The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1910-04-28

tllity in evidence on every hand. For
distance east of fourteen miles to the
old county seat town of Saltwater takes
one through district of amazing pro-
ductiyity, where the numerous home
steaders and old ranchers have achieved
results that form most potent adver-
tisement. Waving fields of alfalfa,
green and luxuriant, greet the eye in
every direction from the main through
fare, while unpretentious little houses
mark the abiding places of those who
are so busily engaged in the work of
hewing homes in the desert.
And while the work has progressed
to point where it is safe to assert
that the experimental stage of the dis
trict is matter of history, the sage,
cumbering the ground with its prolific
ugliness, makes the sightseer know
that the task is hardly begun and that
the future growth and development of
the district lying between Fallon and
Saltwater is still an unknown quantity.
For between the two towns there is a
district of at least one hundred square
miles, where little waste land is found,
and where eventually families will live
in peace and plenty upon comparatively
small land selections. Indeed, Fallon
is scarcely left in the background and
the Nevada Sugar Company's plant
passed until the farming district is
entered. And without intermission
good farming land, capable of producing
anything that grows in temperate
climate from the cereals to decidious
fruits, continue right to and beyond
Saltwater, although the government
irrigation system ends at Saltwater.
About midway on the main travelled
road is the Indian school, where neat
and imposing little structure houses,
during school hours, a score of happy
faced little Pah Ute children, whose
search for Knowledge is attended with
considerable more difficulty than is that
of our own children. Indian School
Superintendent w. A. Vanvorhis works
faithfully at his task of intoxicating the
rudiments of our language as well as
natural hygenic law into the minds of
these primitive children, and while the
task is a painfully slow one it is not
wholly without result.
Passing the Indian allotments, the
observer cannot help but be impressed
with the irony of the government plan,
which gave to the Pah Utes ten acre
allotments with free water, in exchange
for the original quarter section allot-
ments, but did not include in the
transaction means to work the re-
spective selections. Owing to the lack
of horses and implements with which to
prosecute land leveling, a number of
Indians are plodding along, working
with shovels and hand made implements
with about as much chance to subdue
their little farms as they have to under
stand the plan that makes them servile
to the white mans wishes and man
dates. Unless the influences in this
section impress up IN the states con-
gressional delegation the necessity of
further appropriations for these indians
who are seeking to make homes for
themselves, the task is hopeless, for
without financial help they cannot
succeed 1t is one of the saddest
commentaries imaginable upon the
states congressional delegation and
proves at once that it is chiefly noted
for its dont-give-a-whoop propensities.
Sunrise between Fallon and Stillwa-
ter brings out the curious desert phe-
nomena, the mirage, which groups in
the distance, figures of the most gro
tesque shapngs. Taking the noun
tains separating the Carson and Hum
boldt basins, the contours are reflected
in outlines seemingly real, but very
different as a matter of fact, from the
real mountain shapes. Through the
early morning atmosphere is made to
appear beautiful lakes, surrounded by
abundant vegetation, a chimera that is
said to have been responsible for many
weary journeys and oftentimes fatigue
and death among the early day immi-
grants, who were enticed off their
course by the false picture, into reg
ion of desolation.
Passing on into the Saltwater dis
trict, the Freeman and Kent ranches
are noted. The fact that most inn
presses the visitor on first sight is the
fertile black soil, created by decaying
vegetation, and adapted to both grain
and alfalfa crops. Both these holdings
are capable of great development and
divided into small holdings would
support hundreds of families. The
owners Of botn these ranches plan to
engage more and more iu intensive
] farming, and extensive dairying form'