COLONY BUILDING. 



127 



dred times in many places, and the man who travels 

 in the right direction will find object lessons by the 

 thousands to fully convince him of the truthfulness of 

 the statement here made. 



This is an age of cooperation. Nearly every great 

 business, social or political enterprise, is the result of 

 cooperative efforts toward a definite end. The present 

 conditions of life are such that individual effort along 

 nearly all lines is comparatively unavailing, especially 

 if met by unorganized opposition. It has thus come 

 about that the isolated individual farmer is at the 

 greatest disadvantage in the struggle for supremacy. 

 As a matter of fact it has become with him largely a 

 mere struggle for existence. That this condition has 

 not come about through lack of honest effort or in- 

 telligence is obvious to thinking men; but has come 

 to be the result of preexisting conditions largely ne- 

 cessitated by the area of land required for the decent 

 support of a family. 



The best possible conditions flowing out of the 

 culture of the soil result from the careful, scientific 

 cultivation of a small acreage. The smaller this acre- 

 age is consistent with the purposes of its tillage, the 

 better for the individual, the family and the State- 

 Of course, the division of land under unwise law or 

 custom may be carried too far, as in France under the 

 law of 1793, requiring land owners to divide their 

 estates at death equally among their heirs. But the 

 tendency in the United States has been rather in the 

 opposite direction, and enormous land holdings in 

 many parts of the country are to-day a bitter foe to 

 progress and to the prosperity of the masses. 



Right here in the arid region is the place to check 

 this great evil, and by a system of just and equitable 

 laws forever prevent the fish-like swallowing of the 

 small landholder by the great one. Careful investiga- 

 tion has led the writer to the conclusion that through- 

 out a large part of the arid region, forty acres should 

 be the limit of the average farmstead. In many parts 

 where climatic conditions are specially favorable, it 

 might be safely reduced to twenty acres. All over 

 California are found localities where a ten-acre farm 

 or orchard is able to support a family in comfort, and 

 there are many individual instances wherein five acres 

 have been found sufficient for the needs of a refined 

 family. 



In this direction the action of the irrigation con- 

 vention lately held at Los Angeles, Cal., cannot be too 

 highly commended. The sense of that convention 

 was that the amount of land to be taken up by set- 

 tlers under the homestead law, in the irrigated sec- 

 tions of the arid belt, be restricted to small holdings. 

 In cases of governmental reclamation of arid districts, 

 the law might well be far less liberal in respect to 

 acres to be entered than at present. If the develop- 

 ment be accomplished by private or corporate enter- 



prise and capital, every restriction limiting the holding 

 to a small area should be made which might be con- 

 sistent with the best interests of the particular section. 



To prevent large land holdings should be the aim 

 not only of the government, but of any and all per- 

 sons concerned in the development of the arid 

 region for the best interests of the American people. 



But to return to the small colonial settlement. 

 Nothing need be easier, in the way of improving and 

 building up waste places, than to plant in favorable 

 localities small settlements of intelligent, industrious 

 people, according to some pre-arranged plan, and 

 under the intelligent direction of one or more compe- 

 tent persons interested pecuniarily, or otherwise, in 

 the highest success of such enterprises. 



The first step is, of course, to secure an abundant 

 water supply, by storage reservoirs or otherwise, and, 

 if necessary, to subordinate other considerations to 

 this prime necessity. With abundance of water un- 

 der easy control, nearly any of the soils of the slightly 

 sloping plains will be found able to produce abun- 

 dantly. A settlement or colony may thus be estab- 

 lished almost anywhere, due regard being had to the 

 needs of transportation. ' Such communities, estab- 

 lished with forethought, by honest and able promot- 

 ers, may soon become nearly self-sustaining, if proper 

 attention be given to local manufactures, a matter 

 which has been too often neglected in most of the 

 colonial settlements in California, and elsewhere in 

 the far West. 



In some future issue a definite plan for a proposed 

 colony, in an irrigable section of the arid West, maybe 

 given, but for the present general reference only is 

 made to the entire feasibility and unquestioned bene- 

 fits of the colonial system of settling a new country. 

 The theme is an inspiring one, and a contemplation 

 of the beneficent and far-reaching results of proper 

 effort in that direction should fill every American 

 bosom with hope and courage. Whatever may be 

 said by those who have not given this great problem 

 careful consideration, the lands of the United States, 

 now arid and desolate, are certainly destined to 

 become the theater of the highest development of 

 rural industry. These mountain fastness and desert 

 plains are destined to become the happy dwelling 

 places of millions of patriotic Americans, dwelling 

 contentedly in hundreds of tree-embroidered villages, 

 having all the healthfulness of the country, and most 

 of the conveniences and luxuries of the city. 



The loftiest ideals of rural life are not only possible 

 here, but readily attainable. Wise legislation and 

 honest exploitation alone are required to plant in the 

 arid West the foundations of a civilization, which shall 

 endure as an object lesson and ultimate goal for the 

 guidance and encouragement of struggling mankind 

 in all countries. 



