THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



51 



Had the 30,000 acres of land all been taken 

 promptly by settlers under such a contract, there would 

 certainly have been "millions in if for the Canal Com- 

 pany. 



Few, however, except the original unsuspecting 

 cntrymen, had the desire or nerve to enter into such a 

 contract, and the "goose" which was expected to "lay the 

 golden egg" to pay the interest on the $500,000 worth of 

 "watered" bonds and the running expenses of the whole 

 canal, found itself entirely inadequate to the occasion, 

 and in many instances abandoned its nest and refused to 

 lay another egg. 



This was most disastrous for the Canal Company 

 and bondholders and a period of seven "lean years" (es- 

 pecially for the bondholders) ensued. During the year 

 1900 the climax was reached; patience had ceased to be a 

 virtue; all parties were anxious for a change. The old 

 settlers, some of whom had made themselves comfortable 



the contour of the foothills, in a substantial and per- 

 manent earth canal. The mammoth wooden head-gates 

 at the mouth of the canal, where it taps the main river, 

 have now been replaced by massive stone and concrete 

 gates of modern construction. The canal is managed by 

 a competent Board of Directors elected by the farmers. 

 Capital and labor are now working in harmony; the 

 laborers are the capitalists. The farmers own the canal. 



THE MIGHTY CHANGES. 



In taking a retrospective view of the fall and rapid 

 rise of this now most prosperous and envied settlement, 

 with its attractive little town of New Plymouth as the 

 center, surrounded by hundreds of beautiful and produc- 

 tive farms and fruit orchards, it is very difficult for the 

 inexperienced to understand the cause of so sudden a 

 transition, and quite as difficult for the experienced to 

 realize how Wall street magnates could have made such 

 'an erroneous computation of the effects of reciprocity. 



AX IRRIGATION SYSTEM IN OPERATION. 



homes in spite of all difficulties, and many new home- 

 seekers who were willing to join them decided to pur- 

 chase the canal, which the New York owners by this 

 time were only too glad to sell at a great sacrifice. 



A proposition for the reorganization of the new 

 Plymouth Colony was presented by C. E. Brainard, of 

 Payette, one of the oldest and most successful coloniza- 

 tion agents on the Oregon Short Line Railway, and the 

 purchase of the canal by the farmers ; the sale and rapid 

 development of the thousands of acres of sage brush 

 land in the Payette Valley, during the past three years, 

 is largely due to his energy, practical colonization ideas 

 and good business judgment. 



During the past two years the canal has undergone 

 great and lasting improvements. Its extensive wooden 

 flumes, over a mile in length, no longer safe on account 

 of decay, have all been removed, and the great stream of 

 water, equal to a river of no small volume^ now follows 



To the settler who now comes from the east or mid- 

 dle western states, the long and tiresome ride through 

 the apparently endless vista of arid sage brush plain, 

 traversed by the railroads now reaching the fertile val- 

 leys of southwestern Idaho, often created a genuine case 

 of homesickness, and hundreds of those who start out 

 with through tickets to the western coast, intending to 

 "stop off" en route, close their eyes long before reaching 

 the Payette Valley, in order that they may, if possible, 

 shut out the depressing vision of the monotonous sea of 

 somber sage brush for one little glimpse of the green 

 sward of the old home still lingering in their mind'e eye. 



The traveler who simply passes through Idaho will 

 certainly fail to see wherein lies its future greatness, 

 nor is he likelv to be impressed with the magnitude of 

 its rapid development in the past few years. There is 

 little of interest to be seen from the car window even by 

 one who is wide awake and ever alert to behold evidences 



