THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



A GLIMPSE OF THE "LAND OF PROMISE 



A STORY OF IRRIGATION 



In the 



Celebrated Payette Valley, Southwestern Idaho 





[By Our Special Correspondent] 



The children of Israel spent forty years in the 

 desert before entering the "promised land," but modern 

 irrigation has transformed the desert into the "land of 

 promise" in a single decade. 



The settlement of our western arid states, as por- 

 trayed in early history, was a story of privation and 

 loneliness. Much of this was not from necessity, but 

 from the lack of proper colonization methods, the ab- 

 sence of united effort in establishing communities where 

 the social conditions surrounding the settler in his new 

 home might be equally pleasant with those of the older 

 settled communities from which he came. 



It was with this idea uppermost that in September, 

 1894, William E. Smythe, then chairman of the Execu- 

 tive Committee of the National Irrigation Congress. 

 assisted in founding the New Plymouth Colony, in the 

 now celebrated Payette Valley, in southwestern Idaho. 



The history of this settlement demonstrated much 

 more than its founders anticipated, and the sequel may 

 be read with equal interest by capitalist and homeseekcr. 



After examining a number of 

 locations in the western states, the 

 Payette Valley was finally chosen, 

 on account of its abundant water 

 supply, fertile soil and genial -cli- 

 mate; it being well understood 

 by the leaders that in such an ir- 

 rigated district the possibilities of 

 intensified farming presented op- 

 portunities for smaller farms, 

 greater profits, nearer neighbors, 

 and many social advantages not 

 to be found elsewhere. 



THE FIKST SETTLERS. 



The first settlement con- 

 sisted of representatives of thirty- 

 four families, many of them me- 

 chanics and professional men 

 from the city of Chicago, with 

 limited means and a still more 

 limited knowledge of practical 

 farming or fruit growing. Set 

 down at the end of a long and 

 tiresome journey in the midst of 

 a sage-brush desert, without a 

 house or cultivated field in sight, 

 the weak dependent upon the 

 strong for counsel and material 

 aid, the beginning seemed 1he 

 end; and but for the inspiration A GROUP OF 



of numbers, several would have (Bartiett 



at once returned to the weary grind of city life. 



No sooner had this little company of homeseekers 

 filed upon desert entries and homesteads, than other and 

 greater difficulties confronted them. Their land, value- 

 less and unproductive without water, must be irrigated. 

 It was supposed by all that ample provision had 

 been made for this. Eastern capitalists had built one 

 of the best constructed canals in the State, with an 

 abundant and never-failing water supply, taken from 

 the beautiful Payette river, at the upper end of the val- 

 ley. With this life-giving stream at their verv doors 

 easily accessible through the lateral ditches, made by 

 the farmers, from the main canal where it girded the 

 foothills like a silver belt, running down over the gen- 

 tle slopes in small streams, across the entire plain, where 

 #he unused portion, or "waste water," gradually wended 

 its way back into the river, after imparting new life to 

 the thirsty soil what more could be desired? 



THEIR "OPPORTUNITY." 



Here was certainly a magnificent opportunity for 

 the co-operation of capital and 

 labor $400,000 invested by east- 

 ern rapitiiliMs in the canal, 

 30,000 acres of 'Choice sage brush 

 land ready for immediate devel- 

 opment by the throng of western 

 homeseekers. There were "mil- 

 lions in it;" but lack of proper 

 knowledge on the part of the 

 Wall street financiers, who owned 

 the canal, with regard to the 

 necessities of an irrigated district 

 and the management of such a 

 canal, coupled with the inexpe- 

 rience of the settlers as to the 

 proper use of water, was for a 

 time equally disastrous to both 

 parties. 



The canal was bonded for 

 $500jOOO. The farmer was re- 

 quired to pay $10 per acre, or 

 give one-half his land, for the 

 right to use water from the 

 canal, in addition to which he 

 was charged $1.50 per acre, each 

 year, for not to exceed one-third 

 of an inch of water (miners' 

 inches), whether the same was 

 used or not, and an additional 

 PROMISES charge at the same proportionate 



p e ar s .) rate if more than one-third of an 



