' t^^SX 



PUBLISHER'S DEPARTMENT. 



CIVILIZING A SECTION OF LAND. 



HOW A COLONY OF THIRTY-TWO FAMILIES MAY OBTAIN ALL THE ADVANTAGES OF 



TOWN LIFE IN THE COUNTRY. 



THE experience of the past twenty years has 

 taught us something about the natural laws of 

 settlement in arid countries. One thing that 

 has been learned is the fact that settlement should be 

 undertaken in groups or colonies, rather than by in- 

 dividual families. The peculiar conditions or the 

 arid regions make the colonial policy not only at- 

 tractive, but almost imperative. This is desirable 

 not only that the benefits of neighborhood associa- 

 tions may be secured, but also that economy may be 

 realized in administering canal systems. Then, too, 

 there is an essential difference in the natural condi- 

 tions of the humid and the arid region. Isolation 

 was not necessarily an evil on the prairies of Illinois 

 in the early days, because all the problems presented 

 were the old, familiar problems of farming as every- 

 where known and understood. But farming by irri- 

 gation is a new phase of agriculture, and for many 

 reasons it is more successfully undertaken by colo- 

 nies than by individuals. 



SOME MODERN EXAMPLES. 



The wise man makes his plans by a study of ex- 

 perience and then improves as much as possible 

 upon his model. Three examples of comparatively 

 modern irrigation development, familiar to all read- 

 ers of this journal because so often cited, are Greeley, 

 Colo., Riverside, Cal., and the Mormon settlements 

 of Utah. Greeley was founded and developed under 

 the inspiration of the famous editor of the New York 

 Tribune. N. C. Meeker was chosen as the leader 

 and he organized a group of colonists. They went 

 together into the valley of the Cache la Poudre in 

 Colorado and began the work of reclaiming the 

 desert. They worked in the true colonial spirit, and 

 quickly developed an industrial policy which has led 

 to wonderful prosperity. Their civic institutions are 

 of the best and their agricultural methods have given 

 the colony a worthy fame. 



Riverside is the most famous of the several groups 

 of orange colonies in Southern California. It was 

 founded by Judge North, then of Tennessee, who 

 gathered a group of earnest, hopeful men about him 

 and went out to conquer the desert. They, too, 

 worked in the spirit of the Pilgrim Fathers, who had 

 undertaken to found new institutions in a new land, 

 and Riverside has become the type of its class. 



What the Mormons have done in Utah it was only 

 possible to do by groups of families rather than as 

 individuals. There is a certain subtle element in the 

 colony idea that is wholly absent from the plan of in- 

 dividual settlement. There is a unity of purpose, a 

 fellowship and comradeship, a power of association 

 which works out a high order of results. The best 

 possibilities of this spirit have been illustrated where 

 the irrigation canal is the physical bond of union. 



THE COLONIES IN KERN DELTA. 



The management of the Kern County Land Com- 

 pany has recognized this principle from the begin- 

 ning and adopted it as the central idea in its plan of 



242 



settlement. It started with the Rosedale colony and 

 followed it with Union Avenue, Mountain View and 

 Lerdo. Rosedale was settled largely with English 

 colonists. The company laid out 12,000 acres in 

 twenty acre farms, made broad avenues, conducted 

 the water to the highest point on each farm, built a 

 commodious hotel, and liberally encouraged the 

 making of schools and churches. That was four 

 years ago. That is a long time in the progressive 

 West, and this company is undertaking to do more 

 for its settlers in 1894 than it did in 1890. 



THE VERY LATEST IN COLONIES. 



The Kern County Land Company now has a plan 

 which offers remarkable advantages to colonies of 

 thirty-two families. Such a group may select a sec- 

 tion of land (640 acres) out of the 400,000 acres under 

 the company's great canal system, and it will be put 

 into attractive condition for settlement. First, the 

 section will be divided into twenty-acre lots. Ave- 

 nues sixty feet in width and having a total length of a 

 trifle over three miles, will be laid through and across 

 the tract upon a unique plan. Then the exterior 

 lines of the section will be fenced with a prime stock, 

 rabbit-proof fence, made by setting posts eight feet 

 apart, and, beginning at the top, putting thereon two 

 strands of barbed-wire, then a fencing board and 

 wire netting thirty-six inches in width. At each in- 



A. Pump plant and tank. B. Automatic gates. 



. Water main. 



Stock and rabbit-proof fence on exterior lines. Irrigation 

 ditches as contours require. Trees as indicated, to lie on both 

 sides of all interior avenues. 



tersection of an avenue there will be an automatic 

 gate, opening and shutting with the impact of a car- 

 riage wheel. The avenues will be seeded to alfalfa 



