 
 but the Experiment Station thinks it may be grown as a silage crop and for dairy feeding. 
 It is probably a matter of better farming and of seed corn adapted to the locality. 
 The Station is working for an early developing variety. For hogs the dependence is 
 alfalfa, with barley, but careful farming will produce corn for hardening pork for 
 market. 
 
 From the nature of much of the soil, potatoes do exceptionally well and are shipped 
 to California and even to the Hawaiian Islands. 
 
 Stock raising is a large industry in Nevada, but pasturage on the ranges fluctuates, 
 and more and more as lands come under irrigation the alfalfa field will become the chief 
 reliance of the stock grower. The tendency of the business is toward cutting and feeding, 
 rather than pasturing, and farms will be devoted to stock, producing raw material to be 
 turned into food for the market. 
 
 As these lands settle up the full adaptation of Nevada soil and climate for the 
 production of the sugar beet will be recognized, and a sugar factory is now being built, 
 experiments having shown that this is an ideal section for beet production. 
 
 Fruit has not been largely planted in Nevada, other interests engaging attention. Apples 
 grown here are remarkable for their quality. They have fine color and size, superior flavor 
 and good keeping qualities. Wisdom in selecting location for an orchard, and in 
 choosing varieties will develop a profitable industry, the market being at the door. 
 Many kinds of deciduous fruits do well, but more care than usual must be shown in 
 selecting right exposures and as near frostless conditions as the situation will permit. But 
 aside from the commercial production of fruit each farmer may have several kinds 
 grown about house and barn and a garden of berries as well as vegetables. 
 
 FARMS AND LAND VALUES 
 
 The farm "unit" varies from forty to one hundred and sixty acres, but the average 
 size of the farm is eighty acres. The idea is to give each entry man eighty acres of 
 good irrigable land. A home may be secured on this project by filing on a homestead 
 under the Reclamation Law, by purchase from private land owners, or by purchase 
 of Central Pacific Railroad lands. The publications of the Reclamation Service make 
 plain all the conditions. There is a United States Commissioner at Fallon, on the project, 
 
 37 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRI G ATIO N SO UTH E R N PACIFIC 
 
and a Land Office at Carson City. Land with a vested water right, and under 
 cultivation may cost from $30 to $75 per acre, and railroad land adjoining right of 
 way and reaching back three or four miles may be bought for an average of $5 per 
 acre. The farmer who can come to these irrigated lands with sufficient capital should 
 not economize by buying cheap lands. The cheapest land often costs too much. The 
 primary value of land is in its productiveness as expressed in dollars, in health, in 
 comfort, in social and market conveniences and agreeable surroundings. 
 
 SOME CONTINGENCIES AND ADVANTAGES 
 
 There are here now about 500 families and several small towns, a main line of the 
 Southern Pacific Railroad and two branch lines, while the Western Pacific, also an 
 overland or trans-continental route, is near by. The town of Fallen is connected by 
 rail with the main overland route, and the great mining centers of Southern Nevada, 
 Goldfield and Tonopah are reached by a line running south. This also connects with 
 Carson City and Virginia City. 
 
 As settlement progresses, tree planting will add to the beauty and comfort of the 
 region, modifying the climate and relieving the monotony of the landscape. Green fields 
 and orchards make the region homelike. 
 
 The low price of good land, its productiveness under irrigation, the adequate trans- 
 portation at hand, the home market for all products, the terms upon which water 
 rights are secured, and the permanent character of the irrigation works, are all to be 
 reckoned as advantages in developing a self-supporting home. 
 
 The Experiment Farm of 1 60 acres will be an object lesson under the Department of 
 Agriculture, and direction and help will be freely given the settler who may need advice 
 about methods of irrigation or special crop production. This will often prove to be 
 invaluable. 
 
 There are banking conveniences, good school facilities, and established churches, so 
 that the advantages of a pioneer belong to the settler without the pioneer's privations. 
 
 Salt River Project 
 Arizona 
 
 THE largest body of irrigable land in Arizona, and the most highly developed, is in 
 the Salt River Valley. This is in Southern Arizona, a region quite distinct in to- 
 pography and climate from the northern part of the territory. About midway of the 
 territory there is an abrupt descent of about 3000 feet, and a change in the nature and 
 aspects of the country. 
 
 In the heart of this lower region lies the Salt River Valley, about thirty-five miles long 
 by from twelve to twenty miles wide, and its 350,000 acres are almost one continuous 
 body of fertile land. In fact it is broken only by the Salt River, which flows through 
 its northern portion and the Gila River farther south, below the Salt River Mountains, so 
 little waste land is in all this area. 
 
 39 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTHERN PACIFIC 
 
LOCATION AND CHARACTER 
 
 Phoenix, the capital of the territory, is in the Salt River Valley, and is reached by 
 a branch line of the Southern Pacific thirty-five miles from Maricopa on the main over- 
 land route. The Santa Fe also comes into Phoenix, diverging from its main line at 
 Ash Fork, 190 miles north. 
 
 The valley slopes gently to the south and west, the lay of the land facilitating irriga- 
 tion and drainage, but the appearance is that of a flat plain. So level and smooth is 
 the surface of the desert or unoccupied lands, as to suggest that it had long ago been 
 leveled and tilled. In fact, the remains of old canals are traceable, so skilfully run 
 that they serve the engineer of today, and the remains of old houses of great dimensions 
 and several stories in height are here. Evidently a prehistoric race lived here, tilled these 
 fields and gathered their harvests, leaving behind little trace of their existence save the 
 evidence that they were farmers and irrigators. 
 
 The valley has been under modern cultivation for years, but the uncertainty of the 
 water supply, and the final destruction of the dam by floods, interrupted the prosperity 
 that was at hand, and left much land to revert to the desert. The great cost of supply- 
 ing water led the Government to build the great Roosevelt Dam and to provide a per- 
 manent system covering 240,000 acres. This has made the fair valley again a real 
 oasis in the desert, as fertile as it is beautiful. It is a farmer's land in appearance and 
 in reality. The settlement of the valley began in 1 868, and the test of soil and climate 
 in the matter of production, and in the range and variety of crops has been ample and 
 satisfactory. 
 
 THE WORTH OF THESE LANDS 
 
 There are several grades or types of soil, adapted to a wide variety of crops. These 
 are gravelly and sandy loams, Maricopa loam and Glendale loess. Maricopa loam is a 
 heavier grade of the sandy loam, and Glendale loess is the finest silt mixed with fine 
 sand. This is a valuable soil showing much lime, potash and phosphoric acid. 
 
 The observing visitor is struck by the evident depth of the soil plane. The bases of 
 the mountains are submerged, the valley being surrounded by mountain tops. Here 
 plainly were frightful canyons, and the tide of silt and soil particles flowing into them 
 for untold ages has built up the level until the plain seems at flood. Borings have 
 shown this to be true, depths 100 feet, 500 feet and 1300 feet have been reached 
 without finding bedrock. 
 
 Now this is the farmer's first concern good soil, deep soil, soil that will not wash 
 away, and that will lend itself to cereals or fruit, alfalfa or oranges. 
 
 As usual in desert soils the percent of nitrogen is low, but the wise farmer knows 
 that this will be supplied by right methods of farming, and especially by growing alfalfa. 
 What we have said elsewhere in these pages about the fertility of arid soils can be 
 emphasized. These valley lands are immensely rich because their chemical salts their 
 plant food has not been leached out by ages of rainfall. 
 
 There can be here no soil erosion no washing away of farms in 1 0,000 little gullies, 
 and no exhaustion of fertility by cropping, since the waters which made the valley still 
 carry into it the elements out of which crops are grown, and these are distributed every 
 time the farmer irrigates the land. The fact is well known and explains why the soils 
 of Egypt, of India and of China, cropped for ages, are not worn out, nor depreciated. 
 
 41 
 
GOVERNMENT IRR I G AT I O N SO U TH E R N PACIFIC 
 
In view of the abandoned farms in the East, and the greater number which have declined 
 in productive power, it must be a great satisfaction to a farmer to settle here and feel 
 not only that his farm will stay by him, but that he can pass it on to his children 
 unimpaired in fertility. 
 
 BUT THE CLIMATE ! 
 
 Since life for most of us is a struggle, if we are to farm at all let us farm where the 
 climate will help and not hinder where it will constantly aid in solving the problem 
 of production. If one is to live by the soil, he wants the best, and wants it in the best 
 climate. Comfort is of consequence, but the farmer who goes to Canada for cheap land 
 does not reckon with the climate. He wants land and a good deal of it. The farmer 
 who comes into the Southwest is wiser if he reckons climate at its cash value. He knows 
 that it is not first a question of comfort, but of profit of production, and though the 
 summer be hot, there is a good deal of satisfaction in a bumper crop every year. Here 
 one does not say, "This is good growing weather." It is good growing weather for ten 
 months in the year, and then while stock elsewhere are in bank barns, here they are in 
 green alfalfa fields in midwinter. This is climate. The man who grows things wants 
 warmth, sunshine, equable temperature and the right temperature for a long period. He 
 can only farm in a disappointing way against climate. It is a mistake to have to "buck" 
 against the weather. 
 
 Climate has its relation to the grower as well as to the crop, and if Southern Arizona 
 is hot at times, it is a land of health. It invites to life in the open, and that means vigor. 
 The man who lives in the outdoors and is sensible in his habits and his diet, has little 
 need of the doctors. These dry lands are the lands of health. Here are no malarias, 
 no germ diseases, no anemic troubles, no "muggy" and depressing days. There is no 
 "scale" in the orchard, no fungus growth. Tree and plant, man and animal are healthy, 
 develop rapidly and are vigorous and fruitful. This more than balances conditions and 
 one hears no complaints about hot summers where alfalfa matures a crop every forty 
 days, and oranges store up sweetness and fineness in the sunshine, so that they command 
 a premium in all markets. Salt River Valley winters are full of sunshine, and the 
 temperature rarely falls below thirty-six degrees, ranging between that and seventy-five 
 degrees. The fields are green and alive with stock which has come in from the northern 
 ranges and is fattening on alfalfa pasture. The percentage of sunny days is large, the 
 winter sometimes showing less than a week of days when the sun does not shine brilliantly 
 during some portion of the day. The actual number of rainy days is small, but showers 
 may occur at almost any season. The nights are cool. , 
 
 FARM PRODUCTS 
 
 This valley is one of the beautiful and productive gardens of the Southwest, and the 
 basis of prosperity is the substantial one of stock and alfalfa. The fields produce from 
 six to eight tons at an average of $ 1 2 per ton. Its feeding value is not less than $8 to the 
 grower. The demand for winter pasture is extensive, and from 20,000 to 40,000 head 
 of cattle come in here every season to be fitted for market on the alfalfa fields. Sheep, 
 too, are driven in from the colder ranges by the hundred thousand and are kept over 
 "lambing time." Many hogs are also grown on alfalfa, and the spectacle of droves and 
 herds of stock in lush pastures in midwinter is a hint of prosperity which the dullest 
 can take. 
 
 43 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTH ERN PACIFIC 
 
 .' R R I--6HJA & ti 
 
 i C^IUMA PROJECT 
 
 Map of the Yuma Project, showing irrigable land in shaded sections. 
 
it in the desert I 6,000 acres of good land, with a good independent water supply and 
 is thirty miles west of Phoenix, with the certainty of a railroad soon. 
 
 There will be the development of great electrical power below the great dam, and 
 the sale of this will reduce the cost of water rights, besides developing manufacturing. 
 In every way the outlook is good, and the settler will not be disappointed who comes 
 here with means enough or energy enough to get a land holding of his own. 
 
 The Booklet offered by the Reclamation Service warrants all we have said about the 
 region, our convictions being the growth of much independent study on the lands them- 
 selves at different times. 
 
 Ex-President Roosevelt says that civilization rests at the bottom on the wholesomeness, 
 the attractiveness and completeness, as well as the prosperity of life in the country, and 
 there is here the making of a substantial community as attractive, as varied in its farm 
 industries, and as prosperous as can be found in any state in the Union. The community 
 is here, growth is well begun, there is a market for all products, there is going on the 
 development of great natural resources, and there will be great advances in property 
 values. It is up to you to say whether you will share in these conditions and profit by 
 the growth that is coming. 
 
 The Yuma Project 
 Tizona 
 
 Ari 
 
 THIS well-known town of Yuma is on the Sunset Route of the Southern Pacific 
 where it crosses the Colorado River and the California-Arizona line. It is familiar 
 to the overland traveler, and excites his interest partly because of its picturesque 
 location, its Indians, seven hundred Yumas have now put aside their war paint and 
 weapons and are here cultivating the arts of peace; and partly because he wonders 
 at the courage which undertakes to build homes and a town in the midst of this desert 
 stretching far on each side of the river. 
 
 But no wise man judges from appearances. No intelligent farmer estimates the worth 
 of a country from the car windows. A simple statement of the situation here will show 
 strong grounds for confidence in the future of the region, and justify the courage which 
 has struggled here to wrest farms from the summer floods of the river and to provide 
 moisture for lands which the river made, but no longer overflows. 
 
 THE LOCATION 
 
 Yuma is on the eastern bank of the Colorado River, about eighty miles above its 
 mouth and nine miles from the international boundary line between Mexico and the 
 United States. It is the chief point in a large district, and headquarters for the mining 
 camps of the country, some of which have been constant producers for many years. 
 
 There is an important Indian school here, transformed from Fort Yuma to present 
 nobler purposes. 
 
 It is the center of an agricultural district embracing considerable territory and so 
 important is the soil area and the soil quality as to secure the attention of the Reclamation 
 
 47 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTH ERN PACIFIC 
 
 . 
 
Service and the expenditure of large sums in building a dam in the turbulent river, carry- 
 ing a huge inverted syphon under the river and constructing canals and levees to water 
 and protect the lands. 
 
 The town is distant from Los Angeles 250 miles; is still farther by rail from San 
 Diego; Tucson is 250 miles to the southeast and Phoenix 200 miles eastward. There 
 is thus room for a city of commercial importance, and when we have pointed out the 
 extent of its tributary lands, the character of its soil and possibilities which its climate 
 offers for the production of high-class crops, we will have indicated the reasons for belief 
 in Yuma's future growth in population and in commercial influence. 
 
 THE RIVER AND THE SOIL 
 
 The Colorado is the great factor here. It is the Nile of this region, and will make 
 it as the historic Nile made Egypt. It has made the land, and will forever fertilize it. 
 Along these lower courses of the great stream has been formed a narrow strip of fertile 
 soil in the midst of desert conditions, and as the annual summer overflow is rich in 
 fertilizing sediments, it has kept up a sort of a perpetual "top dressing" until now. The 
 result is a body of land equal in fertility to that of Egypt, but of less extent, in a 
 climate like Egypt's. 
 
 Irrigation now takes the place of the summer overflow, but the fertilizing elements held 
 in suspension by the stream are carried in the water of the canals and left upon the land. 
 The problem indeed of the engineers has been to prevent the Colorado silt from choking 
 the canals and covering the young crops as with a blanket, but this has been solved by 
 "settling basins," while it is certain that enough remains in the irrigating waters to main- 
 tain the productiveness of the land unimpaired under the most severe cropping. "It is 
 believed," says an early report of one of the engineers, now the Director of the Reclama- 
 tion Service, "it is believed that the plant food carried by the silt in solution in the river 
 water will perpetually fertilize the land." This is a modest statement, and well within 
 the truth. Investigation by the University of Arizona demonstrated that four average 
 acre feet of Colorado River water at Yuma carried sediment enough to make a layer of 
 soil about one-quarter of an inch thick. On basing their computation upon the use of 
 three acre feet of this water they found that the fertilizing value of this material, if bought 
 in the market, would be about $9.00 per acre. Where such conditions prevail cultiva- 
 tion can never impoverish, but actually enriches the soil. "The knowledge," Professor 
 R. H. Forbes of the University, says, "is as old as human history, that river irrigating 
 sediments increase the productiveness of the land," and they found 4.8 pounds of nitrogen 
 in one acre foot of water from the Colorado, and 28. 1 pounds from the Gila, which 
 flows into the Colorado just below Yuma. So they found in Egypt long ago that the 
 red Nile floods from Abyssinia were more valuable than those from other watersheds 
 tributary to that river. 
 
 Now these facts are bound to arrest attention, and when an intelligent farming com- 
 munity is established here, this will become one of the most productive regions of the 
 world. 
 
 If you have seen abandoned farms in New England; if you have seen farms in North 
 Carolina wasting away by surface soil erosion or washing, year after year; or if you have 
 some personal experiences of the struggle with poor soils, where the loss by cropping 
 could never quite be restored by manuring, then you ought to look with longing upon soils 
 that will never wear out or wash away. 
 
 49 
 
GOVERNMENT IRR I G ATI O N SO UTH E R N PACIFIC 
 
-_ 
 THE IRRIGATION SYSTEM 
 
 This is one of the largest undertaken by the Service. It includes a dam a mile long, 
 seventy-five miles of levees, about seventy miles of main canals, a network of additional 
 distributing ditches and a syphon or tunnel under the Colorado River. There is no danger 
 of a water famine. In the present state the lowest recorded flow of the river is sufficient 
 to irrigate an area several times larger than that embraced in the district around Yuma. 
 Nor will there be damage from floods. This is provided against in two ways: first, by a 
 long line of embankments. The tops of these levees, four feet above the highest known 
 floods, have dimensions which sixty years of experience on the Mississippi have shown 
 to be the best. Second, as the work advances immense storage reservoirs will be added 
 along the upper reaches of the Colorado and its tributaries. These will conserve the flood 
 discharge and allow the water to flow at a more uniform rate through the year. In other 
 words, the Colorado will be regulated. It will be put into harness. 
 
 DRAINAGE CHANNELS 
 % 
 
 These are vastly important. The character of the lands here lends assistance to the 
 engineer, being in general a great .bed of sand overlain and interstratified with silt 
 deposited by the river. This sandy subsoil far below the surface makes the drainage 
 of the soil itself naturally good. But in addition drainage channels are a feature, these 
 being designed chiefly to take care of any seepage water from the river as well as the 
 surplus waters of irrigation. The drainage system will discharge by gravity at the lower 
 end of the system during most of the year. These slight explanations are in order simply 
 to assure the settler that the engineers have covered every point, and that in actual use the 
 farmer will find an efficient and workable system, giving him no trouble for want of 
 water, or from surplus water. Everything is done in the best manner, and with a view 
 to permanence. This is a point which should not be lost sight of. The work is well done, 
 done skilfully, carefully and strongly, not slighted to save expense, not hurried to get 
 through in a given time. The system will not "go back" on the settler. 
 
 THE IRRIGABLE LANDS 
 
 These include about 1 7,000 acres in the Yuma Indian Reservation in California, 
 20,000 acres in the Gila Valley and 53,000 acres in the lower Yuma Valley, Arizona. 
 In the latter, settlement has been long established, and about fourteen per cent of the irri- 
 gable land is supplied with water by temporary works. There is here a thrifty population 
 and good schools and churches. Patented lands in the valley are rated at from $40.00 to 
 $200.00 an acre. 
 
 Bottom lands in Arizona are mostly in private ownership. A few thousand acres are 
 subject to partial relinquishment, when the farm unit is finally fixed, but until then there is 
 no land for entry on the Arizona side. Some of this private land is for sale at $30.000 
 and upwards. 
 
 The lands of the Indian Reservation in part have been thrown open to white settlers 
 under the terms of the Homestead Law as modified by the Reclamation list. These 
 Reservation lands are charged with cost of water and maintenance, and in addition a 
 small sum per acre for the benefit of the Indians. This extra charge is fully compensated 
 for by the character of the lands and their location. 
 
 51 
 
GOVERNMENT IRR I G ATI O N SO UTH E R N PACIFIC 
 
 
The rush for these lands at the opening in March, 1910, showed the interest of a 
 wide public. Of the 1 74 farms, approximately forty acres each, there were about 
 ten applicants for each farm. Successive units to be opened as the work proceeds are 
 likely to prove as attractive as the first to homeseekers. 
 
 The Mesa lands include about 40,000 acres lying about seventy feet above the valley. 
 These lands at present are withdrawn from entry, and will not receive water for a year 
 or more. It will finally be lifted by pumps, but at no cost to the settler. When irrigated, 
 the Mesa or upland portion of the project will be ideal for all kinds of delicate plant life, 
 including citrus fruits, for it is practically frostless. More than eighty acres on these 
 table lands are now under cultivation, and the oranges are of the finest. 
 
 FARM PRODUCTS 
 
 Alfalfa is the "stand-by," and is likely to be. This fine forage crop gives here a 
 satisfactory cutting in about three months after sowing the seed. Seven or eight times 
 a year it can be harvested, and a total of ten tons to the acre is not wholly exceptional. 
 It is only a matter of proper attention and good farming. As this hay has averaged 
 $13.00 per ton in the local market for the last six years, it will be seen to be a 
 profitable crop. This will not continue as the valley settles up, but will never be below 
 its feeding value, which here is from $8.00 to $10.00 per ton in the stack. 
 
 Wheat yields from twenty to forty bushels, and barley from thirty to fifty bushels. 
 These crops may be followed by corn, which can be planted in July, and is mature by the 
 first of November often after mid-October. 
 
 The wheat and barley sown in the fall is often pastured in the winter and harvested 
 early in May. Alfalfa furnishes two cuttings, then a crop of seed, followed by three or 
 four more crops of hay. Milo maize is grown, yielding about four tons of grain. Kaffir 
 corn produces abundantly. 
 
 All this suggests the dairy and the growth of live stock, hogs grown on alfalfa and 
 skimmed milk, and fattened on corn or barley, and range cattle bought and fattened on 
 the farm. The market for such farm products is right at home, and there need be no 
 trouble in disposing of all that can be produced. 
 
 Slight shelter is needed; green feed lasts all the year and mud is almost unknown. 
 Here beyond doubt Egyptian cotton will be profitably grown, the tests being wholly 
 satisfactory in this region. Here too will be extensive groves of oranges and lemons, of 
 figs, also, and orchards of peach, pear and apricot. Here will be fields of asparagus and 
 celery; berries will do well on the Mesa lands, and in the bottom lands it is certain that 
 the date palm will flourish. The Government's date gardens have made this clear, 
 experiments having been conducted at various places for many years. The outcome of this 
 will be a region of farms and orchards, of date plantations and cotton fields, of general 
 farming and intensive farming, of staple crops and high priced crops, transforming a 
 wide area and creating beauty where now is barrenness. 
 
 THE CLIMATE 
 
 What we have said about the Salt River Valley is true of the Yuma Valley. For 
 four months it is hot. A light breeze comes up the river daily from the Gulf which 
 mitigates the heat. That the air is dry; that there are no "muggy days"; that evapora- 
 tion is rapid, cooling the surface of the body, makes it possible to work in the fields 
 
 53 
 
GOVERNMENT I RRIGATION SOUTH ERN PACIFIC 
 
 
 
 
without much discomfort. There are no sunstrokes, no prostrations, no "limp" con- 
 ditions in which one feels parboiled and his clothes stick to him and he swelters, 
 is made impossible by the extreme dryness of the air. 
 
 The body of the year is pleasant, and the winters are almost perfection. There is a 
 little frost at times in the lowlands, but ice and snow are unknown, and as the rainfall 
 does not average three inches in the year, mud is not lying around. 
 
 When tree planting, the growth of orchards and the expansion of green fields have 
 changed the face of the country, and river banks have become avenues and driveways 
 and all the face of the country is changed by cultivation, the region will then be widely 
 known for its superb winter climate and will have its contingent of healthseekers as well 
 as homeseekers, and this in turn will produce tourist hotels and help the growth of the 
 town. We are not speculating; we are not "trading in futures"; the work has begun, 
 and with a magnificent irrigation system, the broad foundation of an intense economic 
 life has been laid, and all the higher forms of industrial and social development are sure 
 to follow in due time. 
 
 THE WORK OF TIME 
 
 There is much to be done yet. The great irrigation system is not yet completed; work 
 is now going on in pushing the great steel syphon under the river bed, and water is yet to 
 be delivered, lands to be selected, cleared and leveled, and a pumping plant installed to 
 deliver water on the uplands; but as soon as the full opening of the project is reached the 
 work of development will be in many hands, and will go on rapidly. Meantime the man 
 who is looking westward for a permanent home will find it to his advantage to be familiar 
 with all the details of the situation, and if he can be on the ground he will command 
 opportunities that will lead on to fortune. 
 
 Imperial Valley 
 California 
 
 THE Colorado Desert will be remembered by all who have come into California by 
 the Sunset Route of the Southern Pacific. One of the most desolate spots on the 
 globe is the gateway to the bloom and the beauty of Southern California, yet 
 perhaps the greatest single example of the triumph of irrigation in our day is seen in this 
 forbidding desert. 
 
 Imperial Valley is the delta of the Colorado River in the extreme southeastern part 
 of the state, and extending over the border into Mexico. Here, on both sides of the 
 line are more than a million acres that probably once formed the bed of the ocean, an 
 extension of what is now known as the Gulf of California. This has been filled up by the 
 vast deposits of the yellow river, the head of the gulf being in the neighborhood of Yuma 
 sixty miles in an air-line from where it is now. It was a daring private enterprise whicl 
 undertook to put water on this land, and would have been an ideal task for the Govern- 
 ment itself. Engineers had long realized that water only was needed to convert this 
 
 55 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTHERN PACIFIC 
 
 Cotton in the Imperial Valley, a new crop that has demonstrated its utility. 
 
arid desert valley into a productive agricultural area, but it was not until January 1st, 
 1902, that surveyors were on the ground mapping out a system of irrigation. One year 
 later 2,000 settlers had arrived. By January 1st, 1904, 70,000 acres were in cultiva- 
 tion ; the settlers had increased to nearly 1 0,000, the railroad, the telegraph and telephone 
 had come in; many homes were building, several towns starting, a National Bank was 
 doing business, and stores were serving the new community. It reads like a tale from 
 the Arabian Nights, but it is absolutely true. 
 
 A GREAT PRODUCTIVE AREA 
 
 Splendid as is the truth of today, it is pale compared with the promise of tomorrow. 
 A great river has been harnessed and brought under control and this makes all the differ- 
 ence between hopeless aridity and human homes and farms, supporting an independent 
 population. Here are now 20,000 people and six towns; 275,000 acres are under culti- 
 vation, and the irrigable area is 700,000 acres. Some of this great area cannot be 
 served by the present system, but will be reached by a high line canal brought down 
 from the Laguna Dam. This is contemplated, and will be constructed when the demand 
 for it becomes urgent. Meantime with water flowing in 1 ,000 miles of canals and 
 laterals; with settlements expanding from the centers and new districts forming; with a 
 great diversity of crops under cultivation and scarcely any product of California soils 
 which will not do well here; with an ample water supply for a much larger area than 
 is now served by the ditches, it is easily seen that the region is destined to support a 
 large population, and the desert, if not becoming a garden has been converted into 
 valuable farms. In 1 906, with but 1 30,000 acres in cultivation, the returns from cattle 
 and hogs were $1,185,000 and from creamery products $273,000; barley $337,000 
 and cantaloupes $95,000, and the desert surface had then hardly been scratched. 
 Today the cultivated area has more than doubled; crops have increased in diversity and 
 in quality, the returns per acre are more, and the wealth of the whole valley is steadily 
 augmenting. Many began with little capital, and are now independent. The attractive 
 farm homes, the ambitious new towns growing in population and increasing in business, 
 the long lines of loaded cars arrd evidences of industrial activity all owe their existence to 
 the waters of the Colorado. Irrigation does transform the desert. 
 
 There are now in that wonderful valley 3947 farms covering 731,520 assessed 
 acres, and the total assessed valuation of the valley is $7,161,382. The value of the 
 products produced this year exceeds $2,000,000, and its development has but just 
 begun. It is wonderfully productive and with its abundant water supply yields crops 
 the year around. The growing season never ends. 
 
 PRODUCTS OF THE VALLEY 
 
 The first uses of the land are generally to grow barley. The land long unstirred 
 responds more rapidly to higher priced crops after a year or two of cultivation. Alfalfa 
 quickly follows barley, and the tremendous growth of this forage plant makes stock 
 raising a prominent industry. Eight tons to the acre is called a low estimate for alfalfa, 
 and this brings usually $10.00 per ton when shipped out of the valley. 
 
 Hogs are fed on barley and alfalfa and 3,000 have been kept on a single farm of 
 320 acres, the bulk of the acreage being in alfalfa. Where the latter grows all the year 
 as here, cattle thrive and the dairy is profitable. Many head of fine stock have been 
 brought into the valley, and creameries have multiplied. 
 
 5? 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTHERN PACIFIC 
 
Cotton has been grown successfully, and a carload recently sliipped to Oakland Cotton 
 Mills was pronounced of excellent quality. It is estimated that 20,000 acres will be 
 planted this year, and a larger acreage is offered. Asparagus has proved profitable and 
 will become a large industry. Oranges are being tried, and have matured fruit of good 
 color and flavor, but it is too soon to determine the adaptation of soil and climate to this 
 exacting fruit. But the orange tree will be widely planted in dooryards, if not grown 
 for commercial uses. 
 
 Fig trees bear readily and early, and grapes are being shipped to New York by the 
 carload. Cantaloupes can be put on the market by the first of June and are of fine 
 quality. 
 
 The date palm may become a large feature in the landscape here, and be extensively 
 grown. The Government date garden is at Mecca in the Colorado Desert, and the 
 experimental planting is full of promise. Deciduous fruits of several kinds will do well, 
 and the early bearing and vigor of fruit trees is phenomenal. Poultry flourish with little 
 care, and great herds of turkeys range the fields and to all intents and purposes care for 
 themselves. 
 
 The eucalyptus will furnish fuel and material for farm implements and for furniture 
 and building. Several varieties grow well and with great rapidity. In the short space 
 of five years or less the farm can have a self-renewing wood lot and the barns, corrals 
 and roads can be well shaded. Cottonwood springs up from slips as do willows. The 
 pepper tree thrives and a little attention to ornamental planting will make this great 
 valley a place to delight the eye. 
 
 This is a prominent feature of the situation, the self-supplying possibilities jot the region. 
 The community is independent, growing all that it consumes save a few articles, as 
 tea, coffee and sugar. 
 
 THE CLIMATIC SIDE 
 
 It is the usual story of the desert great heat for a part of the year but great dryness 
 of the air and rapid evaporation reducing the sensible temperature so that work in the 
 fields goes on at all times. That the heat of summer will be modified by green fields 
 and trees is certain. The traditional heat of the desert is due in part to the absence of 
 vegetation. Winds are hot blowing over hot sands, but are cooled as they blow over 
 miles of grain and hay fields, the heat of the sun being taken up by the foliage of 
 plants and trees. 
 
 There is little rainfall, and the almost rainless winters are not cold, so that vegetation 
 is but little affected and growth goes on all the year. 
 
 It is a land of health. This is the history of arid regions. Life is full of sunshine 
 and this is antiseptic. We learn to live out of doors and to sleep practically in the 
 open. 
 
 This is one of the blessings of irrigation. It makes the desert productive and habitable, 
 and that in turn offers the boon of health to thousands. 
 
 PUBLIC LAND AND LAND VALUES 
 
 The eagerness with which men rushed into the valley and seized the opportunity to 
 get a homestead is seen in the fact that for several years no vacant public land has been 
 available. There will be lands open to entry when water is available for new districts, 
 
 59 
 
GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION SOUTH ERN PACIFIC 
 
from higher sources up the river, and as the present canal system is extended 
 and new districts are formed. But at present land must be bought from private owners 
 at market prices. It is difficult to say what these are. Prices change rapidly. Some 
 rough lands can be bought on the rim of the settlements, and some relinquishments can 
 be bought, but the man who gets Imperial Valley land today at a bargain must be on 
 the ground and wide-awake. 
 
 The towns are growing; schools are provided and churches; the opera house is here 
 and cold storage. There are substantial hotels and banking houses; the railroad that 
 was a branch having its terminus in the valley has pushed on to Yuma and now forms 
 a loop from and to the main line; population is still increasing and this adds to property 
 values. The water supply is ample, is safeguarded by legally acquired right and by 
 substantial protection of the river banks, and the work of the irrigator is secure from 
 abuse from excessive use of water by the great drainage channels on two sides of the 
 valley. The soil shows no development of alkali; drainage into the old flood channels is 
 already established, and those who know this valley best believe that the whole situation 
 is promising, and that the valley has a great future. A new county has been organized, 
 and all the county affairs are transacted at El Centre in the heart of the valley. In every 
 way the foundations have been substantially laid for future prosperity, and the desert is 
 already blossoming with the homes of men. 
 
 We have dwelt upon but a few features, and this simply to show what has been done 
 inside of ten years. The actual results answer all the serious questions which may be 
 asked about desert lands and desert climate and the value of irrigation. While others 
 have been debating it, 20,000 people have come in here, taken up the land, turned on the 
 water, and found in the fertile soil and the equable climate all the elements of a first-class 
 security. Today property is changing hands as in older communities, but at prices which 
 represent great profits over the original investment, while those who pay from $ 1 00 to 
 $200 an acre are confident that the land will speedily pay for itself. 
 
 THE BEST SIDE OF AMERICA 
 
 The worth of the western half of the continent has slowly made its way into con- 
 viction. There were some costly doubts where the region of assured rainfall ceased and 
 the arid lands began, and some costly lessons were learned in the dear school of 
 experience. Three times large regions were occupied and abandoned, settlers fleeing from 
 Kansas and Nebraska in disappointment. But then the secret of dry farming had not 
 been learned; the effect of tree planting had not been proved, and the age of irrigation 
 had not come. Today in the most pronounced regions of drought farther west per- 
 manent settlements are being made, because a scientific agriculture has come in. And it 
 is the worth of and land now ; it is the producing capacity of lands once called 
 worthless, but which had been storing fertility under rainless skies; it is the earning 
 power of this land under irrigation; it is the advantage of having moisture at command, 
 to put it where your crops will need it and when they need it; it is the enlarged and 
 assured crops, the security from rains in the harvest time, from storms that beat down 
 crops and ruin orchards, and from floods that elsewhere drown the fields and wash 
 away the soil, the absence of cold that here leaves winter for productive labor, and 
 turns stock out to board themselves in green pastures; it is the development of a great 
 region rich in natural resources, a region that is the best side of the continent, but the last 
 to be settled because the historic movement has been always westward; it is all this that 
 
 61 
 
GOVERNMENT IR R I G AT I O N SO U T H E R N PACIFIC 
 
 IMPERIAL YAUEY 
 
 Showing Irrigable Lands 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 GULF OF 
 C A L I F O R N I A 
 
is now drawing the attention of the world to, the vast work of the Government in reclaim- 
 ing dry lands to human uses, and calling settlers from every section of the East to till the 
 irrigable valleys of the West. 
 
 And we have written these pages because the situation and advantages are not fully 
 understood; because the superior conditions on the Pacific Coast are not fully under- 
 stood and because the larger features of the work of the Reclamation Service are not 
 apprehended, and the lands for which the Government is providing water have not been 
 given their true setting climatically and geographically, nor the promise of prosperity and 
 of economic greatness in the communities to be established on these irrigated lands fairly 
 presented for the consideration of the homeseeker. We have written for the farmer, for 
 he is the one necessary man, and he will not be slow to take advantage of the situation 
 created for him when he understands that the object is not only to put "the landless man 
 on the manless land," but in numbers sufficient on each project to make an independent 
 community ; that the land is ample security for the investment he is asked to make, and the 
 conditions such that crop failures will be almost unknown; that the Government means a 
 square deal for the plain American citizen, and that a large controlling motiVe here is to 
 create "equality of opportunity" and to enable men to establish homes who might other- 
 wise be unable to employ their energies for the best good of their families and the 
 commonwealth. 
 
 It only remains to ask those who are looking to some one of these Government projects 
 with a view to settlement, to study the statement which the Reclamation Service has 
 prepared, and become familiar with details which we could not well duplicate here. 
 
Any representative of the Southern Pacific Traffic Department noted 
 below will be pleased, on application, to furnish further information 
 about California, including railway rates and service: 
 
 E. O. McCormick, Vice-President San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 Chas. S. Fee, Passenger Traffic Manager : San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 Jas. Horsburgh, Jr., General Passenger Agent San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 R A. Donaldson, Assistant General Passenger Agent San Francisco. Cal. 
 
 H. B. Judah, Assistant General Passenger Agent San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 F. E. Batturs, Assistant General Passenger Agent San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 T. A. Graham, Assistant General Passenger Agent, 600 South Spring St Los Angeles, Cal. 
 
 R. S. Stubbs, Assistant General Passenger Agent Tucson, Ariz. 
 
 Wm. McMurray, General Passenger Agent, Oregon Lines Portland, Ore. 
 
 J. M. Scott, Assistant General Passenger Agent, Oregon Lines Portland, Ore. 
 
 D. E. Burley, General Passenger Agent, Lines East of Sparks Salt Lake City, Utah 
 
 D. S. Spencer, Assistant General Passenger Agent, Lines East of Sparks Salt Lake City, Utah 
 
 T. J. Anderson, General Passenger Agent, G. H. & S. A. Ry Houston, Texas 
 
 Jos. Hellen, General Passenger Agent, T. & N. O. R. R Houston, Texas 
 
 J. H. R. Parsons, General Passenger Agent, M. L. & T. R. R. & S. S. Co New Orleans, La. 
 
 R. S. Stubbs, General Passenger Agent, Arizona Eastern Tucson, Ariz. 
 
 H. Lawton, General Passenger Agent, Sonora Ry., and Southern Pacificof Mexico Guaymas, Mex. 
 
 Geo. F. Jackson, Ass't. Gen Pass. Agent, Sonora Ry., and Southern Pacific of Mexico. . . .Guaymas, Mex. 
 
 R. B. Miller, Traffic Manager, O. & W R R Portland, Ore. 
 
 W. D. Skinner, General Freight and Passenger Agent, O. & W. R. R Seattle, Wash. 
 
 Astoria, Ore. G. W. ROBERTS, Agent, O. R. & N. Co 
 
 Atlanta, Ga. A. J. DUTCHER, General Agent 121 Peachtree Street 
 
 Baltimore, Md. W. B. JOHNSON, Agent Piper Building 
 
 Boston, Mass. J. H. GLYNN, New England Agent 170 Washington Street 
 
 Butte, Mont. F. D. WILSON, D. P. & F Agent, O. R. & N. Co 105 N. Main Street 
 
 Chicago, 111., W. G. NEIMYER, General Agent 120 Jackson Boulevard 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio W H. CONNOR. General Agent 53 East Fourth Street 
 
 Denver, Colo. W. K. MCALLISTER, General Agent ' 313 Railway Exchange Building 
 
 Des Moines, Iowa J. W. TURTLE, Traveling Passenger Agent 313 West Fifth Street 
 
 Detroit, Mich. J. C. FERGUSON, General Agent 11 Fort Street 
 
 El Paso, Texas W. C. MCCORMICK, General Agent, G. H. & S. A. Ry 
 
 Fresno, Cal. E. W. CLAPP, District Passenger and Freight Agent 1013 J Street 
 
 Kansas City, Mo. H. G. KAILL, A. G. P. A 901 Walnut Street 
 
 Lewiston, Idaho C. W. MOUNT, D. F. & P. A , O. R. & N., and O. & W 
 
 Los Angeles, Cal. N. R. MARTIN, District Passenger Agent 600 South Spring Street 
 
 Mexico City, Mex. W. E. BARNES, General Agent Ave. 5 de Mayo 6B 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn. H. F. CARTER, District Passenger Agent 21 S. Third Street 
 
 New York, N. Y. L. H. NUTTING, General Eastern Passenger Agent 1, 366 & 1158 Broadway 
 
 Oakland, Cal. C. M. BURKHALTER, Dist. Pass. & Freight Agent Broadway and 13th Street 
 
 Ogden, Utah E. A. SHEWE, City Agent 2514 Washington Street 
 
 Olympia, Wash. J. C. PERCIVAL, Agent Percivals Dock 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. R. J. Smith, Agent 632 Chestnut Street 
 
 Pittsburg, Pa. G. G. HERRING, General Agent 539 Smithfield Street 
 
 Portland, Ore. C. W. STINGER, City Ticket Agent Third and Washington Streets 
 
 Reno, Nev. J. F. HIXSON, District Passenger and Freight Agent Odd Fellows' Building 
 
 Sacramento, Cal. JOHN C. STONE, District Passenger and Freight Agent 801 K Street 
 
 Salt Lake City, Utah D. R. GRAY, District Passenger and Freight Agent 156 Main Street 
 
 San Diego, Cal. J. R. DOWNS, Commercial Agent 901 Fifth Street 
 
 San Francisco, Cal. A. S. MANN, District Passenger Agent Flood Building 
 
 San Jose, Cal. E. SHILLINGSBURG, District Passenger and Freight Agent 40 E. Santa Clara Street 
 
 Seattle, Wash. E. E. ELLIS, General Agent 608 First Avenue 
 
 Spokane, Wash. W. R. SKEY, Travelling Passenger Agent O. R. & N. Co 603 Sprague Avenue 
 
 St. Louis, Mo. J. G. LOWE, General Agent 902 Olive Street 
 
 Sydney, Australia V. A. SPROUL, Australian Passenger Agent 5 Gresham Street 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y. F. T. BROOKS, New York State Agent 212 W. Washington Street 
 
 Tacoma, Wash. Robt, Lee, Agent Eleventh and Pacific Avenue 
 
 Walla Walla, Wash. R. BURNS, Dis. Frt. and Passenger Agent, O. R. & N., and O. & W 
 
 Washington, D. C. A. J. POSTON, General Agent, Washington-Sunset Route 905 F. St. N. W. 
 
 RUDOLPH FALCK, General European Agent, Amerikahaus, 25, 27 Ferdinand Strasse, Hamburg, Germany; 
 
 49 Leadenhall Street, London, E. C., England; 22 Cockspur Street, London, England; 25 Water Street, 
 Liverpool, England; 118 Wynhaven S. S. Rotterdam Netherlands; 11 Rue Chapelle de Grace Antwerp 
 Belgium; 39 Rue St. Augustin, Paris, France. 
 
 A 247 (5-23-10 20M) 
 
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