The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1904-03-03
ONE IRRIGATED ACRE


Los ANGELES, CALF, Feb. 25. The
Sacramento valley of California is a
land of big farms. Private estates run
all the way from one thousand to one
hundred thousand acres. 1t was once
profitable to farm vast areas in grain.
When this speculation began to fail, in
consequence of the expansion of the
industry in foreign lands which had
learned to use American labor-saving
machinery, the tendency toward big
farms was not checked, but rather ac-
tolerated, since many holdings were
consolidated in the process of mortgage
foreclosures.
Although the Sacramento valley is
blessed with most abundant water sup
plies irrigation is not generally en-
ployed. There is little rainfall from
May to November, yet grain and decld-
uous fruits are grown without artificial
moisture. But the big farms are not
prosperous. They are largely cultivated
by tenants and are strangely devoid of
features which make the true Califor-
MIA farm one of the most delightful
home-spots in the world. The men on
the land sell all they produce and buy
nearly all they consume. And so they
pay tribute to others ''going and COM
ing"
| have been visiting a farm in the
Sacramento Valley which consists of
one single acre of irrigated land and
which makes better home and larger
net income for its owner than many of
his neighbors enjoy on places of thou
sands Of acres each. The little farm is
at Orland, in Glen County, and is the
property of a man named Samuel
Cheeks, who has grown CID and gray
while tilling it for the past thirty years.
Mr. Cheeks tells me that he has no
difficulty whatever in making COM
Portable living from this one acre of
irrigated land Not only so, but he is
able to save an average of four hundred
dollars a year beside. He has money
to loan, as well as fruit, vegetables and
poultry products to sell to those who
are getting poorer every year in carry
ing on big farms without irrigation. |
was so curious to know how he could
get such good results from so small an
area that | asked him to give me list
of what the place contained. Here it
is:
Barn and corral space, 75x75 feet;
rabbit hutch, 25x25 feet; house and
porches, 30X30 feet; two windmill tow
ers, 16x16 feet each; garden, 46x94 feet;
blackberries, 16x90 feet; Strawberries,
65x90 feet; citrus nursery, 90x9S feet,
in which there are 230O trees budded;
one row of dewberries, 100 feet long;
apricot trees; 2 oak trees; 8 peach trees;
6 fig trees; 10 locust trees; 80 assorted
roses; 20 assorted geraniums; II lemon
trees, bearing, which are seven years
old; lime tree, nine years old and bear
ing, from which were sold last year 100
dozen lines; bearing orange trees; 4
breadfruit trees; pomegranate trees;
one patch of bamboo; s Gala lilies; 4
prune trees; blue gum trees; s cypress
trees; grapevines; English ivy; 2
honeysuckles; one seed bed; one violet
bed; / sage bed;, tomato vines; 10
stands of bees.
The story Of this prosperous one acre
farm, set in the midst of the great
wheat ranches Of the Sacramento
Valley, has a certain bearing on the
great popular movement aiming at the
repeal of existing laws under which the
nations lands are being recklessly
squandered.
In the face of such examples of the
productive capacity Of irrigated land
under intensive cultivation, why should
we continue to give away three hun
dred and twenty acres to a single in
dividual, or twice as much to man
and his wife? This is what we are
doing under the Desert Land Law
And every time we do it we shut the
door of. hope in. the face of ten or
twenty families who might get homes
on the public domain if the unit of
entry were cut down to a reasonable
thirty or sixty acres
Save the lands for the real house.
builder!. WILLIAMiE: SMYTHB.
For Over Sixty Years.
AN OLD AND WELhlTRIED REMEDY.
Mrs. WinalOW'S Soothing Syrup has heen