The daily sentinel., 1910-10-12
RECORD RISE COMING
IN COLORADO FARMS.
Reaction Certain to Follow Increasing Drift Of
Population to Towns

lines, must of necessity lead to a
sharp enhancement in land values for
both town and farm realty.
Additional proof that the market
for irrigation bonds is on the mend
was furnished, the other day, by the
sale of Sl,0OO,O0O of the bonds of
the Pueblo-Rocky Ford Irrigation
company to Julius Christensen of
Philadelphia. Through the procure
ment of these funds water for the
first unit of The system is assured for
the 1871 season. The area of land
to be reclaimed comprises 10000
acres
The now palpable amelioration of
conditions in investment markets in
the East should be productive Of wild
ening activity ia desert regions with
adequate water supplies available for
irrigation. At the same time, ii
should put a stop to the senseless
and disparaging talk heard in recent
times in regard to dangerous over
development in Western irrigation
districts. AS if there could be such
a thing as superabundance of
choice irrigated land. capable of an
nually producing at least four times
the wealth grown on the impoyerish-
ed farms of the East and Middle
West.
Colorado Land Undcrvalued.
Compared with the intrinsic values
of many shares and bonds of the rep
utable class quoted on the New York
tsock exchange, irrigated land in this
state is decidedly underestimate
The truth of this can easily be dem
onstrated by showing the profits of
sugar beet growing in the neighbor-
hood of Greeley this season and com
pairing them with the annual yield on
a representative railway stock.
| have before me statement Civ
ing the name of farmer in the
Pleasant valley district, whose crop
amounts to twenty-three tons an acre.
He will receive Sc for each ton or
total of $l3S per, acre.
His net profit may be conserva-
lively estimated at $50 per acre. If
we place a valuation of $500 on his
irrigated land this years net yield
on each $l00 invested amounts eX-
actly to 30 per cent.
Pennsylvania railway stock pays
an annual dividend of per cent and
is quoted at 1870. At this price the
yield on the invested capital is 4.6l
per cent. In 1909 the same stock
sold at the high quotation of 151, at
which the net yield was only 3.97 per
cent.
At the first-named mode of valua-
ton the Pleasant valley land would
be worth $3.50 per acre. AT the last
named, S755. AS we placed value
of only $500 on. II, where does the
peril of initiation come in? | fail to
see it. If anybody we're to pay $500
for the land, his investment would
still return him the highly remun-
erative yield of s per cent, There is
no stock or bond in the United States
worth having, at the present time,
that nets anything like the profits
annually assured to owners of irri-
gated soil in Colorado.
In this connection. note should be
taken of the development of irriga-
tion by means of artesian wells in
southwestern Kansas. One of the
most copious water supplies of this
kind was secured a few days ago at
RichfIeld, Morton county. The floW
is estimated at eleven hundred gal
Ions a minute, and the water is of the
finest quality. According to the opin-
ions of experts, this well should suf-
flee TO furnish an adequate amount
of moisture to a whole section of
land, especially in years of normal
rainfall.
There can scarcely be any doubt
but that similar striking results will
be attained before long on the east
ern plains of Colorado. Encourag-
ing records have already been estab-
lished here and there in various To-
calities As the financial resources
of settlers argument, the search for
artesian water will be prosecuted
with greater determination. Many
section now considered of little agri-
cultural merit may, some years
hence, through the beneficient inter
cession of artesian wells, be produc-
ing enormous crops of wheat, oats
and alfalfa 1t is, in many cases,
merely a question of boring to suf-
ficient depth. At any rate, it would
be premature and indiscreet to hold
at this time that noteworthy results
along the same line of agricultural
endeayor are impossible of achieve