The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1907-11-22

grasses give 1t most cheerful air
in spring and early summer. Dur
ing July and August, the hot wea-
Their, the bright sunlight and lack
OF heavy showers, cause vegetation
to dry up unless 1t is rooted deep.
This describes the climatic condi-
lions of the great plain or valley
from the borders of The Yellowstone
Park to the new Oil wells in western
Idaho where the great valley mar
rows to a canyon, the highest de-
gree of temperature being found in
the west, and ranging cooler to-
wards the head of the valley.
In this territory are included all
the great reclamation projects in
Idaho, the state having the most
water, the most land and the great
est irrigation projects of the semi
arid states.
The reservation mentioned above,
has also come within the scope of
the reclamation idea, and $350,000
appropriated by congress is at the
disposal of the, engineers for build
ing a great storage reservoir in a
natural basin in the mountains, and
canals to conduct the water out to
tho fertile lands lying west of The
Blackfoot River, between Blackfoot
and Pocatello. Work is in pro-
gress on this enterprise and will be
pushed to completion.
What irrigation fails to do or is
too slow to do for the semi-arid
plains, individual settlers and pri-
vate capital are doing by means Of
dry-farming, it having been deter
mined by practical tests, that the
whole face of the country would
yield profitable crops If cultivated
according to the best known meth
DDS of summer follow, and the pre-
diction of men who until recently
were considered dreamers, that The
Snake River Valley, including the
great plains would one day be
a densely populated district, the
center of the great Northwest con-
tanning the best that has been devel-
we'd from The Caucasian Race,
seems actually coming to pass.
Evidence Of this Is seen in the
great slices Of territory that are be-
ing reclaimed by the pluck of men
from all over the nation, bringing
not only capital, but the best known
methods of construction and irriga-
ton the world affords today. When
the Omaha Trade Excursion visited
Idaho last summer, Mr.. Carpenter,
the manager OF the great Carpenter
Paper Company of Omaha, after list
ening few moments to a Blackfoot
mans description Of the surround
ing country, exclaimed, why am
astonished every time ! get off the
train. You Idaho men speak of
acres just like the New Workers
speak Of dollars. Fifty thousand
acres; eighty thousand acres; seven
ty thousand acres; two hundred
forty thousand; half million acres
and SO on. Every county out here
has more in 1t than | supposed was
in the whole country, and every man
we meet is teaching the idea of
building homes and empires. | see
now what General Booth has been
trying to tell us about settling up
the west with the people from the
congested cities In the east. He
called 1t putting the landless man
on the manless land"
And so 1t is with all southern
Idaho, the magnificent distances
made up of fertile acres and ire
mendous water courses, seem to the
local man to be too great to ever be
utilized, and only the man who
knows of the teeming millions of
the east, DESTROYS OF some place to
go where they can have the wealth
of nature, can form any adequate
idea of the tremendous development
in store for Idaho, when these two
elements meet.
Until the past few years 1t was
generally understood that it was
almost impossible to sink wells and
obtain water for domestic purposes
on the great plains, but experiments