El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-12-26
PAYMENT FOB WORK
Of RECLAMATION
Government Makes a New
Ruling in Interest Of
the HOmeSteader

Washington, D. c., Dec. 26.-In COM
pliance with the requests Of numerous
settlers on the irrigation projects Of
the government the secretary of the in
terror has issued the following regula-
ton governing the subdivision Of farm
units:
Il A homestead entryman subject
to the reclamation act may relinquish
a part Of his farm unit and have the
payments which had been made on the
relinQuished part credited to the
charges on the retained part, provided
that the amendment in question may
be allowed without jeOpardizing the in
terests Of the gOyernmentrin the collec-
ton Of the charges against the portion
Of the tract relinquished.
-. The entryman desiring to make
such REIMBURSEMENT should submit his
application therefor to the project en-
gineer who viii transmit the same
with his recOmm endat1OD through the
proper channels to the directOri who,
If he finds no ObJecppn, VIII proceed
as in other cases Of proposed amend
ments of farm units"
This ruling Is regarded as one of the
most important of recent years relating
to the reclamation work. It is a con-
frmatiOn also of the prediction which
the officials Of the bureau made several
years ago that the greatest successes
those on the small farms The requests
for permission 10 subdivide their farms
comes almost without exception from
the men who have taken up land in eX-
cess Of their ability and means to Guilt
vate. While the large land holder has
been wasting his energy, time and CAPT.
tai IN an attempt to subdue his farm,
and now finds the burden too great for
him to meet the charges of building, Op-
Grafton and extra labor. the small farm
eTs as q general rule have prOspered
and are slowly but surely gaining
competence.
Strong influence was brought to bear
upon the department in the beginning
to fix the farm units at not less than
160 acres. Every effort was made to
convince the department that a man
could not make a living on less than
this acreage. The most influential ad-
vOcates of the large farm were the
prominent farmers and business men
in each OF these communities. In this
connection a recent letter from Col H
W. ROwley, the president Of the Bill
fngs chamber Of commerce, is particu-
larly interesting, in view of the fact
that until recently he was apparently
IN doubt as to the small farm idea;
I am most earnest in favOring the
small farm unit for this section Of the
country. The 40 acre farm unit as es-
tahlisaed on the Huntley United States
reclamation project has proved great
success, and as whole, il IS perhaps
today the most prosperous section IN
our country, due entirely to the small
farm units. Our experience certainly
is that the small 20 to 40 acre farmer
Is as a rule successful, while the large
units are not
zone Of the most important problems
that our chamber Of commerce will deal
with during the next year will be to
educate our people to the advantage
of the small farm unit devoted 10 diver
sified farming. When this is brought
about we will have a wonderfully pro-
ductive country, capable OF sustaining a
very large population Of successful
home builders
Yours very truly.
(Signed II. ". Rowley."
On some of the projects. the depart
ment, yielding in part to the importuni-