266 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



even more so. If 160 acres or more of land, located 

 near the the center of a ranch of 2,000 to 5,000 acres, 

 can be thoroughly irrigated, and a hamlet of 10 to 20 

 families located upon or immediately adjoining such 

 irrigated tract, allowing 5 to 10 acres of irrigated land 

 to each family, not only could the irrigated land be 

 fully utilized and the benefits distributed among all 

 the families in such hamlet or village, but the entire 

 ranch would be or could be utilized for dry farming 

 and stock raising, and the support of such families 

 during seasons of extreme drouth and times of extra- 

 ordinary depression in the live stock market would 

 be assured. 



Fourth. The principal, and we think the strongest 

 feature, of Co-operative Irrigation and the Colony 

 Plan is the following : Fully 50 per cent, of the lands 

 in some of the counties of southwestern Kansas are 

 now owned or controlled by non-residents and mort- 

 gage and Jand corporations, the titles having been 

 acquired largely by mortgage foreclosure. We think 

 it is safe to estimate that not more than 25 per cent, 

 of the lands, and in a few of the counties of south- 

 western Kansas not even 10 per cent, of the farms 

 are actually owned and cultivated by the occupants. 

 The problem of repopulating these farms is a serious 

 one. The ordinary method of selling these lands on 

 time, the purchaser depending on the profits of the 

 farms to meet future payments of purchase money, 

 will, we think, in the light of past experience prove a 

 failure, and we are convinced that some greater in- 

 ducement than the prospect of raising an immense 

 crop of wheat for a very low price and with an occa- 

 sional dry season, which renders even the wheat crop 

 a failure and leaves the settler bankrupt, must be 

 held out, and to some extent demonstrated before 

 anything like active immigration can be secured for 

 this section of the State, and we have confidence in 

 the colony plan of irrigation as the nearest practical 

 solution of the question of repopulating a number of 

 the southwestern counties of Kansas, and suggest the 

 following : 



Let favorable sites be selected by the corporations 

 having large land holdings in this section of the State; 

 let these sites, which should consist of tracts not less 

 than 1 60 acres in area, be thoroughly irrigated by any 

 or all of the methods heretofore suggested; let them 

 colonize ten to twenty families of Germans, Swedes, 

 Menonites, or even Americans, especially those 

 having a common religious belief, such as Dunkards, 

 Quakers, etc., upon or adjacent to one of the irrigated 

 racts, allowing five to twenty acres of well irrigated 

 land to each family. Here they can raise garden 

 vegtables, fruits, potatoes and other root crops for 

 home consumption and for market, and on the sur- 

 rounding farms, within a radius of one to five miles, 

 the colonists could, by dry farming, except in years 



of extreme drouth, produce good crops of wheat, 

 rye, barley, broom corn, sorghum, millet and other 

 forage crops. 



The social, educational and religious advantages of 

 such colonies over those which now exist in many 

 parts of southwestern Kansas need no comment. 

 The practical working of such cooperative or 

 partnership colonies has many examples throughout 

 the United States. Such a plan is only in the re- 

 motest sense, if at all, socialistic or communistic 

 private ownership in lands and personal property, 

 and individual enterprise need not be in any way 

 curtailed; and so far as the writer has been able to in- 

 vestigate Co-operative Irrigation and the Colony Plan 

 has many features worthy of commendation and few 

 which merit criticism. 



A COLONY IN CONTRA COSTA. 



The San Francisco Chronicle states that a railroad 

 contractor connected with the Moraga ranch and 

 California and Nevada railroad has returned from 

 Chicago where he completed the establishment of an 

 agency for the Moraga ranch. The entire tract, con- 

 sisting of 13,605 acres, is to be cut up for small farms. 

 About 2,000 acres, are now ready for the market in 

 subdivisions of from five to fifty acres. A branch of 

 the California and Nevada railroad is to be extended 

 from Bryant five miles into the tract. On this line 

 a town site, known as Glorietta, has been laid out. 

 This town is on the 2,000 acres ready for market. A 

 small outfit is now at work finishing up wagon roads 

 and putting all the land, both town and farm sites, 

 into shape for immediate improvement. It is a beau- 

 tiful tract, fertile, well watered and abounding in 

 charming building sites for country homes, and when 

 rendered easily accessible for travel, and the way 

 opened to the markets of Oakland and San Francisco, 

 it will soon be filled with a thrifty population. Its 

 settlement will greatly benefit the county generally. 



The International Homestead Company, a corpor- 

 ation composed of Chicago capitalists, has just pur- 

 chased a tract of 2,200 acres of land on the Santa 

 F Railway at Irvington, Cal., about twelve miles 

 northwest of San Bernardino, the consideration being 

 $80,000. It is said to be the intention of the new 

 owners to divide the tract into small parcels and 

 locate on it a colony of Eastern people. 



The Petaluma Courier has this to say about a colony 

 recently established between Petaluma and Santa 

 Rosa: "Wilfred Page of the Cqtati ranch reports 

 that the property is fast being improved by new- 

 comers who are buying small lots of land and estab- 

 lishing themselves in comfortable homes. They are 

 people of a good class who will make very desirable 

 citizens, and they are all starting in with the evident 

 intention of being satisfied with making a living.'' 



