The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1909-01-09
MINNEAPOLIS ENTHUSIASTIC
ABOUT CALDWELL.
Interview with Prominent IAN at
That Place.
A Minneapolis paper has the follow

time to attend to his campaign for re-
election to the legislature, is very en-
thusiastic about the opportunities pre-
scented in that country, through irri-
cation.
In speaking of that section in a re-
cent interview, he said:
During the last 80 or 40 years the
gardens of the West have been opened
up one after another. Fertile acres
hitherto unknown have been made to
blossom. Minnesota, North and South
Dakota, scarcely known 40 years ago,
are now among the best wheat prOduc-
ing areas in the world. Washington
and California have been developed in
wonderful degree within the last 20
years.
Fertility of the soil is not lacking
| and in many cases climatic conditions
have been so suitable that these sec
tions have yielded an almost unlimi-
| ted supply of produce which has been
| distributed through the avenues of
| commerce among the known markets
of the world, but until recently it has
not been suspected that the sage
brush lands in the arid portions of
Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Colorado
| possessed richer elements in their
soils and power of producing beyond
| anything which had hitherto been re-
vealed to man.
"As we look back upon it, we won
der that transportation companies had
the nerve to build railroad lines
drought such desolate and uninviting
| districts. 1t took the eye of pro-
phet to be able to foresee what has
been taking place within the past five
or ten years. Unbroken ranges of
| desert, valueless thus far to the hui
man race, have proved to possess in
| themselves qualities destined to make
them the garden spots of the world.
New England was formerly the
mecca toward which consumers look
ed for their supply of fruits of all
kinds. Western New York was not
long since the best fruit producing
area in the world. Since then Michi-
gan has been developed in this direc-
ton and has recently become better
| known even than New York for it's
| products of this sort. Things are now
changed. The finest fruit in the world
| is now being raised in the West. We
| natchee, located in the state of Wash
| ington, has recently become cele-
brated. Hood River, Ore, has gained
world wide reputation for it's large
and small fruits. At North Yakima
the value of lands has far exceeded
that of any other agricultural location
in America, and it has become thus
celebrated because of the inexhausti-
bit richness of it's soil, and the happy
combination of climate and other nat
ural conditions together with the ad-
vantages of scientific irrigation, now
proving to be a royal road to high
class agricultural production.
Southern Idaho is now falling in
line with such development and the
middle section of the Rockies is like
ly to become as celebrated as are
these gardens of the West. Strange
indeed it is, that nature has stored vi
her choicest morsels in her rudest anC
crudest districts, where nothing but
sage brush could exist hitherto
Strange, indeed, it is that under the
magic touch of irrigation, these ne
elected spots are now producing the
choicest products of the world.
THE Snake river is a unique body
of water with a deep and swift cur
rent which forms an outlet for the
melting SHOWS deposited during the
winter among the mountains. Up tC
this time it has rolled its impetuous
1
impeded. These things are now chang
ed.
1.-THE waters of this as well as other
similar streams are being damned
and conveyed through canals and lat.
erals over millions of acres of LAND
which invigorated by its touch, imme-
diately begin to bloom like the rose
1t was my good fortune recently tC
observe the results of the transforma-
ton under several of the irrigation
projects now commanding the atten-
ton of agrlculturalists between the
two oceans. On the south bank of the
Snake river at Twin Falls, Idaho, 1885,
900 acres have been transformed with.
in the last three years into beautiful
fields of alfalfa and clover. On the
north side of the same river, just OPP
| posite, 10000 acres are undergoing
the same transformation, and it now
seems as If every drop of water con.
tanned in that lordly river will in the
near future be refreshing and restor,
ing millions of acres more, part Of
which is still unsurveyed.
These plains are usually made VI
of a substream of lava rock which
seems to have found its way down the
, valleys from volcanoes located higher
up and in the course of these dis
turbances a soft, rich coverlet of vol
canic ash seems to have been deposit
, ed on top of all. The rich mold thu.
formed lying in districts where rains
are infrequent, has never until nov
revealed its value to the race fol
whose beneficial use 1t was intended
These valleys seem to have been pre-
pared and laid away as were the Goa
beds, for the future use of men, all un
known to the generations which have
come and gone.
Natural attractions, geological for
nations, ETC., to be found in these re
gions are among the most remarkable
in the world Shoshone Falls in tht
. Snake river, are 60 feet higher thar
the Falls of Niagara and are in NJ
way inferior to them in general at
Effectiveness for the tourist, while tn
canyons, through which the river find
. its way west, for ruggedness and pic
} turesque beauty are not surpassed b,
any with which l am acquainted
wv