The Richfield recorder. (Richfield, Idaho) 1909-1931, 1915-12-24


stood for ones place in the game.
You took your chance as it came
and even the painfully honest Sun
day school scholar might be so elect
ed to be the thief while the un-
working, unwashed lad whom mo
ther' and SISTER demanded that
clean little brother should scorn,
might be even so elected to be the
rich man or the saint that he
wouldn't be on a bet if it was left to
him.
But all that, of course, was mere
chance. You couldn't run fast
enough to change your luck in such
a contingent, either for good or
bad. That's the essence of fatalism
that puts everything beyond the in
dividual power to change. No power
of choice, no way to dodge the dia-
monds or the love or the brickbats or
the hate or the neglect that Fate
meted out to you-just sit there like
wart on log and wait for it to
come to you-and it all came with
out your volition. Not very high
degree of mentality to believe in that
as the way of creation, the inevitable
outcome of ones life=just to be
pint or a quart cup or maybe hogs
head that would hold so much that
destiny was bound to pour into it
and fill it to the brim; maybe with
diamonds, maybe with honor and
Who'd believe that way in the land
of the free?
Nobodyl Absolutely nobody
That's good We don't believe it,
our community, our farms, better ev-
cry minute-and we know it, Don't |
we prove it?
Sure we do Better every minute.
Better in SO many ays-education,
comforts, a higher scale of living, a |
better humanity, better community |
spirit. And even at that, we've only |
fairly got started. Wait until we
get going-then We'll set pace for
the weary old world to follow
Honest, that's what we try to do;
that's what we really can and in
some measure do do-get better ey
cry minutel
And yet-and yet-we're ashamed
to say it, to even think it-but It's
really not true as it ought to be.
What's that? Knocker Traitor!
Soreheadl Everything that's against
the helpful BOOST
No; not so. Let's be frank and
study it out.
The record show that on the Ida
no Irrigation Company project, the
total average grain, hay, potato and
every other crop yield, is low-low-
er by far than it should be. How
much lower? Well Cts only one
half the average yield secured by
fifty of the better farmers of the pro-
ject
Would you like to know what that
The taxes are the same on
the well-farmed land as on the poor
ly-farmed or the vacant land; the
idler is frightfully penalized in this.
The maintenance charge-water, {
ditch superintendence=is the same, {
even if you don't use drop of water. ,
You pay exactly the same for the {
IDLE forty that doesn't raise even a [
spear of feed, as you would if you $
-aised a crop of clover seed that paid g
you several hundred dollars an acre q
or for an acre of tomatoes that {
letted the Gooding grower $500.
If you farm SO poorly that the crop
s too late, or watered at the wrong ;
ime and ruined, or the pigs or the
ows are allowed to Craze out over \
he fields and keep it from maturing
crop, or if the leveling is sighted
o you can't water it at all or else -
{ takes too long to force the water :.
yer the rough ground and you can't .
et over all of it in time-your year y
as gone and brings you little or !,
othing in return. VI
How many have done some OF !,
hese? How many have failed to :,
tudy the science of irrigation, and q
ave failed to get fair return for r.
heir labor?
Without mentioning names, one O;
an guess for himself, by studying fc
lat statement that the average yield OF
all the land nominally cultivated ST
n the whole project is only one-half w
) large as the average secured by iv
fly of the better farmers Isl
The Recorder has been intensely So
terested in this matter. 1t has for an
ears dinned the refrain of smaller
rms, more intensive cultivation, II
,tter profits At the risk of SEEM bu
6 to be Christmas Kill-Joy, it 81
esents some figures for its readers an
43
When the Twin Falls tract was OPP Sc
ed, the average holding was con-