THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



a public hall. The upper floor will be used as a 

 public library, and it is my earnest suggestion that 

 this shall be named Hale Library, in honor of Edward 

 Everett Hale, Boston's great author and divine, to 

 whom I am indebted for a most kindly reception of 



Diagram of the Village of " Home Acres]" and surrounding 

 " Plymouth Farms." 



the Plymouth idea, as well as of the larger plans for 

 the irrigation propaganda. When I explained Ply- 

 mouth to Dr. Hale he called in his good wife to testify 

 that she had been compelled to resist his impulse to 

 emigrate once in each six months for forty years. His 

 great heart, at least, will be with us in the new Ply- 

 mouth. 



Home Acres should have good side-walks and 

 streets. It is with a good deal of timidity that I break 

 the news that we propose to have the farm houses of 

 Plymouth Colony lighted by electricity, provided 

 colonists will "lend a hand," to quote the famous 

 phrase of Dr. Hale. Power can be provided by build- 

 ing a short but wide canal, and the colonists can do it 

 by their common labor during a few weeks in the 

 autumn, when they have little else to do. We assume 

 that the plant would cost, complete, not more than 

 f 10,000, and that an annual charge of $10 per family 

 would supply houses with all the light they could use, 

 as well as power for domestic purposes, such as 

 running sewing machines. It would also furnish light 

 for streets, stores, public buildings, etc. Electricity 

 is to play a most important part in the evolution of 

 our new colonial life. Later colonies will doubtless 

 surpass Plymouth in this regard, but we must have 

 electric light in the houses. I hate coal oil ! 



On such a social system as that of Plymouth there 

 is simply no reason why farmers and their families 

 should not enjoy all the good things of town life, 

 with a minimum of its drawbacks. Think of winter 

 in the new Plymouth ! The barns and store-houses 

 bursting with the products of prosperous husbandry; 

 ample feed for the fowls and animals of the barn 

 yard ; the best of literature and current newspapers 

 and periodicals available at the library, with lectures 

 and entertainments in the Village Hall; and best 

 of all, the long evenings with our dear ones at our 

 own sovereign firesides! 



There is not a feature of the industrial and social 

 systems outlined which has not been tried and vindi- 

 cated by experience somewhere. Plymouth is only 

 new in bringing into association in one colony the 

 best features of various experiences, and in attempt- 

 ing to bring within the reach of plain, average people 

 the advantages of our modern civilization. There 



may be those who doubt the wisdom of trying to 

 realize so high an ideal. But the thing must be done, 

 because civilization pleads for progress because 

 humanity cries aloud for more room in which to build 

 its habitations. Plymouth is a necessity. And it is 

 with the utmost gratification that I inform the friends 

 of the West that it is on the highroad to success. 

 Among the many people who have applied for 

 membership not one has talked about profits per 

 acre, but all have responded heartily to the idea of 

 individual independence and the highest order of 

 social conditions. Men are hungry for these things, 

 and Arid America is bursting with raw material of 

 the food which can satisfy their appetite for some- 

 thing better. 



II.-THE CHOSEN VALLEY. 



Mary Halleck Foote, the distinguished novelist, 

 who, by the way, is a resident of Southern Idaho, re- 

 cently published a charming story, entitled "The 

 Chosen Valley." The expression applies very hap- 



A Branch of Prunes. 

 From a Photo jraph taken in an Orchard in Payette Valley, Idaho. 



