PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. 



A. H, FORD, OF CHICAGO. 



THE question of preventing concentration of pop- 

 ulation in large cities is one which has always 

 interested those students of human nature who 

 are constantly trying to evolve some plan whereby 

 humanity can be benefited. These men are working 

 not for themselves, but for others, and they have giv- 

 en the social problem much thought and study, with 

 the result that it is almost unanimously admitted that 

 misery, degredation and poverty are inseparably 

 connected with the hoarding of large masses of pop- 

 ulation within the close confines of cities, and therefore 

 the establishment of small villages and farm colonies 

 has been advocated as one of the best methods of as- 

 sisting men to be independent as well as giving them 

 an opportunity to live under much better social 

 conditions. 



Mr. Alexander H. Ford, the editor of the Home 

 Seeker's Journal, whose portrait appears elsewhere 

 in this number, has been one of the moving spirits 

 in organizing public sentiment on these lines in Chi- 

 cago. After much hard work he succeeded in inter- 

 esting prominent clergymen, business men and the 

 officials of the various labor unions in the matter, 

 and the Home Seeker's Association was established. 

 This association is doing a very good work, and fur- 

 nishing reliable information to those who are inter- 

 ested in the resources and possibilities of the West 

 and South for the intending settler. Mr. Ford is the 

 second vice-president of the National Colonial Club, 

 of which Dr. Edward Everett Hale, of Boston, is 

 first vice-president, and while Dr. Hale is guiding 

 the 40,000 people who leave Massachusetts every 

 year, Mr. Ford, in Chicago, is gathering facts about 

 the whole country to place before them, that they 

 may intelligently decide where they wish to locate. 

 Being a southern man, Mr. Ford is naturally greatly 

 interested in everything pertaining to the South, but 

 not to the exclusion of western affairs. Having trav- 

 eled throughout the entire West, he is well acquainted 

 with the country, and he realizes that it possesses ad- 

 vantages in certain respects that are unequalled any- 

 where. At the recent meeting in the Auditorium 

 Hotel, in Chicago, of the general passenger agents of 

 the southern transportation lines, the leading repre- 

 sentatives of the land companies, and many other 

 prominent gentlemen, Mr. Ford advocated the forma- 

 tion of a Chicago southern association, and his sug- 

 gestions were embodied in the plafform of the organ- 

 ization. 



Mr. Ford has had a wide newspaper experience, hav- 

 ing been connected with several of the leading daily 

 papers of New York and Chicago, and he has also had 

 a good opportunity to gain an insight into the meth- 

 ods practiced on Wall street, as he was for five years 

 engaged in promoting the interests of various south- 

 ern and northwestern railroads on that world-famed 

 exchange. 



MEN, MONEY AND MORTGAGES. 



T RRIGATED land in the " Great Arkansas Valley," 

 \ (called by Senator Ingalls the valley of the Amer- 

 ican Nile), pays an annual net profit of $20 per 

 acre and upward on alfalfa and $50 to $200 per acre 

 and upward on fruits and vegetables. 

 186 



I control a quantity of best irrigable land, which 

 can be bought in small tracts at $20 to $40 per acre, 

 and furnished with irrigation pumping outfit for not 

 exceeding $15 per acre. This amounts to a perpetual 

 water right, and annual cost of maintenance is very 

 small. 



Fifteen years' experience in farming here by irri- 

 gation, and our farmers grow successfully more than 

 fifty kinds of temperate zone crops all the leading 

 fruits, grains, vegetables and forage crops. Great 

 alfalfa country, both for seed and hay. Fine success 

 with all kinds of stock, poultry, bees and fish. Good 

 schools, churches and railroad facilities and fine roads 

 the year round. Remarkably healthful climate and 

 mild, open winters. 



HOMES FOR 100 FAMILIES 



on terms within the reach of any man having from 

 $300 to $1,000 cash to start with. Deferred payments 

 for those who cannot pay all cash will bear seven per 

 cent, interest. 



These lands are becoming very valuable, and par- 

 ties who wish to secure a cheap home where success 

 is certain will need to act promptly. 



I desire the cooperation of such persons as will 

 assist in settling worthy people on these lands, also 



PURCHASERS FOR SEVEN PER CENT. MORTGAGES 



representing deferred payments on same. Strictly 

 gilt-edge securities. 



Will pay all expenses of round trip of any person 

 who will come here and see for himself, who does not 

 find everything as represented. 



Call on or address T. W. GREGORY. 



Garden City, Kans. 



PLYMOUTH COLONY. 



THE committee appointed to visit the site of the 

 Plymouth Colony in Idaho have returned to 

 Chicago and made a full report of their investi- 

 gations. The committee found that the resources 

 and possibilities had been somewhat under estimated 

 and they are all very well pleased with the prospect. 

 The following is a brief abstract of their lengthy re- 

 port: 



" The colony site is on the second bench above the 

 Payette river, about four miles in a direct line from 

 Washoe and six miles from Payette. The land is 

 covered with sage brush about four feet nigh, and 

 there are no indications of alkali. The soil is loam 

 with a slight admixture of sand. It varies from ten 

 to thirty teet deep. Some of the principal irrigation 

 laterals have been built and a little of the sage brush 

 burnt off, but the colonists must calculate on having 

 to clear away the sage brush and build most of the 

 laterals. The expense of building the main laterals 

 will be about $20 a mile, or $2.00 for each 20-acre 

 tract. The small ditches can be made with a plow. 

 The colony site is entirely free from stones of any 

 kind except those which are dug from wells. The 

 drinking water from the wells on the colony site is 

 cool and soft. The wells average forty feet deep and 

 cost about $1.00 a foot to dig without being curbed. 

 Curbing seems to be unnecessary. About 120 acres 



