346 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Hailey is the metropolis today. There is a need for 

 teamsters and farm or ranch hands and farmers, etc., 

 at good wages. Any industrious laborer, farmer or 

 mechanic in search of a home may go to Hailey or 

 Elaine county, Idaho, without misgivings of his future 

 livelihood. School teachers are also in demand in 

 that section, and the capitalists have the most inviting 

 field in the entire West in central Idaho. They will 

 find paying investments there, as hundreds of pros- 

 pects of unquestionable value may be selected and 

 worked out to a successful finish at a reasonably small 

 outlay. While in Hailey the writer had the pleasure 

 of driving through the valley south of that town and 

 Bellevue, with Mr. S. D. Boone, a leading capitalist, and 

 Mr. P. F. Home, cashier of one of the substantial 

 banks of that city A trip of some thirty miles over 

 the valley was taken and a visit paid to the ranch of 



included, among other things, a heaping platter of 

 fine brook trout and a plentiful supply of fried blue 

 grouse, and all of the other good things that are appre- 

 ciated by a man who has traveled twenty or thirty 

 miles in that bracing atmosphere. The land on this 

 particular sub-irrigated belt will sell readily today 

 for from $100 to $200 per acre, and there is no doubt 

 but that with careful cultivation and a better knowledge 

 pf the situation from an agricultural point of view, 

 this value will be largely increased. Many small irri- 

 gation ditches are taken out of the Wood river and 

 supply water to large areas of fertile lands above and 

 oelow the town of Hailey. 



Hailey is also a great wool market. Large bands 

 of sheep are supported on the hills surrounding it. 



In speaking of this section, which is an ideal spot 

 for camping, fishing, etc., with unequalled scenery, 



A Typical Wood River Ranch, Idaho. 



C. H. Porter, south of Bellevue. Mr. Porter's ranch 

 consists of 160 acres of very valuable land, owing 

 to the fact that it is Located on what is known as a 

 sub-irrigation belt, which extends diagonally across the 

 valley; the peculiarity of this belt is that for a width 

 of say one mile and the length equal to the width of 

 the valley, which is about ten miles, a subterranean 

 stream creates what is known as sub-irrigation, so that 

 surface irrigation is wholly unnecessary. The land at 

 this point is exceptionally fertile, and Mr. Porter in- 

 forms us that his farm pays him $30 per acre net 

 each year. Reuben G. Price has in all 800 acres on this 

 same belt, and is purchasing other holdings and has 

 unboimded faith in that section. He has recently 

 paid $16,000 for 560 acres, and has 175 acres of that 

 in grain, which will produce him a splendid income 

 this year. That the farmers live well in this section 

 was demonstrated by a dinner made ready for our 

 party by Mrs. L. Fuller, of the Porter farm, which 



Mrs. A. A. Stowe has the following to say concerning it: 

 "Perhaps none of the places I have noted will 

 appeal to you. It may be that you desire an outing, 

 where real game big game, I mean can be found. 

 If so, arrange your party for a months' stay and turn 

 your faces northward from Hailey. Take an early 

 start. The ride to Ketchum in the fresh morning air 

 will prove quite exhilarating. So far, though there 

 has been a gradual rise in the altitude, you have been 

 scarcely conscious of it, but soon after leaving Ketchum 

 you become fully aware that you are 'ascending in the 

 world.' The long summer afternoon will wane and 

 the shades of night will descend upon you ere you make 

 a night's halting place at Galena, if you have been 

 late in starting, or have loitered by the way. But as 

 no team can draw a loaded wagon at a hurried pace up 

 a rapidly ascending grade, you have had time all the 

 afternoon to drink in the kaleidoscopic magnificent 

 timber, bare, brown rocky faces, too precipitous to hold 



