Daily Kennebec journal., 1904-07-16
TO POPULATE DESERTS.
The Salvation Army's Vast Project
What Is Has Done Already.

Officers of the Salvation Army. which
is now holding it's international con-
gress in London. have evolved a stu
pendous plan of populating the arid
regions of the West. They have q
| scheme to remove the pauperized class
es from the great cities and make them
farmers. They want the government
to advance the money for a colonial
tiOn scheme more ambitious than any
which the great colonizing countries of
Europe have ever yet attempted. They
had a bill introduced at the last Con-
gress to carry out their scheme. and
although the bill was killed and the
plan called a chimeIa, they are now
lining up to fight it through at the
next session.
The SalvatiOnists have figured it all
| out. There is enough waste water in
the United States, they say, to irrigate
cne-fifth of the arid lands, or $50, O,O0O,-
600 acres, and of this vast territory
only One-fiftith or about 10000. 900
acres, have already been reclaimed.
| They estimate that the government
| can settle families on fifteen acre tracts
| at the cost of $3.50 an acre, and in
the bill which they want passed Uncle
| Sam is to loan out $5,000,000 n year to
reclaim annually nearly 100000 acres.
| This would remove from the cities
every year, they estimate, more than
10000 families, or about $4,000 souls.
Such project would not only pay for
| itself, it's advocates say. but also net
q rich income. The money is all to be
paid back at per cent interest.
Ja Ss,I1
called visionary in advocating such a
| plan they point to the three colonies
| which they have themselves establish
cd in Colorado, Ohio and California.
These settlements, { sggrega:ng about
| five hundred men, women ard children,
have cost about 100000, but their
| founder says that all except the young
est are now self-supporting.
The Oldest and largest colony and
| the one that 0est illustrates the settle
ment plan, which the army wants the
| government to undertake, is at Amity,
Col, a few miles west of the Kansas
line. on the Santa I'e Railroad. Here
six years ago two thousand acres were
purchased at $4,000. and at the pres
| ent time One-half the land has been
| ldhcH up, stllu ln1 community HIS
grown to a population of 3G0. Its peo-
pie have prospered. according to Com
-rander BoothTucker, VINO said re-
| Gently that the freight alone on Fort
Amity's crops last year amounted IL
| $50, 900, or $4,000 moro than the original
cost of the land. OF the $4,000 eX-
| Iended on tie colony for land. build
| inSs and irrigation works. the colo
nists have paid back nearly one-fourth,
or $21,00O.
AS each family arrives at Fort Am
ity. 1t is quartered by the commanding
officer. until its house is built and fur
| nished. If the newcomer is handy
with the hammer" he builds his own
house; if not, he hires the village car
penter. Besides the home, the settler
obtains two horses, a COW, two dozen
chickens. and all the tools needed for
cultivating his twenty acres of land.
| He is also supplied with cash to buy
the seed for his first crop. after which
he is supposed to shift for himself. His
chief crops are alfalfa, canteloupe and
sugar beet By the time the first crop
is harvested. however, he is in debt to
the army for from $1,000 to $500. He
has eleven years to pay back the sum,
and inasmuch as the interest is ac-
cumulating right along at the rate of
6 per cent, he is stimulated to cancel
his debt as soon as possible. Com
mander Booth-Tucker says that few
have already cleared themselves and
adds: Families who started two or
five years ago with nothing. now pos
sess farms worth from $4,000 to $4,000.
The average cash income of the settlers
is $500. and there is no disposition on
the part of any of them to abandon
their farms and return to the city,"
The vital Importance of the irrigation
ditch is seen in every deed of property
drawn up for reclaimed Western land.
At Fort Amity each cOlonist is entitled
| to certain water rights. SO that he can
Hood his land for each crop, at the