Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-10-27

Letters are pouring in upon the
statistician of the Reclamation Ser
vice at Washington, asking informa-
ton about the lands which are ready
for settlers, on the various reclamation
projects. The West is filing up so
rapidly and the really choice locations
are so few that it is only a question
of time when the increase of land val
ues will make it as difficult for the
poor man to get foothOld there as il
is in the East today. Approximately.
SOC farms are now open TO entry under
the Homestead act. No doubt these
will be snapped up by anxious would
be farmers, in short time. but the
day is approaching when the increased
value Of Western farms win have its
effect i'm the Fast, and we predict
that not So manv years will pass be-
fore there will be few unoccupied
farms in Maine, and that some of the
large farms now carried on under one
management viii be divided into
several farms and will be more in
tensively carried on.
A quarter Of a century ago, any
mention Of the great American
desert called up visions of re-
baked, parched and desolute, a
country associated always with tales
OF suffering and death. of unfriendly
savages and deadly reptiles. and for
years this vast territory was passed
over by Congress as worthless. In
twenty years, a marvellous transforma-
ton has taken place, and this one
time land of sunshine and shadow now
furnishes one of the most interesting
and inspiring pages in the annals OF
American development. The great
desert has vanished and its boundaries
no longer present a formidable barrier
to growth and progress. Twelve mil
lion acres of this rainless country
have been subdued by means OF irri
cation and agriculture and are now
producing bountiful and assured har-
vests every year. A quarter of mil
lion families are residing on farms,
and as many more have found homes
and occupations in cities. towns and
villages, which have sprung up like
m Shrnnpc in fba midst of a
cultural areas.
All this, in the period of two de-
cades, Then what may we expect in
the next score of years in this age
when the unfolding of things is COM
ing faster and faster and we are more
rapidly approaching the crisis of
events which we may hope will end
in the millennium. but about which we
must give anxious thought to our con-
duct meanwhile? Our advice to a man
who owns n plot of land in Maine to-
day is to hold on to it, and to the
man who has a dollar to invest, rath-
er than to put it into wildcat mining
or development schemes of the Won
derful West, let him put it into gain
ing control of some form of real
estate in the good old State of Maine.
A report just sent out from the De-
partment of Agriculture tells of the
Wonders of the Western world and of
the comforts and luXuries hitherto I'M
known in agricultural regions that are
becoming cbtainable throughout this
vast area which, only SO few years
ago. was considered inaccessible. In
the majority of the irrigated districts
the farms are small as compared with
the large territories within the bor-
ders Of the average Maine farm. Out
there, they are not more than forty
acres each with from sixteen to sixty
farm-families to the square mile.