The Irish standard., 1908-06-20

A thousand letters week are pour
ing into the office of the reclamation
service in Washington. They are from
people who want to go into the new
irrigated lands of the far West, there
to make--as they and the Government
believe-their everlasting fortunes. says
a Washington, ID. c., dispatch to the
New York Sun of June 13.
creasing it looks as IL the whole mid
die West would be moving on pretty
soon. Even the rock bound New Eng
lander is taking notice. More than
400 letters from the neighborhood of
Boston have been received within thu
last few weeks.
Hundreds Of New York State folks
are going into the Northwest. Even
men from Manhattan, who never own
ed any more Of Mother Earth than
the dust their-or someone else's--au-
tomobile loaded them with, are talk
ing about farm units and projects.
The word project. when used in
connection with the reclamation serv-
ice work. has definite meaning. There
are about twenty-five projects under
way at present eleven of them being
we'll along toward completion. These
are always referred to as the Shoshone
project, the Tieton project, the True
e-Carson project. and 30 on.
These projects are distributed
throughout fifteen States. All of those
west of the Mississippi except Texas
and Oklahoma are included. and mil
lions of acres have already been set
tied. People back East are just be-
ginning to find out that the stories
which have come from these reclaimed
desert farms are not fairy tales, hence
those thousand letters week.
G. J. Blanchard Of the reclamation
service has had to get out printed CIR
culars covering the replies to these
letters. No office force could handle
them otherwise. One of the most in
genious of these circulars is CALLED
"Questions and Answers" It contains
seventy-f1ve inquiries. many of them
taken from letters received from cor
respondents. Each question has it's
clear and concise answer.
According to Mr.. Blanchard, who
spends every summer gathering in
formation at the various projects the
settlement of the irrigated lands is one
of the finest as we'll as one Of the m,st
remarkable things in our farming his
tory. They have drawn the best class
of settlers which ever went into Gov
ernment landr.
One reason for this is that man
has to have some money to take up
one of these farm units and to get it
under cultivation. 1t isn't the land
that costs. 1t is the water.
| An uneducated immigrant or a shift
less American who hadn't saved cent
can go lnlO tneSo lAnOS, put up a
shack and scratch the ground for a
poor imitation Of living. He ought
to have at least $1,000 to make his
Atart.
What is more it costs good deal
fol a man to go out and look over the
ground. And when 1t comes to moving
his family and his household goods a
couple of thousand miles or 80 the ex-
penses amount to figure which stag
gers the average rural mind
That's where the Easterner is at a
big disadvantage. He hates to risk SO
much money chasing what may prove
to be only rainbows. So he sticks
where he is and hangs on to what he
has, while his Western brother hoots
scornfully and pockets the agricultur-
al prizes. .
The stories which are coming back
however, are so glowing that they daz-
zle even at this distance. Up in the
Yakima Valley In Washington they