his hired man. After paying for all, his original cash will be exhausted, but he will 

 have his crops harvested. If he has employed a competent irrigator, they should be 

 reasonably good. 



The first year from his twenty acres of alfalfa he should get one crop of from 

 thirty to thirty-five tons. Reserving what he will require for stock feed, he will have 

 possibly twenty tons to sell which at $7 per ton will bring him in $140. His wheat, 

 on new soil, should yield ordinarily thirty-five bushels to the acre and at $1 

 per bushel bring him in about $850 net, after sacking and transportation charges. 

 From his five acres of potatoes, assuming a fair normal yield, he would harvest about 

 thirty tons, which should bring him in about $500 after reserving seed for the following 

 year. The total value of his marketable crop, therefore, would be close to $1 ,500. After 

 paying his second instalment, amounting to $590.60, principal and interest, he will have 

 about $900 left, also all his grain and potato seed, and a considerable part of his farm- 

 grown food supplies to carry him over until next harvest. He has learned much of the 

 art of irrigation and, with the experience gained, the following year should largely 

 increase the value of his crops. His twenty acres of alfalfa, for example, the second 

 year and thereafter should produce five tons to the acre. 



The foregoing, while it expresses conditions and results more or less ideal, is 

 based on the substantial assumption that the settler had selected a tract of good 

 land requiring little or no leveling; that he had taken possession of it the fall before, 

 thus giving him time to clear it, construct his ditches and establish his home before 

 planting-time ; that he had purchased the best of seed, sown it at the proper time and that 

 instead of attempting to irrigate the tract himself, had the wisdom to employ an 

 experienced irrigator who prevented him from ruining any crop by the blunders his 

 inexperience would naturally make, and that his water-supply had been adequate. The 

 price of $65 per acre for the uncleared land and water right is reasonably ample to 

 get land and a water right of the character described. And in addition it will be 

 noted that the conditions of level land and the crops chosen are such as to permit the 

 seeding of most of the total acreage without plowing. 



Even in this instance, it is evident that the settler could not well have succeeded with 

 less than $2,500 capital. Yet we know of settlers who have been successful with as 

 low as $1,000 capital, and some who have not succeeded with $5,000 capital. The 

 largest factor in the equation is the settler himself. Good judgment in selecting his land 

 and water right, in conducting the business of clearing and seeding his farm, and then, 

 if he knows nothing of irrigation, in employing the most skilful man who does. Where 

 crops are grown by irrigation, the man with the irrigating shovel holds the key to the 

 situation. By giving a crop too much or too little water, or at the wrong time, he can 

 cause the loss in a day of more than his wages for a year. But under his skill the kiss 

 of the water to the thirsty soil causes the desert to smile with verdure and bloom, and 

 arid Nature to grow pregnant with harvest. 



The Homeseeker Tvllh Capital. 



The homeseeker with more capital may exercise his choice between a larger acreage 

 of unimproved land, or to purchase outright improved land. Improved farms of from 

 eighty acres to several hundred acres, depending on location and fruitfulness, will cost 

 all the way from $50 to $250 per acre. Many of such farms are in the hands of owners 

 who are far from being up-to-date agriculturists, and can be made to produce four and 

 five-fold greater harvests than at present. The homeseeker with from $8,000 to $25,000 

 capital will do well to visit the agricultural districts of the State with a view to acquiring 

 improved farm property. The opening in Nevada to secure farm lands which can be 

 made highly profitable is unsurpassed, and is due largely to the fact that only in a 

 degree has the farming industry in the State as yet made any transition from the old-style 

 farming following the lines of least resistance to the new, where the soil is made to 

 give forth its greatest possible abundance. 



35 



