The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1916-08-11
THE
BIG DESERT
How the Work Began. How it's Kept Going. Poor
and WelLtodo Stake all they lave on the Conquest.
Settlers are Public Benefactors.
WIVES ALONE ON THE DESERT CLAIMS

Last week we told our readers
something of the settlers on the
great plains and stated that we re-
Trained from using the word desert"
because it was such a forbidding
term. Since we wrote the other
article we have finished the canvass
of the dry farm country midway be-
tween the rivers and anyone who OBJ
jects to the use of the word desert
is invited to go out and see just what
conditions settlers are living under
and study all the climatic conditions
these burning days of August.
Heros on the Dry Farms
The first settlers in the Snake river
valley settled along the small streams
and avoided the desert. The next
ones settled along the main river and
took desert land bordering the river
bank. Then the work of subduing
the desert went on, by extending irri-
cation back on the plains. For a
long time it was considered that the
limit of cultivation had been reached
and then came dry farming and dry
farmers. They settled along the edge
of the desert as it lay then, bordering
the irrigated section. Within the
last few years the dry farmer has
literally thrown down the gauntlet
and challenged the desert to mortal
by casting his lot in the
center of it and stalking all he had
on the result. When men do these
things they are entitled to respect
for their courage just as Cyrus Field
courageous when he staked all
he had on the success of the Atlantic
cable, or Henry Ford when he staked
everything on the first output of his
factory and knew full we'll that if it
failed to satisfy the market he was
irretrievably ruined.
Each a Public Benefactor
People in the trading centers of
county have observed that
many men who had gone broke at
something else went out and took dry
farms because that afforded the OPP
portunity to get into business for
themselves with a small outlay of
That argued nothing against
the dry farmer or dry farming, but
many people have thought it did.
Such a dry farmer has staked all he
had. and besides that he has put the
comfort and welfare Of his family
into the balance, and by retiring into
the desert to combat with nature
where nobody claimed anything or
ever went, they were taking as mod
est a position as anybody could be
asked to do even if he had offended
by going broke in his former
ventures. If he failed he alone suf-
If he succeeded he could go
to town and buy goods and pay for
them. If an hundred or a thousand
him succeeded even in small de-
gree, each Of such body would seek
the trading centers to buy goods &C.
cording to his purchasing power. Ger
the dry farmer took all the
risk and offered society, commercial
Ly, all the best of it. If he succeeds
they get his trade; If he fails he
goes his way and asks nothing.
Transplanting a Family
But the dry farmers of the desert
are not all poor. Think of the COL
man down in Iowa or Missouri
Or Oregon reasoning that he can
make but little progress where he is
On account of the high price of land
In the country or the high cost of
living in the town, and he and his
wife determine that if they can get
free government land on the Snake
river desert it is $3.50 an acre cheap
er than where they are, and they be-
interested. Suppose they rea-
son it out that they can sell their
90 acres in the Mississippi valley for
lis 900 and move out into the heart
Of the desert and take 800 as a
and build a good shack
or $3.50. Other necessary buildings
ire erected for another $3.50 and a
veil and pumping outfit are installed
or $4,000. House rent costs them
cow pasture is free, the
and the victrola furnish them
With concerts and the expense Of liv-
ng Is confined to the purchase of
AIMED goods and groceries, hay,
,rain, clothing and some farming i'm
They estimate that their
,ank account will not be exhausted
or four years and they believe that
n that time they can clear their land
nd get some returns from it. They
will have clear title to it, and If it
S worthless it will be their own
oss. If it is worth $50 an acre they
will be worth just about what they
we're before moving west. The trad
ng centers Of the valley will have
.bsorbed the money he brought with
i'm, and the favor, If there is any,
will have gone to the tradesmen. He
entitled to the sincere thanks of [