THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



55 



sold at highly remunerative prices the 

 money was secured on bonds to build the 

 system. But the sale of the lands did not 

 follow the building of the canal as the 

 projectors had anticipated ; and after sev- 

 eral years of unfruitful effort the property 

 is placed in the hands of a receiver for the 

 benefit of the bondholders, and the bond- 

 holders will be fortunate if they get back 

 even a half of their investment. Except 

 for the fact that this irrigation system was 

 not complete, and never could be com- 

 plete without the building of an immense 

 storage reservoir at a cost of about a mil- 

 lion dollars, and therefore the water sup- 

 ply was neither ample nor secure, it is a 

 typical instance of greed over-reaching 

 the bounds of common sense and of busi- 

 ness judgment. Had the price of the 

 lands been placed at a reasonable figure 

 and a moderate return upon the investment 

 and risk been considered sufficient, there 

 is little doubt that a greater acreage would 

 have been disposed of, more settlers se- 

 cured and the increased returne from the 

 sales and the rental of the water would 

 have carried the company financially. The 

 success of all irrigation enterprises outside 

 of an adequate water supply for fertile 

 land, depends upon settlers. Without 

 purchases of land and water, failure is in- 

 evitable, and the settler can no longer be 

 deluded with the statement that the high- 

 er the price of the land the greater its 

 value to him. Honest values based upon 

 a reasonable cost of the land and the water 

 system, with a due regard to a reasonable 

 profit upon the productivity and earning 

 capacity of the land, are demanded, and 

 the land and irrigation companies which 

 disregard these self evident signs of the 

 times cannot expect to escape punishment 

 for their business sins. 



Advertising And another important matter 

 an Absolute . 



Necessity. which the land and irrigation 



companies have intentionally overlooked 

 is the value of advertising. The failure, 

 financially of irrigation companies, one 

 after another, including nearly all of the 

 largest systems in the country, has clearly 



demonstrated that the investment is far 

 from being complete when the land is pur- 

 chased and the water system built. A 

 necessary element of success is lacking 

 the settler to buy and occupy the land and 

 use the water. Even a high priced article 

 can be sold if it is extensively advertised, 

 but a man offering something for nothing 

 is limited to his acquaintances without the 

 aid of the newspapers. Land advertising 

 is one of the m:st difficult of all branches 

 of this most useful art and every depart- 

 ment of the science of publicity requires 

 thoughtful, intelligent care and a large 

 experience. The settler can not be se- 

 cured unless he is informed of the oppor- 

 tunities offered. 



If the manufacturers of machinery and 

 other heavy and expensive articles (to say 

 nothing of patent medicines and soaps) 

 can profitably afford to spend hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars yearly in acquainting 

 the public with the characteristic names 

 of their products, it is not unreasonable to 

 presume that a land company, with its 

 larger percentage of profit on each trans- 

 action, could advantageously imitate their 

 example. In either case the advertising 

 must be succeeded by personal solicita- 

 tion the manufacturers by a "drummer" 

 and the land company by a local or travel- 

 ing agent. A not excessively large ap- 

 propriation of money judiciously expended 

 in advertising will yield much greater re- 

 turns than the ordinary land "boomer" 

 believes or ever suspects. The verity of 

 this statement has been proven. 

 Westward The effect of the devastating 

 They Go. epidemic of yellow fever to 

 which the South has just been subjected 

 will be particularly noticeable in immigra- 

 tion affairs during the next two years. 

 The tide of homeseekers which has been 

 steadily flowing Southward will be turned, 

 by the fear of the plague, toward the West. 

 Already the indications point to a large 

 movement of population beginning with 

 the early spring. The chiefs of the traffic 

 departments of great western railroads are 

 {poking forward with pleasureable feelings 



