The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1910-08-25
BELIEVES IN SOUTHERN IDAHO
Former Hansen Citizen Writes On
Eastern Conditions.
Kimberly. Idaho. Aug % 1910.

IudIO, aug. IL, lSlP.
Editor Times Having spent sever
al days in this vicinity among old ac-
quaintances and friends who we're
formerly residents of my home town
OF Manchester, Okla, and vicinity, /
have been prevailed upon to write a
few lines as to the impressions | have
formed concerning the Twin Falls
country and its adaptability to the
man with the plow and the hoe.
! am just returning to Oklahoma
from an outing in which have visited
Galveston Houston, San Antonio and
Ell Paso in southern and southwest
Texas; Yuma, Arizona; San Diego,
Oceanside, Los Angeles and San Fran
cisco in California; Vancouver, Wash. !;
Portland and La Grande, Oregon; but
when it comes to wonder for the
four or five years that it has been
building, | must say that the Twin
Fails country and, the city of Twin
Falls far surpasses anything that
have yet seen.
Had | been in the least skeptical as
to the outcome of the reclamation
work of the government in the past,
this visit to your midst would certain
ly have changed and made me an ard
ent supporter of reclamation thoughts
and ideas, and | hope to see this won
derful work carried on as fast as it is
possible to do so throughout the arid
regions of the west
| have been a grower of alfalfa and
hogs in Oklahoma for a number of
years, but never yet did l fully realize
what the growing of alfalfa really is
/ hn try t1i-
butary to Kimberly and Twin Falls,
| Idaho, which surpasses anything and
| everything that | have yet seen in the
| production of this wonderful crop
| With two immense cuttings of alfalfa
already in the stack and the third fast
growing towards maturity, making a
| total yield of from seven to nine tons
per acre for the season for every acre
| that is well cared for, do not see
| how the farmers of this valley can
help growing rich if they will but stay
with it. | have viewed the beautiful
| flower gardens of the south, the awe
| inspiring orange and lemon groves of
| California and the submarine gardens
| of the Cata1ine Islans, but to the al
| falfa grower of OKLAHOMA and Kansas
who knows its real value for the hog,
| the horse, the beef steer and the dairy
| COW, nothing looms up with such
grandeur as those great stacks of hay
| that are to be seen on every hand in
| this valley.
AS a fruit country, your three and
with as fine fruit as one couldcmfwyp
| four-year-old trees heavily ladened
with as fine fruit as one could wish to
see would certainly convince the most
| skeptical that southern Idaho will
prove a paradise for the horticulturist.
Too much cannot be said in behalf of
your berries and small fruits of every
kind, while your tables of vegetables,
with potatoes equal to the far-famed
"spuds" of Colorado and Utah.
| note also that you grow consid-
cradle corn and much of it looks we'll,
but | do not consider that it is the
proper crop to grow since there are
others that are far more profitable.
Wheat, barley and oats may be justly
considered among your staple crops,
but if | were one of the fortunate land
owners of your great country | would
pin my faith largely to the growing OF
alfalfa and pure cred Duroc-Jersey
hogs, using as side line barley,
wheat, oats, fruits, potatoes and yege-
tables on a small scale, and If didn't
net a clean profit of from three to five
thousand dollars. per year on every
eight acres of land that / owned,
would certainly conclude that lacFe1
in ability to make the most OF the OPP
portunities before me.
Respectfully,
j. M. SIMMONS.