The Richfield recorder. (Richfield, Idaho) 1909-1931, 1910-09-29


over the Richfield tract, inspecting
lands for the state land board.
This is a wonderful country. L
has every requisite for perfect ir
rigated country---fertile soil. gooC
water supply, and it has the best
drainage of any irrigated tract of its
size anywhere in the West. There
is hardly an acre of land on the en-
tire tract that need ever show al
kali because of drowning. The al
kali is not in the soil, to begin with
it would be next to impossible to
drown and shour the land The soil
is not of uniform depth, it is true;
it ranges all the way from deep
enough to four or five items as deep
as it is needed. There will be no
failure because of lack of either a
sufficient quantity or quality of soil.
formly good. Indeed, out of the
many claimants who have proved
up this season, they could be count
ed on the fingers of both hands who
have made their first crop pay. A
considerable number have fenced the
land, so the crop was not destroyed
by vagrant stock. There are two vi
tai reasons---trying to do too much,
or trying to do it too cheaply. 1t
takes money to put irrigated land
in condition for successful farming.
The clearing of sage brush, and. the
plowing, are the heaviest items; but
they are almost the least important,
from the standpoint of successful,
continual operation; at least, they
eventually amount to little as COM
pared with the leveling on which the
economical and profitable irrigation
depends. Hardly one field out of
four, of the new fields that is, has
been so prepared that the best farm
er could make it pay. Irrigation is
not magic; not even the most sue
cessful irrigator can actually make
water run up hill. But by spending
an extra dollar, or three dollars, or
five dollars an acre, he can so lev
ell the average land that there will
be no small hills, and bring the en-
tire field into bearing. 1t is far less
work to irrigate the well prepared
field; the saving of time in the ir-
rigatiop work alone would in most
cases pay. the very first season, the
extra cost of preparing the land; antI
cIA Il 000
cent on this extra cost. With so
small percentage of the new land
in a good state of cultivation, really
exceptional results have been secur-
ed on the Richfield tract.
There are not few who have at
tempted to do too much. The writer
would doubtless have been one of
these If he could. Accustomed to
the broad though all too barren prai
ries of Nebraska, where one can
farm every acre of quarter section
and get from it all its scant posi-
bilities, the temptation to buy and
try to farm a large acreage is very
strong. But it is one of the wiles
of the devil; it is the fore runner of
kempt fields, and the frown of the
grocer who will no longer extend
credit. There are few men wha ac-
tually want more than so acres; the
average farmer will make more on
80 acres than on twice that. A law
restricting thes Carey Act lands to
80 acre filings would be a real kind
ness to many men. The government
reclamation service establishes this
limit with the furher limitation of
only 40 acres within a mile and a
half Of the towns; and on some of
the higher priced projects the limit
may be cut down as low as 10 acres.
That will force many farmer to
make money in spite of himself, by
not allowing him to scatter his Ia
Dor over an excessive number of i'll
kept acres.
1t should be the business prayer
of every bona fide resident on the
tract, to have every acre of the land
titled by resident owners. So much
is held by nonresident owners, who
do not bring here the proper pro-
gressive spirit A nonresident who
proved up on his land here last sea-
son, was in the Recorder office a
few days ago, wondering why there
wasn't a greater stir in the sale and
increased valuation of lands here. s
The Recorder told him: Its be-
cause you fellows with little money =;
on which you expect to make big
per cent, get hold of SO much of the ]
land, hold it for speculation, don't
do your share towards making the {