THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



109 



to the project and entitled to and must receive our 

 attention, must receive its full quota of water to 

 insure crops, must pay its just proportion of cost of 

 operation, maintenance and support of the associa- 

 tion. It is our duty to see to the fair distribution 

 of the water at the lowest possible cost, the proper 

 use thereof, and to encourage diversified intensive 

 farming that the greatest yield possible be produced. 



We can and should go further. We should be- 

 come the agent or provide agencies for the market- 

 ing of the surplus products of the valley, and pro- 

 vide facilities for the economic storing of products 

 in time of excess production, in time of car short- 

 age, and in times when prices are ruinously low. 

 Storage facilities should be provided and owned by 

 the association where potatoes, onions and apples 

 could be stored and cared for at a price but little 

 greater than actual cost. The association, if acting 

 as agent for the products of the valley, could sell 

 direct to consumers through Farmers' Clubs or 

 through an Uncompahgre Valley Products store, or 

 both of these agencies, at the highest price they 

 can get. Farmers' clubs are the rule now in most 

 of the counties of eastern Colorado, western 

 Nebraska, and western Kansas, Oklahoma and 

 Texas and all this territory is our legitimate mar- 

 ket. Much of this territory will never raise its own 

 apples or peaches, potatoes, onions or sugar, and 

 our valley cannot be excelled in the known world 

 in the perfect production of these essential food 

 products. 



It is up to the people of this valley to use the 

 resources at hand and to use the brains we have, 

 or if deficient in the ownership of this all-essential 

 quality, organize, co-operate, use the proffered help 

 of the government, or hire experts in these various 

 lines, stand together, produce the best products 

 possible and put them up in only the BEST pos- 

 sible condition and form. We should wake up to 

 the opportunities before us, and get instead of about 

 thirty-five cents out of each dollar our products 

 bring, at least the most of the dollar, and place it 

 in the hands of the 

 producer, where it 

 belongs, and where, 

 under God, and on 

 His productive foot- 

 stool, unless a more 

 equitable distribu- 

 tion is made, the 

 producer the man 

 and the family, to 

 whom it rightfully 

 belongs, must go 

 in abject need of 

 the essentials of 

 plain living. Are 

 we going to con- 

 tinue to pay ten, 

 twelve and fifteen 

 per cent for funds 

 to carry on the 

 farm work, mort- 

 gage the crops and 

 teams' and the plows 

 to obtain these 



One of the Grade Schools on the Lower Yellowstone Federal Irrigation Project 

 Montana. Courtesy of the Northern Pacific Railway. 



funds, or are we going to use the credit of this pro- 

 ductive valley or secure funds by private subscrip- 

 tion and start banks of our own, and fix the rate 

 where borrowing patrons can afford to borrow, and 

 can live ; and where the owners are satisfied with a 

 less dividend, but who gain much in seeing a pros- 

 perous, instead of a broke and helpless clientele? 



The association should own at least three banks 

 in the Uncompahgre valley, for the sole accommo- 

 dation of farmers, dairy men and stockmen, so that 

 more reasonable rates of interest could be secured. 

 Prosperity must ever remain a stranger to the large 

 majority of farmers, especially of tenant farmers, 

 where interest rates are above seven or eight per 

 cent. Figure up the amount of wealth that will go 

 out of this valley within a period of twenty years, 

 produced by the farmers under the project over and 

 above the meager amount they get for these prod- 

 ucts, add to this the enormous amount paid to the 

 banks of the valley in a period of twenty years, 

 over and above eight per cent, and the total amount 

 will reach in excess of the cost of our great Un- 

 compahgre irrigation plant. 



Are we going to let one-half dozen to twenty 

 buyers and wholesale jobbers, brokers and robbers 

 come into our valley each year, maintain high sal- 

 aried men in the field, and purchase our products 

 at the lowest figure possible? This figure is fixed 

 by agreement every day between buyers. By main- 

 taining high salaried men on the road, selling our 

 products at the highest price they can obtain, the 

 price to the consumer often runs to a figure three 

 times the amount the producer received. Or are 

 we going to stand as a unit and correct if possible 

 some of the abuses? Railroad rates, both passenger 

 and freight, should be lowered ; interest rates 

 should be lowered and relief in both these particu- 

 lars can be secured if the right effort is made by 

 the people of the Uncompahgre valley, or any 

 other. On the other hand, unless these wrongs are 

 corrected, we must and will continue to see immi- 

 gration pouring into those states where banks with 



no more capital, sur- 

 plus and deposits, 

 and in sections no 

 more productive 

 than ours, are loan- 

 ing funds at seven 

 and eight per cent, 

 where railroads are 

 carrying passengers 

 at two or two and 

 one-half or three 

 cents per mile and 

 carrying freight at 

 less than one-half 

 the rates charged 

 here. Relief? that 

 depends upon the 

 people, 



Is your Water Users' 

 Association doing any- 

 thing for the settlers? 

 Write to us about it. 

 The Editor. 



