274 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



property. It demands little more than the evidence 

 of good faith on the part of the settler. 



We say that these colonies present a great field for 

 the average man because the price of land is reason- 

 able and a perpetual water right accompanies it, 

 while the annual charge for water is intended to be 

 no higher than is required to meet the cost of main- 

 tenance. The man who possesses more than the 

 average means will perhaps desire to pay S200 to 

 $400 per acre and locate in a neighborhood which he 

 will regard as more exclusive. The man who has no 

 means at all will locate where he can take land from 

 the government and meet his payments from his 

 early crops. The average man will prefer to go 

 where land and water can be obtained on reasonable 

 terms, where the irrigation system is to-day com- 

 plete, where the people he is dealing with are able to 

 carry out their programme of development without 

 interruption, and where the settler will be surrounded 

 by people who desire to build up their fortune by in- 

 dustry and thrift. All these requirements are met 

 to a remarkable degree by the conditions existing in 

 Kern county. 



There is another great advantage which settlers of 

 to-day and the future will have in Kern county. 

 They will have the benefit of the rich and suggestive 

 experience of thousands who have gone before them 

 as California colonists. They will avoid their mistakes 

 and profit alike by thefr successes and their failures. 

 For instance, the people of Fresno county will teach 

 them that there is such a thing as producing too 

 many raisins; that there is such a thing as over 

 watering their lands; that there is such a thing as 

 spoiling the market by over shrewdness. The mis- 

 takes of Fresno county will not be repeated in the 

 Kern Delta. On the other hand, the people of the 

 San Bernardino valley will teach the new settlers 

 that the exclusive production of oranges is an econo- 

 mic absurdity. So on every hand the settler of 1894 

 and all the years of the future will benefit by the 

 experience of those who preceded them in the fertile 

 and picturesque valleys of California. The great 

 lesson which is being taught all over California, and 

 for that matter all over the world, is that the farmer 

 should produce what he consumes and thus guarantee 

 the independence of his family, while adjusting his 

 surplus production to the character of his land and 

 market. This is the subject of profound study to-day, 

 and nowhere more so than on the broad acres watered 

 by the river Kern. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE is constantly receiving evi- 

 dences of aroused interest in the subject of coloniza- 

 tion. On every hand plans for the making of new 

 colonies are broached. It occurs to the writer that 

 no other place presents such attractions to those who 

 are organizing undertakings of this nature as_Kern 



county. While this company has dealt mainly with 

 individual settlers, we are reminded by the fact that 

 they recently disposed of a body of 1,100 acres that 

 they would be willing to deal in this way with organ- 

 ized part.es of colonists. The promotion -of col- 

 onization is at once the most profitable and inspiring 

 task open to enterprising men to-day. The man 

 who engages in it successfully will do a good thing 

 for those who buy land of him, a good thing for the 

 country, and a very good thing for himself. There 

 are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of neighborhoods, 

 in the Mississippi valley, in the Ohio basin and in the 

 northeastern and southern states where a man, hav- 

 ing the confidence of the local public, could easily 

 organize parties of colonists to-day. They could 

 select desirable tracts in Kern Delta, map out his 

 scheme of attractive farming, make up parties of 

 homeseekers, and soon start a steady stream of peo- 

 ple in the right direction. Parties desiring to avail 

 themselves of an opportunity of that sort would do 

 well to correspond with the Kern County Land Com- 

 pany. 



This company pays more attention to its literature 

 than almost any other enterprise Intending settlers 

 can obtain material illustrating the irrigation system, 

 the location and character of the lands, the kind of 

 homes that are generally built and the cost of build- 

 ing them, the various crops raised, including cost of 

 production, selling prices and profits and everything 

 else which the settler desires to know. Address 

 S. W. Fergusson, agent, Bakersfield, Cal., or Chicago 

 office, Chamber of Commerce building. 



W. W. MONTAGUE & CO. 



MANUFACTURERS OF ALL SIZES 



Irrigating, Mining, Power Plants, 



Artesian Wells, Water Works, 



Town and Farm Supply. 



SINGLE AND DOUBLE RIVETED. 



WATER PIPE 



Made in Sections of any Length Desired 

 13 to 28 Feet. 



The Cut on the left shows a Section of Five joints 



of pipe. 

 DOUBLE RIVETED IN LATERAL SEAMS. 



Particular attention given to Coating Pipe with 

 our "EUREKA.'' Composition, a Special Mixture 

 Containing Jfo Coal Tar. Iron Coated with this 

 Composition is Bust-Proof and Kendered Imper- 

 vious to the Alkalies of the Earth, Is Practically 

 Indestructible. 



Iron Cut, Punched and formed for Making pipe on the 

 Ground Where Replied, 



309-317 Market St., San Francisco, Cal, 



