!56 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



a matter calling for discipline and concerted management. Brought 

 into this close and necessary association, it is an easy matter for set- 

 tlers to extend the operation of the principle to their various indus- 

 trial and social affairs. A party of twenty-five to one hundred fami- 

 lies, acting collectively, ican purchase a given tract of land on much 

 better terms than the same number acting individually. My own ex- 

 perience is that it is actually easier to get a considerable number of 

 settlers than to obtain a few scattered families. Many a man who 

 would not dare to face the wilderness alone enters enthusiastically 

 upon the enterprise in company with a goodly party of his neighbors. 

 I think I do not exaggerate in saying that the chances of success and 

 happiness are multiplied tenfold when settlers act together, under 

 some intelligent and workable plan of association, rather than as indi- 

 viduals. 



I would therefore recommend, as the first and most indispensable 

 feature of a practicable colony plan, that settlers be organized into 

 bodies of at least twenty five families, and that this organization pre- 

 cede their departure for the field of action. 



THE NEED OF A COMMON FUND. 



The success of an agricultural community in a new country by 

 no means depends entirely on the industry and thrift of its individual 

 members. There is a sphere beyond that of the individual. Supplies 

 must be purchased and products sold. Crude products must be con- 

 densed into marketable forms. There must be banking facilities to 

 make credit a negotiable quantity. Public improvements and general 

 utilities beyond the reach of any single family, however wealthy, 

 must be provided. 



It is not necessary to learn all these facts by painful experience. 

 We are not the first people who have lived in the world. Others have 

 preceded us in just such undertakings and we may learn by their 

 experience. If we are to have a town, with modern facilities of en- 

 joyment, somebody must pay for it and manage it. If our settlers 

 are not to pay extortionate prices for provisions and implements they 

 must themselves control a means of supply. If their surplus tomatoes 

 and strawberries are to be preserved and their surplus dairy product 

 to be converted into butter and cheese, there must be canneries and 

 creameries. These should be provided in advance and should be 

 owned by those who have made their existence possible and profitable. 

 The highest prosperity of the settlers demands that they shall have 

 the capital and facilities to bulk their products and to ship them eco- 

 nomically to the best markets. 



Therefore I recommend, as the second important feature of a 

 practicable plan, that settlers provide a common fund of five or ten 

 dollars per acre to be administered by the officers of an organized col- 

 ony company, in which all should be interested in proportion to their 



