Imperial press and farmer., 1902-04-05

nearly 1000 acres, of which they have since sold 240 acres. Some of the l land which vas taken up a little more than a year ago at $1.25 to $2.25 an acre, has since been sold at $25 to S55 per acre. Much of it is now held as high as $100 per acre and some spe- cial tracts could not be purchased for twice that figure This is making money pretty rapidly and it almost leaves successful speculation in the shade.
 One tract of GAO acres of State school lands, which was purchased a year ago at $1.25 per acre, was sold. six months ago, at $25 an acre. Upon this tract six wells have been bored. and colony of Seventh-Day Advent ists is to be established thereon.
 Success Through Struggle.
 Thus closes the record of the first season on this formative oasis in the Colorado Desert. Yet not half the story has been told. Of the heroic struggle and self-sacrifces, the tri- umph over hard conditions. the disap- pointments and unexpected backsets that had to be met-the half can never be told. But the aggregate re- suit was great success. In a single season hitherto worthless desert was redeemed and made productive; not only productive, but highly profitable When the time came to plan the campaign for the second season (the coming spring and early summer), the Coachella Valley Producers Associa- tion went at the business in sys- tematic way. The association re- quired its members to "sign up" for the acreage which they expect to cul- tlvate in various crops, agreeing thereby to market the produce through the general organization. In this way about 800 acres of cantaloupes and 15O acres of watermelons have been pledged. About 800 acres more will be planted by farmers who are not in the association. Besides these plant lngs, there will be a considerable acreage devoted to alfalfa, barley, a variety of root crops and garden truck for home consumption. and some of the settlers propose to go into the planting of grapes and pears on quite an extensive scale Incidentally it may be stated that grapes pro- duced on MT. Durbrow's place at In dio last year, were ready for market June l, and brought 12 cents per pound. Even the latest varieties of grapes grown there were out of mar ket before the earliest Los Angeles varieties came in. The shipping sea- son at Coachella is expected to begin about June 1 and extend to August 1, covering sixty very active days Dur ing this time it is expected that eight carloads of produce will be dispatched each day-fve carloads going East and three to the Pacific Coast. Ar engagements have been made with the Southern Pacific Railway Company to hitch these cars to the regular pas senger trains and send them through on express time.
 Demand for the Crop.
 The association announced in ad- vance that, on November 1, 1901. it would make contracts for the forth coming seasons crop. So great is the demand for this early produce that leading houses throughout the country had special representatives on the ground to secure contracts. Among these were agents of the fol lowing firms: Lyons of New York, Coggins of Pittsburg, Woods of Chi cago, Ruddock, Trench x Go. and Simpson x Hack of Los Angeles. Eveleth, Nash & Co., of San Fran cisco, Spigel of Portland. Ore. and several others. New York stood ready, through it's representative. to