AGRICULTURE. 17 



proof has not yet been made. Many of these will doubtless be relin- 

 quished before permanent settlement is effected. Desirable farm 

 lands may be secured at reasonable prices in almost all parts of the 

 valley. These may be either improved tracts or wild or abandoned 

 lands capable of improvement or reclamation. In the newer and less 

 developed sections desirable farm lands, with either gravity or arte- 

 sian water supply, may be secured at from $30 to $60 an acre, depend- 

 ing upon location and improvements. In the Bolder and more highly 

 developed districts the price ranges from $75 to $150 an acre. Exten- 

 sive areas of unproductive lands capable of improvement and recla- 

 mation only at great expense under present conditions, will, however, 

 be put in the way of the careless or uninitiated prospective buyer. 



Recent methods in promoting the sale of lands and colonization em- 

 brace certain unique features not always conducive to permanent and 

 efficient development of agriculture. The usual plan consists first in 

 acquiring a large body of undeveloped or partially improved land, 

 usually previously devoted to grazing, which is subdivided into a 

 number of small tracts, varying from 5 to 10 acres to a quarter section 

 or more in extent, the smaller tracts predominating. After an exten- 

 sive advertising campaign contracts are sold upon a specified date at 

 public auction, designated as a " land drawing," held upon the 

 ground, each contract entitling the buyer to a tract of land designated 

 by number, the buyer to obtain possession upon a predetermined date 

 following sale of contract. Usually but a small deposit is required 

 to be paid down, the balance being due in monthly installments. As 

 a rule, the purchaser has little or no opportunity of learning the loca- 

 tion, character, or extent of the tract for which he is bidding. With 

 each tract is given as a bonus a town lot, some one or more of which 

 may have been augmented in value by more or less attractive improve- 

 ments. The average price paid for contracts has usually been low for 

 the more desirable lands, but inclusion of the undesirable tracts and 

 the system of disposing of the lands by these methods have been sub- 

 jected to severe criticism. 



The most recent operations of this character have been conducted 

 in the vicinity of the town of Moffat during the summer of 1910 by 

 one company controlling some 24,000 acres of land lying mainly west 

 and northeast of Moffat. 



The tracts disposed of ranged in size from 5 to 160 acres, some of 

 which were partially improved with either irrigation ditches, fences, 

 corrals, buildings, or one or more artesian wells. Only a few of the 

 tracts were supplied with actual facilities for irrigation from gravity 

 sources, and the predominating 5-acre tracts were laid out in the form 

 of long, narrow rectangular blocks, without regard to surface con- 

 tour and of awkward shape, to permit irrigation of the tract from a 



