340 



THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



eral hundred thousands of acres of land may be made 

 subject to properly devised systems of irrigation within 

 a radius of sixty miles from Mountain Home. Three 

 large storage reservoirs have been built, but still the 

 reclamation of this great country has only begun. Fu- 

 ture years will witness an extension of this plan of irri- 

 gation in this region until practically every acre of the 

 valley land will be made a garden spot. But the fer- 

 tility of the soil which is to be called into life by the 

 vitalizing influence of water from these mountain res- 

 ervoirs, while constituting a permanent basis, does not 



Bean Field Near Mountain Home. 



comprise all the vast resources of this region. It pos- 

 sesses a mineral wealth, the value of which is beyond all 

 human calculation. When the great undertaking at 

 Mountain Home, upon which nearly a million dollars 

 has been expended, shall reach final accomplishment, 

 the agricultural resources of this section of Southern 

 Idaho, constituting the theater of this vast operation, 

 will possess a full round of resources furnishing the 

 basis and foundation of a civilization equal in magni- 

 tude to that of some of the smaller eastern states. 



It is true that the project to irrigate these arid 

 lands near Mountain Home has been opposed by well 

 meaning individuals. With but little knowledge of the 

 reservoir system, men have declared the scheme was im- 

 practicable. Others have objected because of the fact 

 that a large area of government land would be taken 

 from the grazing privileges of the sheep men. These 

 objections, while possessing no real merit, naturally 

 placed stumbling blocks in the way of capitalists whose 

 faith in the plan never faltered. Today the objectors 

 have all fallen into the background and nothing can be 

 heard but words of commendation for the men who are 

 constructing these canals and reservoirs, and which will 

 irrigate a tract of land sufficient to maintain a popu- 

 lation that will make Mountain Home one of the pretti- 

 est and most prosperous cities of its class in the west. 



Improving natural soil moisture is a very old art. 

 The classic writers extol drainage and archaeologists 

 locate prehistoric irrigation canals in various parts of 

 the earth, and of six sites for the Garden of Eden for 

 which the ancients contended, all were in irrigated 

 regions. Investment in irrigation projects is like all 

 other investments and governed by the same economic 

 laws. 



There is no place where the landless man can find 

 better opportunities for agricultural results than on the 

 manless lands of Southern Idaho when the water is 

 turned on to these vast areas of sage brush lands. It 

 is a land of fruit, grass and golden grain. The valleys 



yield from forty to seventy bushels of wheat to the 

 acre, from sixty to one hundred bushels of oats, and 

 from three hundred to seven hundred bushels of pota- 

 toes. The crops never fail and the tiller of the soil can 

 sow with pleasure and reap with profit. When the 

 farmers of the middle and eastern states are praying for 

 rain, the farmers of Southern Idaho have only to raise 

 the head gates of their ditches, and irrigation does the 

 rest. 



The soil is largely of volcanic origin, and from the 

 surface down to the deepest depth it is of the same 

 character and fertility. Artificial fertilization is never 

 needed, and fields which have been cultivated incessant- 

 ly for twenty years are still pouring forth every season 

 the same wondrous harvest that they did at first. The 

 Snake Eiver Valley in Idaho is in the same latitude as 

 Spain and Italy. It stops at no precedence of produc- 

 tion and knows no such words as crop failure. The 

 climate is unsurpassed and the death rate is lower than 

 in any other part of the United States. In fact, South- 

 ern Idaho is a land where man can eat bread without 

 scarceness, and where he shall lack nothing in it. It is 

 unquestionably the finest fruit section of the United 

 States. Nowhere do peaches, apples, pears, apricots, 

 prunes, etc., grow to such an enormous size. 



There are no extremes of heat and cold in this sec- 

 tion. Southern Idaho has three hundred days of sun- 

 shine each year, and with but three exceptions the ther- 

 mometer had not registered zero in ten years. Farmers 

 plow every month in the year, the winters being so mild 

 that an overcoat is seldom necessary. 



This particular Mountain Home, from which the 

 writer has just returned, is located on the main line of 

 the Oregon Short Line Eailroad, the leading route from 

 Chicago to Portland. It is 1,772 miles west of Chicago, 

 and one night's ride from, Portland, Oregon, or Salt 

 Lake City. Irrigated improved lands in the vicinity 

 of Mountain Home are worth from $100 per acre up, 

 while bearing orchards sell from $400 to $700 per acre. 

 Mountain Home has a population of about 1,700. Its 

 altitude is 2,970 feet. It is an up-to-date progres- 

 sive town. Elmore county, of which Mountain Home 

 is the county seat, has more square miles than Mas- 

 sachusetts, Ehode Island and Vermont combined. The 

 land at Mountain Home is perfectly level, and it is 

 very easy to run the water over the entire surface, once 



A Stack of Alfalfa, Mountain Home, Idaho. 



it is plowed. Five irrigations during the agricultural 

 season are sufficient for the growing of any crop. Water 

 for domestic use at Mountain Home is obtained in 

 abundance from wells at a depth of from 15 to 20 feet. 

 (Concluded on page 347.) 



