The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-10-29
VANISHING DESERT
Of THE WEST:
Sage Brush Wastes Rapidly
Replaced by Waving
Fields.

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tent, sun-baked, parched and desc
late A country associated always
with tales of suffering and death, of
unfriendly savages and deadly rep
tiles-for years it was passed over
by Congress as worthless. The mar
velous transformation which has
been wrought in two decades in this
land of silence and sunshine fur
nishes one of the most interesting
and inspiring pages in the annals of
our republics development. The
great American desert is vanishing
from the map. It's boundaries have
shrunken and it no longer presents
a formidable barrier to the growth
of the far West Twelve million
acres of this rainless country have
been subdued by means of agricul-
ture and irrigation and are produc-
ing bountiful and assured harvests
every year.
A quarter of a million families
are residing on farms and as many
more have found homes in tho cities,
towns and villages which have
sprung up in the midst of the agri-
cultural areas.
Great dams have been constructed
to impound the floods and through
10000 miles of canals and d1tches
the life-giving water has been turned
upon the dusty desert. The streams
have been harnessed for power and
an era of manufacturing is iawninS
in which all of the raw products OF
the farm. the forests and the mines
will be prepared for the markets OF
the world. The comforts and lux
uries heretofore unknown in agrl-
cultural regions already are OBTAIN
able in many of the western valleys.
The farmer lights and heats his
home with electricity and his heavy
work is done cheaply by the same
potent force. Trolley lines bring
the farm and town close together.
In a majority of the irrigated dis
tricts the farms are smali-not more
than forty acres each. With sixteen
TO sixty families to the square mile,
isolation is eliminated and life IN
the country becomes more urban
than rural.
While pioneering ii. this new
country calls for good deal of grit
and not a little hard work the MAX
ing of a home in the desert is no
childs play-it is a mans work. but
there are few places where Nature
responds more quickly to intelligent
industry than in the irrigated coun-
try.
On the Government projects the
past year has been consplcuously
prosperous one. The success OF the
average farmer in many Instances
has been remarkable. On several OF
the projects the crops on individual
farms this year have yielded enough
TO enable the owners to repay the
Government every dollar of their OBJ
legations if they were so inclined. AS
!, the payments to the Government ex-
tend, over period of ten years
without interest. there is no object
in meeting the same in advance and
most of the farmers. therefore are
devoting their revenues to improv-
ing their homes and in purchasing
live stock and implements.
One of the most interesting fea-
lures of the upbuilding of these new
communities is the large number OF
settlers who have come from the cit
les and towns. Their success is al
the more notable because they had
little or no previous experience IN
farming, especially in farming by IT.
rigation. Under these circumstances
the call of the open country is likely
to apDedl TO OC0orS VIII nave Sio"h
tired of the stress and fume of city
life and the never ending struggle 10
make income and outgo balance.
The West is filling up so rapidly
and the really choice locations are
so few that it is only question OF
time now, when the increase of land
values there will make it as difficult
for the poor man to get foothold
as it is today in the east. Letters
are pouring in to the Statistician OF
the Reclamation service at Washing
ton, D. c., for information about the
lands which are ready for settlers on
the several Reclamation projects
Approximately 500 hundred farms
are now open to entry under the
homestead act, with water ready for
irrigating in Montana, Wyoming
South Dakota and Oregon.