Omaha daily bee., 1911-08-06
zHE CHEAT AnzER1a4w 1ESERT G9RoNzOr .2AaE E7Cs2z

600 so, 900 acres and If the land should sup
port proportionately many people does the val
ley of the Nile they will feed something like
n 900 900.
This means results which are far in the future
and somewhat beyond what the engineers claim
Mr.. Blanchard tells me that there will undoubtedly
be enough land for 1000 900 families and in this he
estimates the farms at thirty forty each One
of any of these easily equal to five ten
of Illinois Iowa, and it is said that family
be supported five ten-acre patch About
1000, 900 have already been covered with water
homes by the hundreds are being cut out of the
sand On many of the GASES towns have already gone
up street railroads have been built school houses and
other public buildings constructed and social po-
litical communities are we'll under way.
What Has Been Done.
Let me run over some of the projects and tell you
a little of what has been done. Take Yuma on the
Colorado river, on the southeastern boundaries of
Arizona and California. There is a dam there almost
mile long, that is as high two-story house,
which will eventually rrigate about $1,000 of
land The dam completed about two years ago
and distribution system of 1877 miles of canals has
been laid out and is well under way The lands here
partly in California and partly in Arizona. The
total redeemed will be about 100 900 acres of
which $4,000 will be in Arizona. About 200 acres
of land already under irrigation the California
side of the river and other lands open settle
ment.
The country has frost and its hot tropioSl
fits it for the cultivation of oranges lemons,
grapefruit, dates, etc. 1t is ideal region for
trches it will vie with South Africa in the raising
of feathers for American market.
Jumping to the extreme north, where the Shoshone
river has been turned the lands, a number of
towns have been laid out and some fast growing
Cody, which named after Buffalo Bill" has
population of $780, with three banks stores lumber
yards and hotels An electric plant furnishes the
town with light and power and It has a sulphur plant
brickyard -four MILL which grinds 1875 barrels
every day Garland, another town, has about 500
people, and Powell and Ralston other settlements
out settlers in tracts of forty and eighty
acres each The most of the farmers think forty
acres enough TO yield good income and say that is
all the land one comfortably handle They
tell, however. of extraordinary yields of vegetables
sugar beets, fruits and grain, and making good
in every possible way. The town of Huntley is fast
growing and it has churches, banks and hotels. Os-
born is another town which has sprung up, and near
It is Ballantine which has FIVE stores and postoce
while Warden and Newton also fast growing.
The irrigation here practically completed in
1907 and hundreds of families on the lands
Many raising alfalfa. which they sell for IS a
ton and not few have diversified crops from which
they getting from $500 to $4,000 per annum on
fortyacre farms Nevertheless the soil had not been
scratched by the pillow before the government took
hold of it, Uncle Sam had to spend 100000 be-
which are rapidly growing. Here the soil Is rich.