The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1910-04-08

? pack train for three full days through
; timber IN Idaho. To give you ar
idea of some Of the timber that We
, have, / will state on that trip We
came to camping spot and saw
beautiful tree, and ! said to our
timber estimator who was with U.S.
II wish you would estimate the
amount of timber in that tree"
which stood on state land, and after
doing SO he said, There are $4,000
feet of good marketable white pine
lumber in that tree" 1t was about
II feet around and 80 feet to a limb.
That Is the kind of timber we have
1t means that we have timber enough
to supply that western slope, with
proper protection, for the next 500
years. And We intend to protect this
timber. We intend to develop our
country. We intend to conserve our re-
sources, and one of our greatest re-
sources is our irrigated lands.
| We commenced our work of irriga-
ton some 20 years ago. l used to
build canals, as Governor Spry, who
introduced me, says, and / thought
| was pretty large canal owner. /
would take little stream down the
| valley, run it through a canal out
over the land to be irrigated and
probably irrigate 10000 acres of land
from one canal, and thought had
done wonders. But finally the recla-
nation service came along. Don't
understand that l am speaking dis
paringly of the reclamation service,
for they have done great work.
They came to the west and common
ced to investigate what could be done
under irrigation by the government.
Previous to this, in 1895 Senator
Carey introduced a bill called the
Carey Act" permitting the United
States to give to the state certain
amount of the public land, provided
the state would reclaim and irrigate
1t. We availed ourselves of the bene-
fits of that bill, and the government
gave us 100000 acres of land on
condition that we would reclaim 1t
and properly irrigate it, but for some
years we were unable to do anything
with it because we could not interest
capital in irrigation. But Congress
finally passed the reclamation act,
and when it did so, it commenced to
build two great enterprises in our
state, one known as the Minidoka
Project, retaining $4,000 acres,
and the other as the Boise-Payette, |
retaining about 100000 acres of
land.
The government had not more
than commenced on work of construc-
tion until the investor in the east be-
gan to sit up and take notice. Before
the government did this, used to
come back east trying to raise money
for irrigation projects. The men I
talked to in the east would listen to
what | had to say, and then talk
about everything else in the world
but irrigation. But when the recla-
nation service came in, they became
interested and they came west and
to invest. And five years
ago on the End of last July, we COM
menced our first irrigation project I'M
der the Carey Act. Since that time
we have constructed, and are now
and have under con-
over $50, 100000 worth of
canals, and we have constructed in
those five years canal that would
carry reasonable stream of water
from New York to San Francisco.
We went back to Congress and asked
for another 100000 acres of land
and Congress gave it to us. We have $
reclaimed 2,270,000 acres of the g.
100000 acres, and we will reclaim I
The other million acres, which means =
an empire within itself. I
In our state we have a population
Of less than 100000, and If you will I
ook up the statistics today you will 4
ind that Belgium, kingdom that :
has less than 100000 acres of :
agricultural land, supports a popula- r
ion of over 100000 people. We G
mean to build homes on this land, g
Ind there is no place that population /
AN become more dense and, at the $
same time, more comfortable than on I
irrigated farms. That shows some I
hing of what cain be done by irriga- q
ion. We are not going to stop. We Il
ire not going to look back. We be- z
ieve that one of the greatest works t
# man is to make those wondrous h
ALLEYS, where the Creator for some t
Unknown reason hid his productive v
less, bloom like the rose. That is r
What our pioneers have been doing q
or the last 20 years. n
AS l have already suggested, our
'eople have felt that the eastern peo- -
lie believed and have had the idea
hat we have been INDUCING in land ]