54 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



less than 80 acres, to families who will become actual 

 settlers at an early date. The work is being directed by 

 men who were largely responsible for the location of 

 Scandinavians in Minnesota, the Dakotas and other 

 parts of the old Northwest during the past twenty 

 years. These leading men say they have discovered 

 that irrigated land is the land of the future. They 

 are actually moving considerable bodies of farmers 

 from the best portions of Minnesota to the new State 

 of Idaho. Their convincing argument is the fact that 

 crop failure is impossible under a good system of ir- 

 rigation, and that one acre in Idaho will produce 

 more wheat, year in and year out, than four acres in 

 the best part of Minnesota. The shrewd Scandinavian 

 instantly concludes that the place for his children is 

 in the irrigation empire, and that the time to purchase 

 is before the pressure of settlement becomes greater. 

 Here is more evidence to convince us that it is only 

 necessary for the people to learn the truth in order to 

 find settlers in abundance for our irrigated lands. 

 The logic of irrigation is unanswerable, but it is neces- 

 sary to have it properly stated to ears that will listen. 



Mr. I. F. Rocho has proven to be one of 

 Mr. Rocho's . ./ , . , , 



Good Work the hard-working members of the Na- 

 in Colorado. tional Executive Committee. Heavy re- 

 sponsibilities rest upon him in view of the fact that 

 the coming congress was located in his State, a fact 

 for which he is himself largely responsible. The 

 work of organizing public sentiment, of assisting in 

 perfecting plans for the congress and of directing 

 the labors of the Colorado Commission, have fur- 

 nished very ample employment for Mr. Rocho this 

 summer, and compelled him to make many sacrifices 

 for the cause. We are pleased to say that the gentle- 

 man seems to be quite equal to the tasks imposed 

 upon him. It is understood that Mr. Rocho's friends 

 are urging him as an exceedingly available candidate 

 for Auditor of State at the hands of the Populist 

 convention in September. The friends of irrigation 

 throughout the West would be pleased to see this high 

 honor conferred upon him. What they have seen of 

 fois capacity and fidelity to duty leads them to believe 

 that he would reflect credit upon his party and State. 



The Pro- Two great staples of the earth are wheat 



Queers of and corn. In 1893 the vast area of 34,- 

 Wheat and .__ . , , , . , 



Corn. b29,41o acres was employed in the pro- 

 duction of wheat and the vast area of 72,036,131 

 acres in the production of corn. According to the 

 Department of Agriculture the men who cultivated 

 these areas received for their corn a gross return of 

 $8.21 per acre and for their wheat $6.16 per acre. 

 What did it cost them to raise an acre of wheat and 

 an acre of corn? The Department of Agriculture 

 lately presented a summary derived from the indi- 

 vidual estimates of over 25,000 wheat growers and 

 28,000 corn growers in various parts of the country 



giving the average cost of production. Four thousand 

 experts were also called in and gave the results of 

 their observations and calculations; the net result of all 

 of which was to fix the cost of producing wheat in the 

 United States at 811.69 per acre, and that of corn at 

 811.71 per acre. If we allow that the feed and manu- 

 rial value of cornstalks may be worth say 83.50 per 

 acre above cost of handling, we shall find that the 

 corn crop of last year just paid expenses, including 

 land rental, which the Department put at 83.03 per 

 acre. But allowing the same value to wheat straw per 

 acre as to cornstalks, we find that the net cost of the 

 wheat crop of 1893 was 88.19 per acre, and its net 

 value at the farm 86.16 per acre. That is to say, the 

 farmers of the United States produced last year 34,- 

 629,418 acres of wheat at a loss 863,397,000. While 

 this estimate of the Department included a charge for 

 land rental, it is obvious that even though most wheat 

 growers may own the land upon which their crops are 

 produced, in estimating the gain or loss of the year a 

 rental for land, equivalent to interest upon its present 

 value, should be charged. It must be confessed that 

 these figures present a startling condition which calls 

 for prompt and decisive remedies. It is entirely clear 

 that such a state of things cannot long prevail without 

 bringing irretrievable disaster upon our farming inter- 

 ests. It is true that the present low prices of wheat 

 emphasize the situation somewhat, and ; t has not 

 been previously so entirely unsatisfactory. Never- 

 theless, the farmers are now standing face to face with 

 a problem that demands an early solution. 



Is there any remedy which farmers them- 

 A Possible . - ' r - 



Remedy for selves can apply? One California con- 



I<ow Prices. tr jb utor> W. C. Fitzsimmons, makes the 

 following suggestion: " Now let us suppose that our 

 farmers cease to struggle with Indian ryots and 

 Egyptian fellaheen in the European wheat markets 

 and decline to raise wheat for export. Let the wheat 

 areas be cut down one-half to seventeen million 

 acres or thereabouts which could easily be accom- 

 plished, each farmer decreasing his acreage at least 

 fifty per cent. A little extra care and labor bestowed 

 upon this reduced acreage could, and should, bring 

 up the average yield to say 18 bushels per acre, 

 which would make a crop of 300,000,000 bushels, or 

 enough for our home supply without any surplus foi 

 export. The moment we cease to export wheat, the 

 price of foreign wheat in the European markets is 

 bound to rise, since the available surplus in the world 

 would, for a time at least, be greatly curtailed. Not 

 only, therefore, would our farmers reap the benefit of 

 such inevitable rise in values, but, assuming the Mc- 

 Kinley tariff of 25 cents a bushel on foreign wheat to 

 stand, that amount would be also added to the value 

 of every bushel of wheat produced in the United 

 States. Assuming that a rise in price of only ten 



