Bisbee daily review., 1910-10-28

sured harvests every year. A quar- | ter of a million families are residing I on farms and as many more have i found homes and occupations in the !! cities, towns. and villages which have | sprung up in the midst of the agricultural areas. Great dams have i been constructed to impound the floods and through 10000 miles of canals and ditches the iife-giving water has been turned upon the dusty desert. The streams have been harnessed for power and an era of manufacturing is dawning in which alb of the raw products of the farm, the forests and the mines will be prepared for the markets of the world The comforts and Iuxuries heretofore unknown in agricultural regions already are obtainable in many of the western valleys. The farmer lights and heats his home with electricity and his heavy work is done cheapiy by the same potent force. Trolley lines bring the farm
 and town close together. In a ma jority of the irrigated districts the farms are small-not more than 4OI acres each. With Is to SC farm fam flies to the square mile, isolation is eliminated and life in the country becomes more nearly urban than
 rural. While pioneering in this new country calls for a good deal of grit and not a little hard work the compensation is sure and abund- ant. Carving out a home in the desert is no child's play, it is a mans
 work, but there are few places where nature responds more quickly to intelligent industry than the ir. rigated country On the government projects the past year has been a conspicuously prosperous one The
 success of the average farmer in many instances has been remarkable.
 On several of the projects the shops on individual farms this year have yielded enough to enable the owners to repay the government every dollar of their obligations if they were so inclined As the pay ments to the government extend over
 period of ten years without inter est there is no object in meeting the
 same in advance and most of the
 farmers therefore are devoting their fevenues to improving their homes and in purchasing live stock and i'm
 plements- One of the most interest ing features of the u9building of | these new communities is the large
 number of settlers who have come from the cities and towns. Their sue { cess is all the more notable because they had little or no previous ex- perience in farming, especially farming by irrigation. Under these | circumstances the call of the open
 country is likely to appeal to others
 who have grown tired of the stress
 and fume of city life and the never
 ending strggle to make income and
 outgo balance.
 The west is filing up so rapidly
 and the really choice locations are
 so few that it is only a question of
 time now when the increase of land
 values there will make it as diff
 cult for the poor man to get a foot
 hold as it is today in the east. Let
 ters are pouring in to the Statisti |. clan of the Reclamation Service al
 Washington, D. C., for information
 about the lands which are ready fo,
 settlers on the several Reclamation
 projects. Approximately 500 farms
 are now open to entry under the ! homestead act, with water ready for irrigating in Montana, Wyoming
 South Dakota, and Oregon.