THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



4!) 



marked that as compared with one of the valleys in his 

 own state where "God had done much and man mighty 

 little" here "man had done great things even if God had 

 done little," but when we consider that the children of 

 Israel were kept in the desert forty years before reaching 

 the promised land, we are impressed with the idea that 

 God did much for the Payette Valley in so arranging 

 an abundant and never failing water supply with so 

 fertile a valley and a healthful and mild climate, that 

 man has been able to change the desert into a veritable 

 "promised land" in so short a time. 



Some of the sagebrush lands, which sold five years 

 ago at from $35.00 to $45.00 per acre, are today selling 

 at from $150.00 to $200.00 per acre, and just beyond 

 these settlements and within three miles of New Ply- 

 mouth, the present terminus of the Payette Valley rail- 



In addition to this nearly 600 cars of sugar beets 

 were produced in the valley, worth about $100,000. 

 This year the acreage in sugar beets has been more 

 than doubled and the average tonnage over the entire 

 valley will probably exceed fifteen tons per acre. These 

 beets are contracted in advance and sold to the Western 

 Idaho Sugar Company at the nearest beet dump, for 

 $4.50 per ton, and some of the growers last year cleared 

 from $60.00 to $75.00 per acre above all expenses, when 

 the land was specially prepared for this crop. 



These fruits never fail to obtain first place where- 

 ever exhibited. At Ogden, Utah, at the National Irriga- 

 tion Congress, it was the Payette Valley fruit which 

 won the $500 silver cup for Idaho and at the last con- 

 gress, held at Boise last year, where there were magni- 

 ficent exhibits from Colorado, Utah and Oregon, as well 



Frnitland Fruit Pickers and Orchard 8 years old. 

 Payette Valley, Idaho. 



road, there are several thousand acres of similar land 

 still untouched, at from $40,00 to $50.00 per acre, in- 

 cluding water rights, and these are being improved as 

 rapidly as men can be found to make contracts and 

 take care of the crops. The New Plymouth Land & 

 Colonization Company of Payette has this year im- 

 proved several hundred acres and has planted 150 acres 

 with sugar beets and 30 acres with peas for the Idaho 

 Canning Company of Payette, the principal cannery of 

 the state, the balance of the land being mostly in grain 

 and alfalfa. 



Last year 328 cars of fruit and melons were 

 shipped from Payette; 150 cars of apples; 120 cars of 

 prunes ; 6 cars of pears ; two cars of peaches and 50 

 cars of melons, representing a cash revenue of nearly 

 $200,000.00. 



Corn Field Near Tayette. 

 Alfalfa Hay, Payette Valley 9-tons per acre. 



as from all other parts of Idaho, the Payette Valley 

 growers were awarded the four silver cups for first prize 

 on apples, pears, peaches and prunes. 



Only the surfafce has, however, thus far been 

 touched and the development of. the next five years 

 will without doubt surpass all records of the past. 



OIL AND GAS. 



Arrangements are now being made for the putting 

 down of several wells for oil and gas in the vicinity of 

 Payette and the strong surface indications and general 

 character of the surrounding country are sufficiently 

 convincing to experts to warrant them in expending a 

 large amount of money in making the test. 



' Work will be pushed as rapidly as possible, leases 

 are now being secured and in order to comply with 



