Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1903-08-31
A 100000
ACRE FARM
Orchards Laden Each Year With
Luscious Peaches, Nectarines,
Oranges and Other Fruits.
AFRAID AND AHUMBUC
The Stupid and Wicked Desert Land
Law Made Possible This
Immense Ranch.

Among the very big things in Cali
fornia is the greatest irrigated farm
in the world 1t consists of 100000
acres, nearly all of which is under ac-
tual cultivation.
This princely estate is the property
Of single firm, or close corporation,
practically composed Of only two per-
sons or families.
Flowing through the heart of this
vast property is splendid river-one
of the best in California-which takes
it's rise in the higest peaks of the
Sierra Nevada Without the use OF
this stream the estate would be a
desert. With it, the property is con
verted into paradise.
The land is fertile almost beyond
belief, for it is delta which the
stream has been building for ages.
Here are wonderful fields of alfalfa,
yielding five Or six crops every season
and furnishing rich pasturage beside.
Here are vineyards bearing the ia
nous raisins and wine-grapes of the
San Joaquin valley. And here are cr-
chards laden each year with luscious
peaches, nectarines, and prunes, and
other orchards OF almonds and wal
nuts. Oranges are not produced in
commercial quantities, but are found
in the dooryards with the other rich
offerings of the semi-trcpical climate,
1t is literally land flowing with
milk and honey"
And this greatest irrigated farm in
the world is now private estate. 1t
is, yet only few years ago every acre
of this opulent soil. together with the
precious stream which waters it, be-
longed to the people of the United
States. The SOIL the water, the noun
,tains. the forests and tlie, tfI5i II !
SHOWS which lie in their embracs--ali
these formed a part of the heritage OF
your children and mine.
Carved Out Of the Public Domain.
How, then, did all this land and wa
ter pass into private ownership? The
thing was done by means of the pre-
posterous land laws OF the Unite
States. 1t is strange that these laws
were ever placed upon the statute
book-stranger yet that thus far they
defy all efforts to effect their repeal.
No one ever dared to go before Con-
gress and respectfully request the
passage of a bill entitle IAN act to
Enable Rich Men and Corporations to
Acquire Lordly Estates from the Pub
lie Domain Of course, no one
would think OF proceeding in precisely
that way.
What is actually done is to ask Con-
gress to assist them in making homes
for the homeless and in, furnishing
land to the landless" And the meth.
ID proposed is the notorious desert
land law This was a fraud and
humbug from its inception. 1t is a
sort of anaesthetic administered to the
people to put them to sleep while
some millions of acres are painlessly
amputated from the public domain
This stupid and wicked law origin
ally invited every man and woman in
the United States. over twenty-one
years of age to take up GAO acres as
q homestead. They were required to
pay $1.25 per acre and to swear that
they had provided means for irri-
eating certain portion of the land.
The law was loosely administered and
evaded in its most essen
tian details. A few years ago the
amount of land which one individual
could acquire under this statute was
reduced to 800 acres.
As a rule, the desert lands lie In
large bodies and are only to be re-
by costly works of irrigation.
In the case of the great farm under
the works are said to have
cost $4,000 900.
How could any poor settler, or any
of poor settlers who could be
brought together under ordinary cir
avail themselves of the
privilege of getting homes by using
this law in good faith? They could
not do So They did not do so. The
law was designed as an instrument to
rob the people of their lands. And.
with rare exceptions, it has been used
strictly In accord with that design.
Room for Forty Thousand.
Ten acres of good irrigated soil in
the semi-tropical valleys of California
will support an average family in COM
fort. Four hundred thousand acres
would, then, support 10000 families
or 100000 persons if the families con-
sisted of four each. This is the num-
Der of landed proprietors who might
now be in possession Of the greatest
irrigated farm in the world if the ma
tional irrigation law had been passed
twenty-five years ago and II the land
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