Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-05-06

rich alluvial soil full of plant life and
all the conditions for agricultural and
horticultural productivity.
TO the eye the valley looks as level
as floor, but 1t has a slope of about
four feet to the nle-just enough to
| make perfect irrigation.
Ten Years Ago a Desert.
/ Ten years ago this valley was an abso-
lutte desert. Today there are between
eighteen and twenty thousand people in
SIN towns. connected by two railroads
and a trolley line, and furnished with
electric lights, hotels. banks, all kinds
| OF merchandise stores, opera houses
schools. newspapers. churches, public Ii
brarles. clubs. literary societies and every
other feature Of modern civilization.
In January. 1902, a corporation known
| as the California Development Company
undertook to irrigate the Imperial valley
and obtained a concession from the re-
public of Mexico to build a ditch on
that side OF the border to bring the
water Of the Colorado river around by
a gentle grade across the line into Cali
fornla and distribute it over about $780,
go acres, ooo.UV on the northern and
100000 on the Mexican side OF the bound
airy. The project was SO popular that the
| land on the American side was imme-
diately taken up by homesteaders.
and 10000 acres are now under
cultivation, producing al kinds Of tropi-
cal and semi-tropical crops. There has
not been much development on the Mexi-
can side, but there are 100000 acres or
! more Of good land that can ben brought
under water.
Alfalfa is the principal crop. and it is
used for fattening cattle and hogs for the
California market: but cotton is king
and it is expected that great fortunes
will be made in Its cultivation. Joseph
r. LOTUS of Los Angeles introduced cot
ton culture in the Imperial valley. He
organized a company in 1869, which built
a gin and brought a carload of seed
from Texas, with which 800 acres were
planted.
Very few of the farmers ever saw
cotton plant before: none of them had
ever grown cotton by irrigation and 1t
was an experiment
Nevertheless they gathered go bales
from the 800 acres and increased
the area in 1910 to 10000 acres, which
produced $500 bales altogether. Some of
the farmers picked as high as q bale and
half an acre. which is three times the
average Of the cotton states. but many
crops were spoiled because the farmers
did not know how to irrigate their lands.
Some of them used too much water and
caused the plants to go entirely to stalks,
while others allowed too little and the
young plants died of thirst under the
tropical sun. This spring at least 1900
acres of cotton have been planted and
Will tHe experience Oh Two years MOST
of the farmers ought to make a good
crop.
Everything else grows in the most lux
urious way. Grain and vegetables can
be planted every month. for in the I'M
perial valley it is midsummer the year
around.
Hard to Get Labor
The greatest difficulty is in getting la
Dor. Last year it cost the cotton grow
ers :; cents a pound to pick cotton which
they sold for II cents d pound. Most OF
the labor is white. Indians have been
tried. but have been found worthless:
MeXicans are better. but are not good
enough to be satisfactory and Mr.. LOT
tus tell me that about a hundred Hindus,
who came down from British Columbia,
have been proven to be altogether the
best labor that has ever been tried In
the valley. 1t is odd to hear Hindus
praised, because they have never given
satisfaction in the Sacramento valley and
other sections on the Pacific coast where
they have been tried. In the first place
the laws of caste make it very difficult
to take care of them. They cannot sleep.
eat or live with other people; they have
very little muscular strength: they are
lean and holow-chested and their backs
arc weak. but a the same time they are
wiry and patient and can pick cotton as
well as colored nanny.
The Imperial valley is great winter
garden. capable of producing any amount
Of vegetables at any time in the year, in
January well July Dates and figs
attain perfection and sell for very high
prices: oranges. lemons and grape fruit
are still in the experimental stage: grapes
are highly profitable, and all kind of ber-
ries and other small fruits are prolific in
quantity and perfect in flavor. while
cantaloupes are considered the most sue
ccssful and profitable of all the TRUCK
crops.
The weather is extremely hot. as YOU
will realize when YOU consider the lati-
tude and also the fact that the valley
will average 300 feet below the sea level
but those who live there insist that the
nights are COOL and that 100 degrees i'm
the shade is not really so bad 30 de-
grees in New York, Chicago or Washing
ton. because of the extreme dryness of
the atmosphere and the cool breeze that
blows over the desert l met a gentle
man who has lived in the Imperial valley
for five years. and he declared that he
would never care to live anywhere else.
He insists that the porch Of his house,
with the thermometer at 100. is COM
Portable as any place he knows.
The Great Flood of 1905.
The California Development Company
proved to be speculation and the actual
investments we're small compared with
the proceeds derived from the sales Of
land. All of the irrigation works were
done as cheaply as possible. and to in
crease the inflow from the Colorado river
into the irrigating canals a channel
about half a mile long was excavated in
1904 at a point four miles above the inter-
national boundary. During the great
flood of the Colorado river in November,
1868. the swift flowing waters enlarged
this cut from it's original dimensions
forty feet wide by eight feet deeD-fO a