Omaha daily bee., 1902-04-08
CONFIDENT OF PLATTE DITCH
DR.. Long of Baird Says Irrigation Canal
Will Be Finished.
CONVERTED FASTENER is ENTHUSIASTIC
in Nebraska Reluctantly, hut
Now Expects Great Things of
His New Home, and
Tells why.

The people Of the South Platte valley
expect to see work resumed on the big
irrigation ditch. which Is eventually to
extend along the Platte river from the
Wyoming line to Bridgeport, Neb:." said Or.
J. II. Long Of Baird, Neb.. at the Mer-
chants hotel yesterday.
The doctor is returning to his home
after a visit with his relatives in Min
nesota. -Four years ago he came from the
east to hunt and locke over what was
then ar expanse Of dry sod. People inv ted
him to remain and make his home with
them and he finally accepted under pro-
test. Today on his same territory are the
fourishing towns Of Bridg port, Minatare
and Scots Bluff, and the doctor is just
about the most enthusiastic Nebraskan in
that whole section Of the state.
what the Canal VIII Do.
Except Omaha's jobbers and wholesalers
the people of the eastern part Of the state
don't realize what advancement we are
making out there. nor what a future we
have before u.s. he said. "In the last two
years some Of our land has jumped from
IS to $50 per acre and quarter sections
that were offered then for 81 900 cannot BE-
bought now for 81, 900. This farmers canal
that | mentioned win boost prices still
higher. 1t will reclaim loo. 900 acres and
can be depended on, for il is big-in fact,
it is 125 feet wide at the mouth and is
to be thlrty-hve feet wide, bottom meas
urement. seventy-hve miles from where
it taps the Platte. Only twenty-five miles
were dug by the old company, but now
the st. Louis Trust company proposes to
back the st. Louis Construction company
in the enterprise, the district to give $780,
600 bonds and half the land.
Delay Is Only Temporary.
THE new company has already bought
the old ones interests and l think work
would have been begun before this had 1t
not been for the death Of the head of the
trust company, which temporarily de-
lays matters.
For the first year after the railroad
got into that section, fasteners looked
at the country obviously. just as l once
did, but now we are catching them from
everywhere and during this last year there
has been an immigration that discounts
anything the section ever saw before. The
population has more than doubled. these
new towns have taken a start. each has its
new church buildings, new four-room
school houses, newspapers and banks. The
Baird banks last statement shows deposits
Of about $685. O0, and the population Of the
town is, as yet. only about 300.
Alfalfa seems the principal magnet in
the drawing Of new farmers. And we'll it
should be, for it has been bringing SO and
$3.50 per ton. in the stack. and we raise
three crops a year, each averaging two TO
three tons per acre. Hogs have -four
ished. there has never been a case of
cholera and their breeding is becoming
a great industry. Potatoes are to be
raised in great quantities. hereafter. also.
experiments having shown that under the
new conditions we can raise them easily.
And am 1 glad l locatsd there? Well. you
bet l am. That sectionI1s to be heard from
often and always favorably hereafter"