Omaha daily bee., 1907-01-19

SuOWlnB was as AOlAONSs
Entries. Acres
Desert land. .''.'.....'..'' ~ lz'OOO
Totals for quarter. 49,. sss 1864
During the one month ending September
so:
Entries. Acres.
Homestead ................ 425 6l,517
Desert land. ............... 20 1903
Total for September. $50 71.726
At other land Offices throughout Colo
rado Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, western Kan
sas and Nebraska and New Mexico the
experience has been precisely similar.
Farmers Buy Home Land.
After all, however, there has been no
more potent factor in boosting western
lands than the prosperity enjoyed by
American farmers for several years past.
Last years great crops OF wheat. corn
and cotton came as fitting climax to a
succession of bountiful harvests. Land is
appreciating in value all over the country.
Where prices are lowest II is natural that
the demand should be greatest, and the
rise in price most marked. The Depart
ment of Agriculture estimates that every
time the sun sets the value OF the farms
of the country has increased by $3,4o0,-
900, or about $l.0O0,O0o,0Oo a year. In
1905 the farmers OF America produced
crops worth S6,450, 100000. Last years
crop was worth much more. In sixteen
years the farmers of this country have
exported $4,000, 100000 worth of farm
crops, which Is $1,000, 100000 more than
necessary to buy all the nations rail-
roads at current stock and bond prices.
The successful farmers of America who
have received this vast accumulation of
wealth are investing 1t, or part of it
not in mines, or mills, or factories, or
stocks, or bonds, or gold bricks-but in
the cheap lands of the west. They are
born with the love of land and they are
buying land for their children. This fact,
the tremendous gold output and the be-
lated discovery that the semi-arid lands
are capable OF producing enough wheat
to double our annual production, are the
main factors in promoting the western
land rush. When one stops to consider
that in ten great western commemorative
less than 2 per cent of the land area is
under cultivation. that the population av-
erages hardly three to the square mile,
and that In seventeen western states graz
ing is the leading occupation and agri-
culture has never until now been consid-
cred possible without irrigation, one can
get a faint idea of the possible develop
ment of the land boom. Fully one thou
sand million acres of land west of the
Missouri river are unsuited TO farming
by old-fashioned and time-honored methods
and have been regarded as hopelessly arid.
1t is now believed that fully half OF this
can be cultivated without irrigation, by the
application of scientific methods for the
conservation of the nomal precipitation In
the soil.
Thousands May Fail and surfer.
OF course, the land rush will be overdone,
in the sense that thousands OF men will
meet with nothing but loss, disappointment
and, perhaps, suffering. Men who are
hocklng to the west in the expectation OF
getting rich without working for 1t will
meet with disappointment Even the rich
est OF lands must be worked to yield a
harvest and the lands OF the plains de-
mand more labor than farmers in humid
America are accustomed to give. The set
tier in a new country must be prepared to
forego the amenities and social advantages
of older communities. He must be salts
fed with hard work and scant fare. II un-
willing 70 face present dlscomforts and in
commences for the sake OF future advant-
age, he will find the cheapest of western
lands dear in the end. The man that meets
with failure In the present state OF agri-
cultural knowledge has no one but himself
to blame; but 1t is a safe prediction that
not more than one-half OF those who are
now swelling the tide OF western migration
will make a success in their new homes.
This has been the experience in land booms
OF the past. That II will be the same this
time hardly admits OF doubt. During the
last two years the rainfall over a large
part OF the semi-arid lands has been greatly
above normal. Newcomers are likely 20
jump TO the conclusion that these condi-
lions will prove permanent. Oven with slip
shod farming methods. fair crops have been
eastern Colorado and parts OF the Texas
Panhandle, with precipitation Of from IS
to "a inches. This Is likely TO result in
those who have never spent a dry season
on the plains thinking that the precautions
adopted by old-time dry farmers for the
conservation OF moisture In the soil arc I'M
necessary. Then dry season will come;
the crops Of the Negligent farmers will be
failures; widespread suffering and loss win
follow; and the climate win he blamed for
Il all The climate h q hxturs a. truly as
the plains and the Rocky mountains them
selves. and those unwilling or unable 70
adapt their methods to unalterable climatic
conditions had better keep away from this
land OF little rain" Experience has shown
that about two years out OF every fifteen
are years OF drouhL II will not be long
until another dry year" will be due.
Sc tOdAy's ad No. II. DAEs IA