The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1909-02-12
OUR AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Member Eastern Idaho Press Club.
OUR AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.
An effort is being made to estab-
lish an agricultural college in Idaho,
and the following are some Of the
matters that the agitation brings to
light.
The university at Moscow is draw
ing federal aid to conduct an expert
mental farm at Moscow. The fund
had small beginning but has grad
ually Increased until now it amounts
to about $55,O0O.00 annually. Mos
COW ID situated In a humid region,
where no irrigating is practiced.
An experimental station has re-
Gently been established at Caldwell,
on q tract Of 500 acres that was do
mated for that purpose. 1t Is doing
experimental work in a small way,
and is maintained by state and fed
eral money. Caldwell Is In an irri-
gated region at an elevation Of about
$500 feet above sea level, a
7 Men from the new projects In
Southern Idaho represent that the
settlers on the new Carey projects
and the Minidoka project are farm
ing under different conditions from
those confronting the climate OF
Moscow, and that large expert
mental farm and agricultural college
should be established in some central
portion Of the irrigated empire Of
Southern Idaho, where boys could be
taught practical and scientific farm
ing under irrigation. They offer as
reasons for their demands, the fol-
lowing matters among others:
Southern Idaho is putting four
million acres under irrigation, and
has two million acres susceptible Of
cultivation by dry farming. In one
county Twin Falls county, the state
has sold 100000 acres from which it
realized 100000 direct from the
sales That the same county now
has total investment of $22, 900, 900
that has come into that county to
risk its future on irrigation. That
most Of its settlers and investors
were ignorant of irrigation when such
investments were made, and that the
success of their investments and the
consequent wealth or lack of wealth
to the state depends on their intel
ligent application Of methods adapted
to existing conditions. That the pro-
jectors of the reclamation enterprises
have been obliged to keep an expert
employed, and maintain an expert
mental farm to teach the new citi-
zens what the state ought to teach
them. That the conditions existing
in Twin Falls county are springing
up on all the later projects receiving
attention and bringing settlers and
capital into the state. That the
only agricultural college where sim
liar conditions of soil and climate
exist is at Logan In the State Of
Utah. That of the fifty-one farm
ers mat were graduated from the
agricultural college at Logan last
year, all were promptly placed In
positions at salaries varying from
$1,000 to $3.50 a year and the de-
mand for such men is greater than
the supply. That our experimental
station at Moscow has graduated
practically no farmers. their attention
being diverted into specialties such as
animal husbandry, engineering, ento-
mology, etc, but no finished farmers
able to cope with the problems con-
fronting the thousands of home
builders pouring into Southern Idaho.
That Southern Idaho has the great
est expanse Of semi-arid lands COM
ing under cultivation of any state in
the union, and that there are scarce
ly any men capable of practicing or
teaching the intensive methods neces-
sary for successful cultivation and
conservation of the soil. That in
tensiye farming and the raising Of
pure breeds Of stock and poultry de-
mand great institution that can
teach these things in systematic
courses to large numbers of the citi-
zens as the large farms are divided |
and subdivided and made to support
4 dense population.
A bill has been introduced in the
legislature providing for the creation
Of commission to locate an agri-
college at some point in
IDAHO south Of the forty-fifth paral-
ell, and that the funds now being
lsed for experimental work at Mos
,ow and Caldwell be diverted to the
lew institution.
There is some fight on this propo-
. lA l