The Republican journal., 1904-01-07
SMALL IRRIGATED FARMS.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 1904. A pre-
vious letter in this series gave a brief
account of the twenty-acre alfalfa
farms, supplemented by cows and
creameries, which a. Chicago man thinks
is just the thing for. the lands now be-
ing irrigated on the Colorado Desert in
southeastern California, and which he
is backing with his money by assisting
small settlers to get a start. These
twenty-acre farms furnish striking
contrast with those of 800 and $40 acres
which are being acquired in the same
section under the Desert Land Law.
But here is the story of another man
lone of the richest manufacturers in
the Mississippi valley-who thinks that
twenty acres makes farm just four
times too big for the average settler
who has little to invest except his la
Dor and brains.
This other manufacturer is N. O.
/ Nelson of st. Louis, who conducts a
model pro6t-sharing industrial town at
Leclaire, Illinois, across the river from
the great Missouri metropolis. Mr..
Nelson is genuine philanthropist,
though of practical kind, since his
idea is to help people to help them
selves and to show them how to. be-
come independent instead of depend
ent. For years he has been casting
longing eyes towards the deserts of the
West. He was looking for place
where poorp people who are out of health,
particularly with pulmonary OF throat
diseases, might go and forget their ills
while engaged in profitable outdoor
pursuits.
He wanted very dry place where the
air is filled with healing balm and where
the sunshine takes the place of drugs
and artificial heat He found this ideal
spot on the western edge of the desert,
about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.
Here he established the Indio Health
Camp about eighteen months ago. He
bought a tract of land which is irrigat
ed by artesian wells, and proceeded to
erect cheap but comfortable quarters
for his colonists, whom he had no diff
Guilty in securing in ample numbers.
Mr. Nelson believes that true pros
perity in the land of irrigation is to be
had by the intensive cultivation of
little farms rather than the wasteful
tilling of big ones. And at Indio he
believes five acres are enough. On
these small areas his settlers are rails
ing table grapes, melons, sweet pota-
toes and other products which are
readily sold in nearby markets at fancy
prices. In that favored spot these gar
den crops mature earlier than else
where in California and are therefore
very profitable. The Indio people be-
lieve they will achieve independence
before many of their land hungry
neighbors who are acquiring from sixty
four to one hundred and twenty-eight
times as much land under the Desert
Land Law as they are buying from Mr.
Nelson at cost price and paying for
with the proceeds of their land and
labor.
The truth of the matter is that the
people of lndio are making homes and
tilling the land while their more ac-
quisitive neighbors are specializing in
the public domain. This speculation
will go on as long as the land laws con-
tinue to favor human greed rather
than human need. The Desert Act not
only enables the requirement of large
tracts of government land. but it re-
quires no settlement or residence what
ever
WILLIAM E. SMYTHE.