THE BOOMERS AND THE BOOMEES 21 



rado, Idaho and Montana. Even the nearby Virginias 

 were exploited. Wonderful offers were made to intend- 

 ing investors : their orchards would be planted and cared 

 for for five years at a charge included in the purchase 

 price, and then all they would have to do would be to 

 live forever on the wonderful income which would be 

 secured. Stories of the realization of five hundred or 

 one thousand dollars per acre, or even more, were scat- 

 tered abroad to inflame the desire and obscure the judg- 

 ment of persons with small means. 



The number of well intentioned persons who, having 

 accumulated a few thousand dollars, were led to sacri- 

 fice it all and to be brought to the door of starvation 

 in their old age, would be phenomenally large if all the 

 names of the victims could be collected. Unfortunately 

 those who have lost everything in ventures of this kind 

 are prone to keep the matter quiet, while an investor 

 who has made money announces it with trumpets from 

 the housetops. 



The irrigable lands also are largely in the same cate- 

 gory. Every possible town site in the desert was pre- 

 empted by promoters who relied upon sales of the desert 

 lands to secure the funds for development. The re- 

 markable work which is being done in the reclamation 

 service, winning thousands of acres of land from the 

 desert to the garden, becomes the basis of a campaign 

 to induce intending investors to buy these irrigated 

 lands long before a drop of water is in sight. Even 

 where water was available, the conditions which pre- 

 vailed were so distorted as to lead to the investment 

 of the little all of the new farmer in a manner whereby 

 absolute failure was inevitable. It would be interest- 

 ing if the personal stories of these deceptions could be 

 widely distributed, but, as a rule, those who have suf- 



