What the Land Will Produce 



world 

 world 



The Large and Certain Profits from Intensive Cultivation 



HERE IS NO CLAIM -of the miraculous made 

 for the Central Rio Grande Valley. Here as else- 

 where the best results are to be obtained only by 

 hard work, intelligently applied. It is claimed for 

 this valley, however, that with industry and intelli- 

 gence, the soil will give returns as great, if not 

 greater than in any other irrigated district in the 

 It is now fulfv recognized that the most productive land in the 

 wor.u is irrigated land. Irrigation gives the enormous advantage of 

 absolute certainty of the crop when properly planted and cared for. i he 

 farmer in an irrigated district is wholly independent of conditions ot 

 flood rainfall or drouth which play so large and so uncertain a part m 

 the calculations of the farmer in the rain belt. If the ram falls on an 

 irrio-ated farm, so much the better. If it does not fall there is always 

 the^'irigation canal, much better than the rainfall, because the exact 

 quantity of water needed to mature any given crop, may be applied at 

 will. 



The Irrigated farm requires more careful attention than non-irrigated 

 land. Care and time and intelligence are required in planting and m 

 applving the water, and as a result the farmer in an irrigated district 

 usually ^confines his energies to a small tract, depending for his revenue 

 upon intensive cultivation, larger yield, and the certainty of the crop. 

 An irrigated farm of ten acres in this valley under intensive cultivation 

 and with carefullv selected crops will produce a revenue greater than 

 can possibly be obtained from 160 acres planted to gram or other field 

 crops in the rain belt. Planted to orchard, or producing-^ melons or 

 truck, ten acres of this land may be made to produce a substantial in- 

 come and in the end a moderate fortune. Farms in this valley usually 

 range from ten to forty acres; seldom more than forty. A few large 

 planters of alfalfa, onions, melons,, 

 ect.. cultivate larger tracts, a very 

 few using more than 200 acres. 

 This, however, is irrigated farming 

 on a large scale and requires the out- 

 lay of considerable capital. The 

 farmer cultivating a small tract 

 makes his profit in proportion to his 

 acres and his industry and the men 

 who are getting the largest annual 

 returns from valley farms are those 

 p-ivine their attention to twenty 

 acres or less. 



A Typical Central Valley 

 Truck Garden 



