El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-08-12
FRANK q. CARPENTERS LETTER.


to get the best prices and TO raise the
best products. This is already being
done in the fruit regions. There VIII
also be financial combinations OF the
settlers to establish factories in their
various communities.
Libraries and Schools.
The schooE which have already been
started upon these projects are tar above
the average of those in the country dis
tricts in other parts of the United States.
In most cases they compare with the
schools of the cities. Most of the GASES
have what is known as centralized
graded schools, to which the children are
brought in carriages that go daily from
farm to farm and collect them. Great
care is taken in selecting the teachers,
and a high school education may be got
without leaving the farm.
Among the interesting features of
these schools are the gardens and little
farms connected with them. The children
learn practical agriculture by raising
plants, fruits and grains, prizes being
given for the best work. The teaching
i all in the spirit of the farm, and its
aim is to make children love the farm
and to have them stay on it. In the past
the country schools have been managed
by city teachers, who have taught the
children 20 despise agriculture and tried
to make them leave the farms for the
city.
As to the schools already established
ON the project at Carlsbad. \. NJ, 500
children arc enrolled. The graded school
park, and the town has recently erected
a $500 high school. Belle Fourche, in
South Dakota, has two graded schools
and high school, while in Sturgiss there
is public graded school with a large
attendance. Nearby are the university
of South Dakota, the state school of
mines and a state normal school. In
Huntley, in northern Montana, there are
excellent educational facilities. and the
same is true of the other projects of
the lower Yellowstone valley The pu-
year and the state course of study pro-
vides for the teaching of agriculture
in the four highest grades.
In Yakima the best of common school
facilities are to be found in every part
of the irrigated regions There are
graded schools and high schools at FL
lensburg, Sunnyside and North Yakima,
and at the latter place, in addition to
the public schools, there are business
Catholic academy for girls. In all of
these projects nine months of school is
the rule.
Towns of the Gases.
Nearly every one of these reclamation
projects has several towns which are
rapidly springing into being. In the Va
Hma valley they are situated on the
government lands and in the country
adjoining. North Yakima has over H.
900 people, Sunnyside has 1900, Ellens-
burg 5000 and Prosser 1000. In addition
to this there are a number of other
towns and villages.
Most of these places have graded
streets bordered with trees kept alive by
irrigation. They have gas and electric
lights and good telephone systems. They
publish newspapers. North Yakima has
public library which cost $4,000.
courthouse worth s125, 900, and the gov
eminent is soon to erect a federal build
ing there at cost OF a quarter of a
million.
The chief town in the Umatilla nro-
lect is Hermiston, which already has 600
people, including large number of farm
ers who 1--we there and drive to and from
their farms The place has several big
business blocks, two lumber yards, an
SS0O0 public school building, and there
are In the county IL banks. with total
deposits of 100000. Hermiston has
two banks.
On the Klamath irrigation project the
chlef town is Klamath Falls, though |
VIZ OtAASi pCtClCucuIS WHICH are /
rapidly growing. Klamath Falls has four
banks, two newspapers, high school /,
building which cost $4,000, and num- |
Der of society lodges The cost of re- |
deeming the land here was on the aver
age $50 per acre and the maintenance |
charge 70 cents per acre each year.
Some of the irrigation projects of |
Idaho are tributary to Boise, the capital !
OF the state, a town wtieh has municipal !
equal to those of the finest |
cities of the west There are
some small towns on the projects them /
selves and the educational, financial and
social conditions are among the best in /
the country. As to Boise, it has six |
banks, with deposits of over $4,000. OOc |
and school buildings which represent !. |
property value of more than S400 0oS |
Its high schools are among the best in
the country, the graduates being accred-
tied to all colleges that admit students
upon credentials