DEMONSTRATION FARMS IN THE ARID REGION. 



IT is within the power of the practical irrigators of 

 our Western States and Territories to furnish the 

 one conclusive argument which is required to 

 convince the American people of the capabilities of 

 the arid region for the support of a population on a 

 prosperous basis. To do this is a duty which they 

 owe to themselves and to their own local communi- 

 ties, not less than to the West and to the country. 



Those who have not seen the arid region, and those 

 who have seen it only from the car window, regard it 

 as little better than a hopeless waste. When they 

 are confronted with the successful experience of a 

 community, here and there, thev generally choose to 

 regard it as an isolated instance which proves noth- 

 ing as to Western America as a whole. The per- 

 verseness of popular opinion on this point is a stern 

 fact, with which the champions of irrigation progress 

 are constantly contending in the benighted East. 

 Progress is being made in the work of converting the 

 people in spite of this obstacle, but such a living ar- 

 gument as our irrigators might furnish, in at least a 

 dozen States and Territories, would accomplish more 

 for the cause in one year than all the magazines, 

 books and speeches can do in ten years. 



SMALL FARMS AND INDEPENDENCE. 



The thing that we are trying to prove to the Amer- 

 ican people is this: That there are hundreds of val- 

 leys in Arid America susceptible of irrigation from 

 waters readily available, where families of average 

 industry and intelligence may win a generous living, 

 by producing what they consume, on farms ranging 

 from twenty to forty acres. In making this claim we 

 are confronted by the statement that men who are 

 now farming 1,000 acres in wheat are getting poorer 

 each year, while in other parts of the West settlers 

 who have recently gone into the country are calling 

 upon the public to be saved from starvation. Both 

 of these statements are grim realities, but they 

 merely prove the truth of what is claimed for the 

 small, irrigated farm. Men are starving to death in 

 the semi-arid region not because they irrigate, but 

 because they do not; the wheat-farmer is getting 

 poorer because he has a big farm instead of a little 

 one, and because he raises almost nothing except one 

 staple product, and raises that in competition with 

 the servile labor of Egypt and India, instead of di- 

 versifying his products to meet the needs of his fam- 

 ily's consumption. These facts are perfectly plain, 

 too, but the great American public sees only the 

 price of wheat in one place, and the starving farmers 

 in the other, and is just a trifle incredulous about the 

 perfectly truthful and logical explanation that is of- 

 fered by the friends of the small, irrigated farm. 



FORM "INDEPENDENCE LEAGUES.'' 



In every valley of Arid America where irrigation 

 and settlement have made a beginning, there should 

 be formed this spring an Independence League. Its 

 object should be to demonstrate, within the next six 

 months, that in each of these valleys a small farm, 

 when well irrigated and intensively cultivated, will 

 produce the variety of products necessary to the 

 generous support of a family, with the exception of 

 tea, coffee and the spices. Wherever this can be 

 done the people have the raw material of industrial 

 independence. Millions of good people in Eastern 

 States and foreign countries are hungry for a chance 



to convert this raw material into the manufactured 

 article known as civilization. 



LZjWHAT "INDEPENDENCE LEAGUES'" CAN DO. 



The Independence Leagues can each create a 

 demonstration farm, which will forever prove the 

 case for the particular valley or district in which it is 

 located. We suggest that wherever this article is 

 read and approved, leading citizens call the people 

 together and form an organization. Let them rent 

 or borrow a tract of irrigated land as near the town 

 as possible, and of such size as they think best for a 

 representative farm unit. In Southern California and 

 Southern Arizona it might well be ten acres; in the 

 intermountain country twenty acres would be better; 

 and in Northern latitudes, like Montana, or high alti- 

 tudes, like Wyoming or Nevada, forty acres, would 

 be more fairly representative. This small farm should 

 be at once brought into cultivation at the hands of a 

 first-class man, and made to produce the greatest 

 possible variety of garden and field crops, together 

 with meat and dairy products. Of course, orchard 

 fruits cannot be brought to maturity, but from the 

 older places in the neighborhood the horticultural 

 possibilities may be abundantly proven. 



RESULTS OF THE DEMONSTRATION FARMS. 



Wherever this plan is adopted the people will be 

 able to prove next fall just what can be done with a 

 small farm under a system of diversified industry. 

 They will have a wonderful exhibit of actual results. 

 A few years ago we all talked about the wonderful 

 profits per acre that could be realized from this and 

 that thing. That day is passed, we hope, forever. A 

 period of hard times has taken the nonsense out of 

 the public, East as well as West. Everybody now 

 understands that it is a physical necessity to get a 

 living first and get rich afterward. The destiny of 

 Arid America is to furnish a field where millions can 

 live, and live well; where they can live well in spite 

 of hard times, droughts and panics; where they can 

 work for themselves instead of for an employer who 

 crystallizes their labor, except so much as buys a bare 

 subsistence, into factories, fine dwellings and bank 

 stock. 



The demonstration farms will be worth more than 

 the county fairs to the various localities where they 

 exist. They will be talked about and written about 

 everywhere, and will carry the fame of these valleys 

 to the ends of the earth. They will be described in 

 the literature of the Colonial Clubs, and become the 

 text of many a sermon in the future. 



WHERE DEMONSTRATION FARMS SHOULD BE 

 LOCATED. 



The demonstration farms should be scattered all 

 over the Western half of the Continent to fully prove 

 the case. We would suggest the following points as 

 especially desirable: 



In Western Kansas say, Garden City. 



In Western Nebraska say, near Belmont. 



In the Arkansas valley of Colorado, at Rocky 

 Ford and Lamar. 



In the San Luis valley of Colorado. 



On the western slope of Colorado, near Grand 

 Junction. 



At some representative point at Wyoming. 



In the Bear River valley of Utah. 



