226 THE IRRIGA r l ION AGE. 



some for a while during the pioneer period, and before the development is completed, 

 but past experience indicates that where the conditions are favorable, the results- 

 will, in the end, generally be satisfactory. Where failures and disappointments 

 occur, they are usually the result of an insufficient or unreliable water supply. 



"The value of farming lands and water rights varies so greatly in different 

 localities of the arid region that it is extremely difficult to give any average price 

 that will not be misleading. The price of raw land with a perpetual water right 

 under the larger enterprises is usually between the limits of $15 and $35 per acre, 

 with the annual maintenance charge on the water right varying from 50 cents to 

 $1.00 per acre. From 40 to 80 acres is generally regarded as the proper acreage for 

 a person of limited meank, and in ordinary farm crops can be farmed principally by 

 his own labor. The payment of land and water right is usually extended over a 

 period of five years or more, the time of the second payment being often two years 

 after the first, thus enabling the farmer, under favorable conditions, to make his 

 second as well as succeeding payments from the results of the cultivation of 

 his land. 



"Taking $20 per acre as cost of land and water right, and $1 per acre as the 

 annual maintenance charge, the first year's experience on an 80-acre tract of this 

 kind of land will be likely to run something like this: 



First years expenses on an 80-acre irrigated farm. 



First payment on land and water right (one-fifth of $1,600) $320 



Fencing material 150 



Buildings 390 



Team, wagon, implements, etc . 300 



Annual assessment for ditch maintenance 80 



Total 1,150 



''To this must be added a year's living expenses. The above items will of 

 ceurse vary with the tastes and means of the settler, but they can not well be 

 greatly reduced below these figures. Of course he may bring his team and imple- 

 ments with him from the East, thus cutting out those items. If he commences in 

 the early fall he may be able, under ordinary circumstances, to do the necessary 

 fencing, clearing, plowing, leveling, and ditching, so as to get 40 acres into crop the 

 following spring. He can hardly hope to do better than that, and may have to have 

 a little help with some of the work. Where this work is done with hired labor, its 

 cost will usually be between $5 and $10 per acre so prepared for crop, depending 

 very largely upon the amount of clearing and leveling required. It is always poor 

 economy to slight this part of the work. Ground should not be put in crop without 

 painstaking preparation for its easy and complete irrigation. 



"If the farmer under consideration has a sufficient water supply and has fairly 

 good luck with his 40-acre crop, its proceeds will pay his maintenance, assessment, 

 taxes, and, as he has no further payment to make on his land the first year, keep 

 him going for the succeeding year, when he will have his entire 80 acres in crop, 

 and, with the aid of his year's experience, should have a full yield. With careful 

 economy and hard work he will be able to meet his second and succeeding payments 

 on his land from the proceeds of its cultivation, and at the end of five or six years, 

 from an investment of from $1,000 to $1,500, he will become the owner of an 80- 

 acre farm worth probably $50 an acre, and capable of making him a good living, 

 besides, if in a favorable location, constantly increasing in value. This is the 



