Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-10-23
NOR. About our TrIp out west.


of October I'd. Since that time we
visited points in Colorado, Wyoming,
Utah and Idaho, going as far west
and north as Eagle Rock, Idaho, 900
milesi north of Ogden. Near this
place we filed on 160 acres of "desert
land" and contracted with the Idaho
Irrigation Co. to irrigate the same
This is in the Snake River valley.
The land there is very productive
when irrigated. We saw potatoes
of enormous size raised near Eagle.
Rock, and fine samples of wheat, oats,
rye, alfalfa, turnips, cabbages and
other farm products. It is a fine ag-
ricultural valley and is destined to
become a rich country. Any person
of either sex, q years of age, can file
on half section, or a less amount of
land, under the "desert land law"
He is required to pay at the time of
filing 25 cents per acre. He then has
three years IN which to irrigate the
land. After the land is irrigated he
can prove up and acquire title on
payment of $1.0O per acre, making a
total of slips per acre the land costs.
him. In the great Snake River val
ley are about dozen Irrigation Com
panies which will contract with par
ties to put water on the land at from
S. 90 to $500 per acre for the perpet-
ual right. That makes a total cost
of from 1928 to 1925 per acre for the
irrigated land. After it is irrigated
it is worth from $1,000 to $500 per
acre. The land is being rapidly taken
up. The farmers III the countries
where they irrigate can always calcu-
late on raising crop, but our readers
must not conclude from this that
there are no drawbacks or disadvan-
tages in farming in those countries.
To make irrigation a success the farm
er must carefully and at the proper
time let the water out from the main
ditch into the laterals or smaller fur
rows. To do it correctly requires
promptness and care One intelli-
gent farmer at Eagle Rock said to us
that she had been farming by irriga-
ton in Idaho eight years and had
done well, that he came from this
State and that he would rather farm
in Kansas and lose his crops half the
time than to farm by irrigation in
Idaho. He said with all her draw
backs he believed that Kansas would
in few years be universally regard
ed as the best State in the Union"
We spent day at Blackfoot, the
centre of the Soshone Indian reserva-
ton. Here are fifteen hundred In
dams and Government post near by.
With but few exceptions the Indians
here have the dress and habits of
their wild ancestors. They live in
tents, paint their faces, hunt wild
game and their wearing apparel con-
sists of a blanket and garment or two
of cast off clothing once the property
Of white man. During the winter
they are fed at Government expense.
We found that about half the popu-
lation of those parts of Idaho we Wis
tied are Mormons. At Eagle Rock, a
town of but 400. inhabitants, there is
a wholesale and retail Mormon store,
the sales from which amount to more
than half million of dollars per year.
Their wholesale trade is extensive to
the small towns throughout that re-
gion. All over Idaho and Utah and
parts of Wyoming may be seen these
stores over the doors of which are the
large letters u. @. NJ L, which mean
''Zions Cooperative Merchantile In
stitute."
| The Mormons as a class are in
dustrIous, temperate and economical
and are. with but few exceptions, in
good financial circumstances. The
secret of this is probably due largely
to the cooperative business methods
prevalent among them.
Since we visited Utah in Septem-
Der President Wolford of the Mormon
Church issued a manifesto in which
he says in effect that Plural marriage
is forbidden in the church and that
they propose to obey the law of the
United States on that subject. The
General Conference that convened
about three weeks ago at Salt Lake
consisting of about secs delegates,
unanimously endorsed President Vol