El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-08-12

NJ Three years ago he was q
stenogTapher in the postofflcs
department at Washington. He was get
ting 1920 year and he had one
months annual vacation. He had saved
$500 by skimping, and could see but
little light for the future Then he
went west on his annual leave ara was
present at the opening of som, gov
eminent irrigated lands at Huntley, IN
northern Montana He dropped into the
line of homeseekers and drew an allot-
ment of IS acres, with the right to pay
for il in 10-year installments.
He resigned his Washington job, and,
using his savings, built himself home.
He then cleared So acres of sagebrush
and sowed it to oats and wheat. He
set out an apple orchard and between the
rows put in 1000 strawberry plants and
some currants, grapes and blackberries-
His oats produced 62 bushels per acre
and the wheat 80 bushels. The apple
trees grew. The next year he planted
sugar beets on 81 acres of this land
and the crop therefrom brought in $500.
The orchard is rapidly growing and the
man already estimates himself worth
at least $4,000.
That is the story of one mans expert
ence on the irrigated tracts of the re-
clamation service which Uncle Sam is
now parcelling out to his children He
has already sold thousands of acres on
such installments and he has water
enough in the big reservoirs lately built
to feed $4,000 farms of 40 acres each.
This land has all been reclaimed from
the desert, and it is only the beginning.
1t is the first fruits of the reclamation
service, which has already spent Sc, 00O,-
600 in dams, reservoirs and canals A
million acres are now under water, and
he nrc
than a million homes will have been
added to those of our country.
Some of Uncle Sans Settlers.
Before / tell you how such farms may
be got / want to give some stories
about and letters from Uncle Sans
pioneers. The reclamation bureau at
Washington has large correspondence
from those who have taken such tracts.
It publishes the value of the lands and
tells what may be made from them.
Take the fruit GASES of the Pacific
northwest. If the information did not
come from the government | should not
venture to quote il, for the prices seem
to be ont of all reason. Irrigated fruit
lands owned by individuals right near
some of the government tracts sell from
800 to $1,000 per acre, and some of the
sagebrush nearby is bringing $50 per
acre and upward. This is IN the Yakima
valley and Others of that region where
dams can be made at the outlets of
mountain lakes, which will eventually
give $4,000 acre feet There is enough
water there to redeem a half million
acres and there are four or five schemes
planned for the Yakima valley alone.
There are excellent orchard lands on
nearly all of the projects, and the men
who have taken up holdings are rapidly
growing in wealth.
Engineer blanchard of the reclamation
service tells me OF man named Silver
who planted ten acres OF orchard near
Yakima about six years ago. He Melted
S27o0 last year from his fruit and the
vegetables which he raised between the
rows. In the same region j. o. Shadbolt,
a dry goods merchant from Montana,
made SIG, 600 from the fruit raised on
IL acres. In 1907 the same orchard
yielded a gross of $4,000 and a net of
$4,000, and in the three years which the
man has been fruit raising he has Melted
sS9 900, or more than $4,000 year.
The government reports that full bear
inc orchards produce crops of from $500
TO $1,000 per acre, and that $500 is less
than the average if the trees are well
kept. The lands that have been redeemed
there are being largely planted to fruit,
and millions of trees have been set out
In the valley during the last season or so.
Robert Mccormick, who was lumber
man IN Minnesota. came to this valley
10 years ago with IS cents in his pocket
He worked for time as a teamster, ano
with his savings made his first payment
on % acres of the government project.
The land was then covered with sage
brush Today it is all in crops and is
paying him $1,000 a year above all his
expenses. Last fall he picked seven or
eight hundred boxes of apples from a
little over an acre, making a yield of
about $500 for that amount of ground.
A Wisconsin man the same year sold |
5000 worth of apples from nine acres of
trees.
A Voice From Montana.
Here are some letters from Huntley, |
Mont, where the irrigation projects
embrace a total of $4,000 acres. They !
are not all completed, but the water has
been put on large tracts, and several
good sized towns have gone UP. This is /
a land of grain and alfalfa. Wheat |
averages 80 bushels to the acre, barley |
from so to 20 bushels and oats from 80 |
to 100 bushels The oats sell for 80 /
cents hundred pounds, and good seed /
oats bring as much as g. There is a |
grazing country about, and alfalfa is
worth S. ton in the stack 1t Yields
from five to seven tons an acre from
three cuttings, and is used also to re-