The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1906-01-19

trade of the vest, coast Of South America
20 the United States. Its to enable our
long coast hne on the Pacific coast.
American trade: Five per cent or less az
the population Of the world lives south
Of the equator and less that per cent Of
that sn1,ts s per cent lives enthe west coast q
millions, II It costs hundreds Of millions,
spent for the canal 10 rather q high price
tospay.
A Lons, Very Lons Wait. @,
Maybe you can persuade some Of your
for you. But il you wait for that, I am
afraid some Of YOU will have to wait
Some Of you old gentlemen who, like
place where re won't need irrigation. We
hope We won't anyway. However, before
you can do anything elae. you must make
the tbs min
rection In which the water runs. The
water will always follow the line Of the
least resistance. and you must find where
Of the work IL comparatively easy. The
rest Of the work 10 simply to put your
hand In your pocket and pay the money
out. - -
Sometimes people have put their hands
In their pockets and paid money out and
got nothing for it. What little has been
done that hasn't been done under exact
pervision. has practically been useless.
One man might get rid ~ the water and
get It on to his neighbor's land, and there
~ lawsuit and bad neighborhood feel
have a comprehensive plan TINT takes the
water to the river and carries 1t north OF
the boundary; The most fertile spot in
the world Is the Nile and the overfowing
OF the Nile Is the source OF its great fer
tility. But they have taken care Of it for
long. long centuries. SO that that water
c could e,ad get back into the Nile and run
a. You all know your trouble is because
the water. the melting snow, lies on the
land too long. 1t has got to wait prac-
t teal .. Until It eyaporates: then comes
but that lies too long and browns the
cron out.
ut is fair to say 1t would cost $3.50 an
acre to raise and harvest a crop of wheat
II you can get thirty bushels to an acre
for SEQ an acre. YOU are a lot better or
than Y you get y or Is bushels for $500
and that is what ! would like to see you
more of that additional yield than our
modest toll for carrying 1t to market and
vow take all that is in it after YOU have
SOLD: We VIII take care of ourselves on
getting something "',t of II FOR hauling
1t to market: We have to. If we didn't
We couldn't give you the service. Whenever
Il man starts out TO get something for
appointment.
hest of Investment.
'Now. suppose that this land that we
propose to put under good system of
drainage costs s.. sc or SO an acre. am
looking to {, perfect system of drainage.
where q mans fields would be tile drain.
ed and everything taken care OF, and il
you add for an expenditure of So Or $3.50
to your land or to u field that will repre-
that it is an investment you could not
afford to mss.
There is no more public domain where
make a living without Irrigation, and 1t
is estimated that the government can
$50 or $50 an acre. What will a poor
acre? He has got five or six little chill
dren and good wife and some cour-
"Let him try to make up so or $50 an
won't find it so easy and he won't have
SO much courage When he gets through.
But suppose he did. and then you allow
ed these men on that irrigated land. fifty
acres to a farm, you would take care Of
g million families.
The last year q million people c,;me
our country. The natural increase is a
million and a half more. TO provide one
million homes is a drop in the bucket and
no more What you have got IT. to do is to
intensely. I think the average yield nf
wheat In England is from % to 80 BUSH
els to the acre. With the same kind of
cultivation. you would raise forty or
to be.
"Gct to Work.
Now what will you do? Have you a
state organization? Have you authority
to organize, or have you any organiz:l-
ton that can establish credit? Ii you
1n.,r got no ~
get the state or the United States to do
it. all right: but If you can't, don't post
pons it. Take it up; have it taken up by
help to dig a ditch or to make a survey,
but am like the miner who went to
California. l can write home. and will
gladly. bear Il third Of the expense with
$4,000 and I will raise $4,000. (Grea +
cheering and shouts Of enthusiastic ap-
proval)
the State &C" Of Minnesota? In the first
place. to get the map we hired engineers.
and it was 80 unpopular that We had to
abandon 1t. It was a railroad measure
favor-that was enough to kill 1t. But
time is Il great healer and has the power
Of convincing people to degree that Is
water standing on the surface of the
ground. these gentlemen began to think
that drainage wouldn't be amlsS. ana
when we sold our land at IS an acre we
related $3.50 an acre for all the land
that n man would dlxlin. our object being
to get that land under cultivation III the
best form.
I'VE tried some t1itching ourselves. We
built q ditch called the Euclid ditch. and
the gentlemen who lived in the neighbOr-
hood were afraid we were going to wash
the face off the earth, and they brought
suits to restrain us. We had suits
brought in Minnesota for land damages
where we were able to show by the sur
veys of the county engineer that the
nuns farm was six feet higher than any
place on our ditch, and water to get on
his laEs w 4 to turn a back sOmersnult
and gee :. Sax feet. 1t isn't a new Qlles-
ton wll:l us.
Loss Exceeds Cost Of Ditch.
ST remember at one term of court we
had about $0O,OOO of damage suits for
draining the Red river valley on the
other side. Down here at Argusvi!le we
paid the county commissioners the cost
of digging ditch; showed them just
what to de. They. scnt a hill fnlr times
what 1t cost to dig the ditch. We paid
what 1t cost, but we didn't try any more
experiments of that kind: and aa to that
ditch; the farmers would haul in n load
Of straw and dump 1t 40 they could drive
across. and leave 1t there. So that ditch
has been damned in n good many ways
The loss OF crop last summer on land that
that ditch might have drained would
build four such ditches and don't know
hut that it would build ten. It seems too