Imperial press and farmer., 1902-06-14
Imperial C0lOny's Success.

manner:
 San Diego is deeply interested in the New River country. The success of the plans for making productive the vast area of fertile land in that region closely concerns this city. It has long been the prevalent belief that when water were once placed on that DOT tion of the so-called desert, it would become in productive richness a sec ond valley of the Nile. Firm in this faith, enterprising gentlemen under took an extensive project for transform ing that arid region into prosperous farms A great irrigation system was planned and carried we'll along toward completion. Settlers who also shared the prevalent belief in the future of the region focked to that part of the dis trict called Imperial. A town quickly grew up and the culture of the ad- jacent lands, now supplied with water began on large scale.
 Then was sounded the first discord- ant note in the harmonious plan for retaining the desert. Experts from the Agricultural Department visited the settlement, made an examination of the soil, etc., and forwarded to Washington report that took most pessimistic view. The gist of the find ing was thats of 169 square miles sur veyed, $50 per cent is either too rough for economical Irrigation or contains too high salt content for any but the most alkali-resistant plants to withstand"
 The average citizen has a profound respect for the opinion of men who are termed "experts' and when they are in the employ of a department of the Federal government, that respect with most people is likely to take the form of implicit, child-like confidence But the farmers of the Imperial Set clement were stubborn fellows, bump tious, perhaps, in their faith in their own notions about agriculture. Possi- ply, too, they recalled a case or two notably one in Kansas where the Agricultural Departments soil sharps had shot very wide of the mark. But however that may have been, these I'm perial ranchers paid no heed to the report, put proceeded to put in their crops and bring the dispute to the practical test. The result has been precisely what they expected crops are there. Supervisor Jasper told in yesterday Union the story of the Imperial farmers success. One pas sage in his interview is worth repro ducing here. He said:
 II do not take much stock in the reports of the government experts who have pronounced against some of the land l know one piece which they condemned that now contains twenty six hay ricks which will bale two and half tons to the acre. If half a ton is obtained nearer the coast it is con- s1dered a good yield. I have watched this one field in particular, because the owner was determined to put in a crop after the government experts had told him that he could not raise a stalk of barley on it. I admit that ] at first thought he was throwing away his time and money. But the result has more than justified the effort Twenty-six ricks of hay on this one field and a yield five times as heavy as is obtained near the coast does not speak badly for the land as do the goverpment experts. I saw another tielc that weighed out four tons tc the acre."
 So it is the old story The wise men trained by the books and presumably Knowing everything to be known about it, reached certain conclusions. and then the practical men went ahead and showed that the conclusions were er- roneous. Nobody. as a matter of fact