THE NEW SOIL IRRIGATION. 65 



suppose that these ambitious promoters and speculators would 

 succeed in their designs. The first was the well-known and 

 extraordinary fertility of the soil, rendered so only by the ap- 

 plication of water. Upon irrigated land crop follows crop in 

 immediate succession throughout the year; there is no uncer- 

 tainty, and the yield is enormous from three to ten times 

 that of the same acreage in the older settled portions of the 

 Union. Such farms as that of Samuel C. Cleek at Orland, 

 Cal., had become famous. This "farm" consisted of one acre 

 and contained no water; was characteristic of the region, 

 parched and desert, a most uninviting place to begin a home. 

 The first house which served as a shelter for himself and wife 

 contained but one room. He laid out his land in an economic 

 manner, and fertilized it by irrigation. Almost every inch of 

 it became immediately productive. Crop followed crop in im- 

 mediate succession and with unfailing regularity, as is the 

 nature of crops from the irrigated soil of that section. Not 

 only did the owner and his wife find an ample support, but 

 every year terminated with a small, but augmented surplus in 

 their treasury. A few years sufficed to build a beautiful cot- 

 tage home, then two additional acres were bought and paid 

 for, and thus the man became so independent, prosperous and 

 well-fixed that he and his place, and men and "farms" of which 

 this was a type were held up as object lessons to prospective 

 farmers on the one hand and prospective purchasers of stock 

 on the other. The other factor which made it seem probable that 

 these dreams of an irrigated empire in the perpetual control 

 of an oligarchy of capitalists would be realized was that nearly 

 all the water of these regions that could be easily and cheaply 

 diverted to the purposes of beneficial use had already been 

 pre-empted by the early settlers, and henceforth the expendi- 



