THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



69 



GIVING THE SETTLER ON IRRIGATION PROJECTS 



A SQUARE DEAL 



(As analyzed by Western experts) 



It is generally agreed by colonization experts 

 who have made a study of the agricultural situa- 

 tion in the West and Southwest that the usual meth- 

 ods of inducing new settlers to come and take up 

 land on various projects have been a failure. The 

 causes for this failure are: 



1. The settlers are lured to the new country 

 by advertising which grossly exaggerates the local 

 agricultural conditions and possibilities. 



2. On arrival, the settlers are frequently sold 

 land in a mariner disadvantageous to them, such as 

 land not having first-class water rights, affected 

 with alkali, price too high from an agricultural pro- 

 duction standpoint, area too small for profitable 

 extensive farming by the farmer of average ability, 

 or the settler is induced to make a purchase when 

 he has insufficient capital or without reserving 

 enough working capital. 



3. Lack of experience with local farming con- 

 ditions is apt to lead the settlers to make costly 

 failures at the start. They do not know what crops 

 to plant, how or when to plant them, are unable to 

 plan the development of their ranches to best ad- 

 vantage, and are unfamiliar with irrigation or dry- 

 farming methods. 



4. Lack of credit facilities, organization, and 

 marketing system are serious handicaps to be reck- 

 oned with. 



It is encouraging, therefore, to learn that one 

 community in the Southwest has at last recognized 

 the seriousness of this situation and has taken defi- 

 nite, businss-like steps to remedy it. For more than 

 six months the Elephant Butte Water Users' Asso- 

 ciation, in co-operation with the business men of 

 Las Cruces and the Rio Grande Valley in New 

 Mexico, have had in successful operation a plan 

 which bids fair to make the Elephant Butte project 

 the most successful of any of the reclamation proj- 

 ects in the United States. There has been organ- 

 ized what is known as the Immigration Bureau of 

 the Elephant Butte Water Users' Association, in 

 charge of a secretary. This bureau is supported by 

 funds from the Water Users' Association and the 

 business men. The bureau also employs a sales 

 agent, who handles practically all the sales of farm 

 lands under the project. When the sales agent was 

 first appointed he immediately commenced listing all 

 the lands that were for sale in the valley, not ask- 

 ing for an exclusive option at all, but merely get- 

 ting the signatures of the property owners, agree- 

 ing to sell their lands at a stated price to anyone 

 whom the immigration bureau might bring to them, 

 and agreeing also to pay a commission of 5 per 

 cent for such sales and to furnish an abstract of 

 title. One feature of the plan is that lands are not 

 accepted for listing on which the owners desire to 

 put the price greater than their agricultural value. 

 As the secretary of immigration, Mr. H. B. Link, 

 states, "The idea proved exceedingly popular, and 



our listing included more lands than all the real 

 estate men put together were ever able to show in 

 this valley. . . . We always try to arrange 

 things so that each man will have a cash working 

 capital instead of paying all his money as a first 

 payment on his land. As a result of a campaign 

 that we inaugurated when we started the work, 

 most of our lands are listed with us with the pro- 

 vision that deferred payments shall draw but 6 per 

 cent interest. In addition to this, we have access 

 to the maps and statistics of the U. S. reclamation 

 service, which cover every farm unit under the Ele- 

 phant Butte project. We can thus ascertain the 

 contour of each property, the exact acreage, and 

 other similar and valuable information. We also 

 have access to the books of each community ditch, 

 and determine in advance whether ditch rentals and 

 water taxes have been paid, and otherwise protect 

 the purchaser in every way possible. 



"Mr. J. F. Findlay, the sales agent, at his own 

 expense, provides a Ford touring car, which he 

 maintains, and in this he carries prospective pur- 

 chasers to see the lands that are for sale. When a. 

 man finds something that he likes and which we 

 can approve, we take him then direct to the owner, 

 and the two men can make their deal, each know- 

 ing the exact terms which the other is receiving 

 and each one secure in his confidence that no one 

 is being swindled. 



"In the six months that this plan has been in 

 operation the commissions from our sales have been 

 more than enough to pay the expenses of Mr. Find- 

 lay's department, so that we can add his salary to 

 the amount that we can spend for advertising. 

 These advertisements are placed in mediums of 

 proven worth, our activities at present being largely 

 confined to the agricultural papers of the corn and 

 wheat states. 



"Our plan has won the commendation of the 

 U. S. reclamation service, as well as the coloniza- 

 tion departments of the railroads. Its heartiest and 

 sincerest commendations, however, have come, I 

 am glad to say, from the homeseekers whom we 

 have handled under this plan." 



Another feature of the Elephant Butte plan is 

 that the county farm advisor has his office with 

 the immigration bureau, and new settlers in this 

 way are enabled to secure the advice of the county 

 farm advisor in laying out their ranches and other- 

 wise starting off on the right track, so that the 

 usual costly mistakes are avoided from the very 

 beginning. Thus everything is done to help the 

 new settler make a success of farming and so be- 

 come "an asset rather than a liability to the com- 

 munity." 



It is interesting to learn that the example of 

 the Elephant Butte water users is now being fol- 

 lowed by the Carlsbad water users in New Mexico. 

 The work at Carlsbad is just beginning, but will 

 probably be conducted along the same lines as that 

 at Elephant Butte. 



