Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-24

there is great difficulty in getting anybody
to do this back-breaking work. About go
Mexican and Indian men and women are
brought up from the pueblos of New Mex
away as Ell PasO and Gallup IN 'Weedlng
time, bringing their women and children,
and stay until after the cantaloupes are
picked and shipped: about two months aito-
gether, and are paid from $5.25 to $3.50 an
acre for wedding and thinning beets. A
Pueblo Indian or half-breed Mexican, with
his wife and children, can do from one to
three acres a day, according to the size OF
the family and their industry. The sugar
company sends out agents in the spring to
gather them up, pays their railway fares
and provides quarters for them to live in.
Immense Irrigation System.
Behind the ROCKFORD factory is one Of
the biggest irrigating systems in the United
States, owned by 1.-THE Arkansas Valley
Sugar Beet and Irrigated Land Company,
composed of H. B. Hyde Of the Equitable
Life Insurance Company, the Mercantile
Trust Company Of New York, the OSnard
Brothers, and other eastern capitalists. 1t
has 1900 acres of reservoirs, $50 miles OF
main canal and $50 miles of laterals COW
ering an area of about 10000 acres, which
the company has purchased in small tracts
from the railway. the state and from tired
farmers who tried to farm with rain and
failed. There are now about 10000 acres
under water, and $4,000 acres more can be
reached by the extension of this system.
The next largest plant is the Fort Lyon
system, Immediately west, which was or
ganized by T. c. Henry Of Kansas, and sold
to the farmers after all the land was dis
posed of. It has about 10000 acres. watered
by 113 miles of canals, divided among
about 800 farmers. The largest irrigated
area in one location is on the Platte river
in northern Colorado. but it is operated by
40 {,.1a LIANT anin
The man who started the Arkansas val
ley irrigation system made failure OF it.
and the property came into the hands OF
the present owners unwillingly by foreclos-
ure. They had to put in more money to
save their investment, and have continued
to do so during the last six years, until they
have invested several millions in land,
bitches and improvements. They have sold
about 10000 acres, all the way from $40 to
$50 an acre, according to location, and
that Is big price for raw land with no i'm
provements except water. The lowest price
of raw land is $40 an acre; the lowest
price at which cultivated land has been
sold lately is $50 an acre Every acre has
to pay so cents a year for water A man
can buy farm of forty acres for $1,000 in
semi-annual payments, with interest at 6
per cent and by paying $40 a year water
rent is insured against drought.
Effect of Irrigation.
With irrigation that forty acres will pro-
duce as muCn as any Ordinary Ioo-acre 1arm
without irrigation, and, indeed, the COM
pany insists that nobody can profitably han
die any larger tract. 1t will not sell more
than forty acres to any one buyer. There
are now about $50 farms within the irri-.
gated district. The largest, 800 acres, be-
longs to J. C. Moss, who was one of the
earliest buyers. and got his land before the
property passed into the hands of the pres
emit owners. The Salvation Army has LOO
has located colony of about 400 people.
Two other towns, Holy and Granada, are
dependent on the company for water.
There is room enough on the irrigated
area for a thousand farms and general
population of 10000 or 1900. Any staple
will grow Sugar beets are the surest and
most profitable all things considered, and
will pay anywhere from $25 to $125 an acre.
according to the skill and industry with
which they are cultivated. Cantaloupes
will pay more, often as high $3.50 an
acre. but they are speculative crop and
often uncertain both In quantity, price and
market. Alfalfa will average better than
year in and year out, accord
ing to The testimony of the farmers. 1t is
always in demand in Texas, Oklahoma, New
Mexico and Arizona at profitable prices
and requires less labor than any other
staple. Apples, peaches and other fruit
pay well, but require five and six years to
reach the bearing age. There is steady,
profitable market for all kinds of vege-
tables, and wise farmer divides his In
terests and avoids the error of carrying all
of his eggs In one basket. He will have a
truck garden. an orchard. four or five
acres of melons and give the rest of his
land up to alfalfa and beets.