The La Jara chronicle. (La Jara, Conejos County, Colo.) 1896-19??, 1911-04-28

residents and landholders of that
district to the fact that within
the last ten years the current
price of their lands has adj
vanced from IA price of five to
ten dollars per acre to its pres
en-. selling price of thirty to for
~ dollars per acre. And yet with
all this increment in market
Nalue--thrce hundred to six hun
dred per cent-there has prob
ably been an increase of only
ten to twenty-five per cent i'll
the cultivated area, or the guam
tty of produce grown on said
land Taxes have necessarily in
creased with the augmented value
while production has stubbornly
bowed to natural causes and
shows relatively little increase. a
man can afford to hold in idlenes
large areas of cheap land, as the
increase in value will pay him
interest on his money. But when
prices begin to climb to the fifty
and one hundred dollar per acre
mark, the chance for increment
in advancing prices diminishes
and he is forced to use his land
in cultivation to secure even II
reasonable interest on his invest
ment. a man really has invested
in property the amount of money
for which he can sell it; he must
make it pay interest on that
amount, either by production, or
rise in value, or lie is losing
money.
Eighty-five thousand acres at
$40 per acre totals the neat lit
tie sum of three million four hun
bred thousand dollars. The value
of this capital per annum at six
Ter cent is two hundred and
four thousand dollars, or about
four hundred dollars that should
be earned annually on each quar-
ter section to pay you interest on
your money invested. To this
you must add your taxes and
water assessments. Are you
earning it, Are your neighbors
earning it? What about the I'M
cultivated land is it earning it?
Surely it is not, and surely prices
will decline unless the land is put
in a physical condition to pro
duce crops. This can be done
by DRAINAGE and the securing
of sufficient ADDITIONAL WAT
Err to supply all the land with
early water, and late water. and
abundant water. With this ac-
complished your land will be
worth more than one hundred
dollars per acre, every acre of it.
1t will pay you TEN PER CENT
on TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS
PER ACRE. 1t will do it more
certainly than the best land in
the Center district.
Everybody comedies that some
day it will have to be done. Why
not do it now? You have the
means at hand. You have the
opportunity now, but the oppor-
tunity so far as securing addition
al water is concerned pass
ing. Why not grasp it while you
can? There is one reservoir al
ready completed with a capacity
of twenty thousand acre feet that
can reach this land. There is an
other with a capacity of twenty
seven thousand acre "eet which
is nearing completion That also
covers this land. Each of these
reservoirs is available to supply
water to other lands equally in
need of the same. In fact options
are now out on both of these res
crvoirs, which may result in a
sale. You to-day need this water,
but you are not even in a posi-
ton to make an offer for it.
But the moment you organize
yourselves into an irrigation dis
trict, you are body polite and
corporate with full legal author
ity to act; you can then get into
the market; you can make your
offer; you can back it with the
cash, for your bonds wi bring
cash. The great majority of your