RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS NEWELL. 171 



curing a home for themselves and for their children; one in which 

 the family may be supported ; and one where with the growth of the 

 country and increased land values, it will be possible for an in- 

 creasing number of families to maintain themselves upon subdi- 

 visions of the original farms. 



Thus far the wisdom of the framers of the act has been demon- 

 strated, and it has been shown that, with wise administration, the 

 law is proving of inestimable value to the States and to the Nation. 

 From time to time, it is necessary to make improvements or changes 

 in the organic law, such as are inseparable with growth, but as a 

 whole this act has proved remarkably complete. 



CHARACTER OF SETTLERS. 



The character of the citizens who have taken up lands on these 

 projects under terms of the homestead act, or have purchased them 

 from the original occupants, is as varied as can well be imagined. 

 Characterizing them as a whole, it may be said that they include 

 the more energetic and venturesome part of the population, such 

 as largely make up all pioneer communities; men who have the 

 desire for the novelty and for change deeply planted in their charac- 

 ter, who are wearied of the monotony of the old familiar life, and are 

 attracted by the remote and unknown. Among them are many me- 

 chanics, shopkeepers, and clerks, who have had a longing to get 

 into the open air, and who through energy and self-denial have saved 

 a little money. Others are young farmers who can not find land 

 near the old home and who wish to try their fortunes in the West. 

 Others who come from nearer irrigated States, where the price of 

 land has increased rapidly, and by selling the old farm for a high 

 j>rice they can obtain land equally as good at far less cost. 



The would-be irrigators come from every part of the civilized 

 earth but are mainly Americans. There are some men of the Latin 

 races, Spanish and Italians, also Germans and the northern races, 

 English, and Irish, a mingling of the white men of every variety 

 of religious belief and of j)olitical affiliations. 



As might be imagined, the population in the first few years is 

 largely transitional. The same qualities which bring a man to a 

 project tend to make him leave it. He has heard of all the good 

 things, has read the roseate descriptions of irrigation, its benefits, 

 but the drawbacks have never been brought to his attention. It is 

 hardly to be wondered that many of the people who take up irriga- 

 tion for the first time suddenly awake to the fact that it is not wholly 

 a matter of sunshine and flowers, and that for success energy, skill, 

 and thrift are required. In order to get well started on an irrigated 



