Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1909-12-30

When one whole section of the
biggest daily of the great plateau is
devoted to our state and the Snake
River valley in particular; when the
Deseret News of Salt Lake voluntar-
lily gives up ! 8 pages of their annual
edition to describing our wonderful
resources and possibilities and gladly
awards us the title of the Gem state,
it is time for us to sit up and take
notice of the fact that the whole
country is alive to our future and
warns us to prepare for the influx of
thousands of people in our midst next
year
The fertile lands of southern Idaho
Will not make room for more than
500, 900 people. so there are bound to
be some who will be disappointed and
these must be content to swell our
cities, engage themselves in manu-
featuring, from our raw materials
and cheap power, articles for foreign
and domestic consumption, deal in
things mercantile and assist in dis
posing of the bounteous crops of our
contented farmers.
Why is this true? Idaho is the CEN
ter and the heart of the great Inland
Empire which stretches north and
south between the Rocky mountains
on the east to the Sierra Nevadas
on the west, containing approximately
100000 square miles of which Idaho
occupies $4,000 square miles and rs
per cent of the latter goes to make
ND. or is adjacent to, the valley of the
great Snake river; which with its
tributaries, waters as well as drains
this tremendous acreage of the
worlds richest soil, causing it to
bloom and produce the largest crops
of any soil on earth
Considering its source and utility,
the states land area has been classi-
fed as follows
Acres.
Timber land .......... 2O,OOO'VVV
Pasture lands ......... l,OOO,OOV
Agricultural lands .....12,OOO,OOO
Mineral lands .. 100000
Much of the land classified as tim
bered can be utilized for pasturage
and also cultivated to agriculture
and much of the pasture and mineral
land can be used for farming
The Carey Act came as blessing
to us in Idaho and released from its
bondage of drought upwards of two
millions of acres of our soil by per
hitting private capital to be used il
turning the life giving fluid of oui
great rivers over it. The total acre
age under the Carey Act alone to this
date is 2.272,246 acres and of thai
$4,000 acres have been watered by
the government reclamation projects
Agriculture and irrigation takeI
toeether are the main attraction o
our state at the present time and arr
responsible for our present prosperit!
and future greatness. In this we lea'
all others, as was shown by ex-Gov
ernor Frank r. Gooding before thu
conference of governors at Washing
ton in May Of last year. He stated a
follows
with the last four years ldah'
has turned water on more than 300
600 acres Of what was then barrel
waste and transformed it into field
beautiful waving grain. She mad
possible the building of homes 70
more than 10000 people, and ha
created a new wealth for the state o
more than s5O,OOO,0OO. Within tn
next five years Idaho will have com
pleted all the irrigation works for tn
first million acres of Carey Act lands
thus giving an opportunity for home
for more than 100000 people an
creating a wealth in excess of $500
100000. When the story can b
written of Idaho's development by il
rigation it will tell of the reclamatio
of more than 100000 acres of a
rich soil as can be found anywhere
I the world. It will be land that wi
equal in productiveness 100000
acres in the eastern states.
Dense indeed is the man who car
not foresee the manufacturing goin
hand in hand in agriculture and hol
ticulture in the upbuilding of ldah'
It is not due to lack Of raw materia