140 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



What are probably the most valuable farming lands in 

 the United States are to be found in the Yakima val- 

 ley. Some of the farms there cannot be purchased at 

 any price. During the present year several farms 

 changed hands at values ranging from $800.00 to 

 $1,000.00 an acre, these figures including, of course, 

 valuable improvements as well as the land. Just think 

 of it ! Twenty years ago this land was part of a desert, 

 and at that time nobody believed anything would grow 

 there except sage brush; but the land now returns a 

 good rate of interest at an unusually high valuation. 

 Irrigation wrought the miracle, though it is understood, 

 of course, that only intelligent and progressive farmers 

 could do this. 



Back from the railroad lands equally as good can 

 be secured for as little as $50.00 an acre. The investor 

 can find almost every sort of opportunity, ranging from 

 improved lands and new lands under the recent exten- 

 sion of canals to sage-brush lands without water rights. 



The Yakima valley, the garden spot of the Pacific 

 Northwest, is about one hundred and forty miles long, 



that farming by irrigation is a "sure thing," while farm- 

 ing without it never can be anything but a chapter of 

 accidents, fortunate and unfortunate. The necessity for 

 irrigation in farming is not disadvantageous. The 

 farmer who does not irrigate is at a disadvantage. 

 Without irrigation, scientific farming is impossible, and 

 the best results cannot be obtained. Irrigation is neither 

 difficult nor costly. During the present season the cost 

 of irrigating varied from 50c to $3.00 an acre a very 

 small item where land nets the owner a yearly profit 

 ranging from $25.00 to $700.00 an acre. Crop failures 

 are unknown, though carelessness may result in short 

 crops. The soil, water and the sunshine are there in 

 abundance, the gods having apparently worked overtime 

 to supply the best they had in stock, and all the farmer 

 has to do is to take the water from the river when he 

 needs it, and 'put it where he wants it. The result is a 

 combination that no one has been able to beat. 



The Yakima valley is pre-eminently a good place 

 to live, and a place to make a good living. It is inviting 

 to the man of the Middle West who is tired of the 



Typical Freight Outfit on Way to Irrigation District in Washington County, Idaho. 



and extends from the Cascade foot hills to the Columbia 

 river. The width varies from two to forty miles, the 

 reclaimed portion varying from two to twenty miles. 



The productiveness, the wealth, the beauty and the 

 hope of the Yakima country are all due to irrigation. 

 There are few great manufacturing industries there. 

 There are no shipping; no mines; no fisheries; few 

 mills ; few payrolls. There are farms, gardens, orchards, 

 meadows, livestock knee deep in green pastures, hop- 

 yards, vineyards, groves, well kept lawns and happy 

 homes. These are distinctive features of the Yakima 

 country. They all owe their being to irrigation. The 

 waters of the river are the lifeblood of the land. Until 

 they were spread over the prairies by men, the valley was 

 a desert, and where the canals cannot be extended the 

 desert will be forever. 



Eastern fanners, as a rule, suppose that a country 

 where irrigation is necessary is unfortunate. They 

 think that way because nobody ever explained to them 

 that as a practical proposition in farming it is more 

 economical to put water on cultivated lands as it is 

 needed than to depend for crops on the uncertainties and 

 eccentricities of the clouds. Nobodv ever told them 



strenuous struggle to keep warm in winter and cool in 

 summer, and to escape the cyclone and the blizzard 

 when not otherwise engaged. There are no storms of 

 any kind there. Sometimes the iceman harvests a crop 

 in winter, but it often happens that he doesn't. Usually 

 the winter brings enough snow for a sleighriae, but if 

 the man with the sleigh hesitates he is lost. There ate 

 three weeks of hot weather in the summer, but the sultri- 

 ness of the more humid countries is unknown. The 

 summer nights are always cool enough for refreshing 

 sleep. 



The valley is distinctive in many ways, not only as 

 a part of the Evergreen State, but as a part of the 

 irrigated domain of the arid region. Nowhere else, ex- 

 cept in Southern California and Utah, is irrigation car- 

 ried on so extensively. Nowhere else has farming by 

 irrigation been carried on with such truly wonderful 

 success. No other irrigated district can match the 

 Yakima for soil, climate, abundance of water supply, 

 markets or variety and excellence of products. 



Surveys for the Kittitas project, which contem- 

 plates the irrigation of 60,000 acres in the vicinity of 



