180 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



I doubt if there is a ranchman here today who 

 is the owner of a large body of land but what could 

 find places in his pasture where storage reservoirs could 

 be built that would furnish water sufficient to irrigate 

 hundreds of acres of his land. 



Gentlemen, it will pay you to investigate this ques- 

 tion carefully. If you construct irrigation plants and 

 raise plenty of alfalfa, Milo maize, Kaffir corn and 

 have it stocked around in convenient places where the 

 old cow can find it during a spell of weather like we 

 experienced last month, it will relieve you of much 

 anxiety. You can sleep better and will live longer 

 yourselves I know some of you have not gotten over 

 the fright yet, and I don't blame you for feeling 

 uneasy; it is indeed marvelous how light your losses 

 were on the open range and I do trust that many of 

 you will profit by this experience and begin to prepare 

 for such severe winters which are likely to come again 

 at a more critical time for the cattle. The way to in- 

 sure crops in west Texas is to prepare to irrigate. In 

 many places irrigation can be done cheaply and profitably 

 from artesian wells, and in some places from running 

 streams by pumping. We do not require near so much 

 water as they do in the strictly arid States where irri- 

 gation is practiced; we only need irrigation to supple- 

 ment our rainfall. Irrigation in west Texas insures 

 against failure of crops. With the aid of water at 

 your command you become master of the season. The 

 territory embraced within the area west of the 98th 

 meridian is larger than the three great corn and fine stock 

 producing States of Missouri, Illinois and Iowa com- 

 bined. With the proper effort it is within your power 

 to hasten the time when this vast region will become 

 the most prosperous stock farming country in America. 

 Let us find a way to store up the flood waters which 

 run to waste and thereby aid in making Texas what 

 Destiny intended she should be the imperial common- 

 wealth of the great sisterhood of States. 



ATTRACTIVE IRRIGATION. 



The farmer of the humid regions is apt to look 

 on agriculture by irrigation as a poor sort of makeshift 

 that will do when crops can't be raised in any other 

 way, but hardly the sort of farming that a man would 

 voluntarily choose. On the other hand, the farmer who 

 has learned and practiced irrigation looks upon farm- 

 ing that relies on nature's bounty in rain to be a very 

 careless sort of farming. Both kinds of farming have 

 their drawbacks and their advantages. It is note- 

 worthy that though the unoccupied lands of the humid 

 belt of the Canadian west are so extensive as to stag- 

 ger the imagination, there is a steady call, by prefer- 

 ence, for lands where irrigation is desirable. Thus, 

 the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, with millions 

 or acres of land not requiring irrigation, is planning 

 an irrigation system in Alberta that will put water onto 

 5,000,000 acres. In ancient times the world's most 

 populous regions were those where irrigation was prac- 

 ticed. Such was Egypt; such was Mesopotamia; and 

 history will repeat itself on the ' American continent. 

 In the heart of the great American desert there are 

 already hundreds of oases made by men, and the time is 

 coming when the hundred million of acres Uncle Sam 

 is planning to redeem will constitute one of the richest 

 of the agricultural regions of the nation. Opportunity. 



Send $2.50 for The Irrigation Age one year and The 

 Primer of Irrigation, 300 page book. 



PROTEST SENT TO THE PRESIDENT. 



The People of Minidoka, Idaho, Object to the Segregation of the 



Reclamation Fund Diversion of Money to Other Projects 



Would, it is Stated, be Ruinous. 



Minidoka, Idaho, March 26, 1905. The people of 

 Minidoka, many of them new settlers on what is known 

 as the Minidoka reclamation tract, have finally awoke 

 to realize the fact that the withdrawal of one million 

 dollars from the fund recently set aside for work in 

 this district would be ruinous to a large number of 

 settlers and materially injure the town of Minidoka 

 as well. 



The settlers held a mass meeting in this town last 

 night to protest against the segregation of $1,000,000 

 from the Minidoka project to use on the Boise-Payette 

 enterprise. The big wigwam on Center street, capable 

 of seating 700 people, was secured to accommodate the 

 large audience. W. N. Shilling was elected chairman 

 and F. A. Evelyth as secretary. 



The object of the meeting was explained by Frank 

 Riblett, of Cassia county, in an interesting 15-minute 

 talk on the situation showing that 400 bona fide set- 

 tlers would be practically thrown out of house and home 

 for years and in the majority of cases permanently. 



"He was followed by other prominent men speaking 

 along the same lines, among them Messrs. Scherrer, 

 Cheney, Burgess, Sears and Huggins. 



PROTEST SENT TO THE PRESIDENT. 



A committee consisting of Frand Scherrer, R. L. 

 Cheney and F. A. Evelyth was appointed to draft a 

 telegram to President Roosevelt urging him to investi- 

 gate the proposed segregation of the Minidoka project 

 funds and see that justice was done to all parties. The 

 committee dispatched the following telegram to the 

 President : 



Minidoka, Idaho, March 25, 1905. To the Hon- 

 orable Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United 

 States, Washington, D. C. : Not less than 400 settlers, 

 the majority of them with wives and children, having 

 full confidence in the statements and assurances of the 

 reclamation and land department and in conformity 

 with the plats showing farm units and instructions 

 issued by the Interior Department, have made bona fide 

 entries on lands proposed to be covered by the pumping 

 section of the Minidoka project. The proposed with- 

 drawal of $1,000,000 from this project, thus indefi- 

 nitely postponing the installation of the pumping sys- 

 tem, will cause untold hardships, financial loss and 

 practical eviction to these settlers. Will you look into 

 this matter? All we want is a square deal. 



"Submitted by a committee appointed at a mass 

 meeting held at Minidoka, Idaho, on March 25, 1905. 

 (Signed) "R. L. CHENEY, 



"FRANK SCHERRER, 

 "F. A. EVELETH, 



"Committee." 



SMALL FOR PANTRY SHELVES. 



We acknowledge the receipt of a copy of "Max- 

 well's Talisman" with thanks. It is extravagantly 

 circulated, and as extravagantly worded, and'took a heap 

 of railroad money. Its reception in the West will not 

 be very marked the people take no stock in its pet 

 hobby, and the paper's too small for the pantry shelves. 



Big Horn County News. 



