The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1916-08-09
UNCLE SAM SHOULD PROVIDE
FARMS READY TO CULTIVATE
Homeseekers With Small Capital
Now Precluded From Taking
Up Public Lands.
(By Elwod Mead)
Professor of Rural Institutions, Uni


enlarged. In addition to the build
ing of irrigation works it should be
given the authority to prepare land
for irrigation, and in some instances
complete improvements so that set
tiers can begin Immediately the cul-
tiyation of the soil. The reason for
this change is that leveling is to
inexperienced settlers wastes money
and time, delays settlement and the
resultant income from water sales.
It would be good business policy
It is also what settlers most need
to overcome the serious obstacles
they now have to face.
When the reclamation act was
passed expense of irrigation develop
ment were far less than now: the
changes that have since taken place
we're not, and could not, be foreseen.
Up to that time nearly all irrigation
works had been of small cost. but
the opportunities to build works of
this character we're so nearly absorb
ed that the government had from
the outset to deal with he regula-
ton Of great rivers and to overcome
costly physical obstacles, so that
water rights which before had cost,
on an average, less than SIS an acre,
have since cost, under both govern
ment and private works, an average
of over $50 an acre.
Increase In Land Prices.
When the government began its
opertion the lands best suited to irri-
gated agriculture had nearly all
passed into private ownership. This
land has risen in price until settlers
now have to pay anywhere from s25
% $500 an acre. The settlers has lit
tie, if any, better prospects where he
secures public land Free land no
longer means q cheap farm. 1t costs
surprising amount of money to
,evel land fer irrigation, especially
some of the broken surfaced public
land; to this has to be added the cost
of houses and other farm buildings
and the needed implements and live
stock. These are few irrigation dis
lricts where these preliminary ex-
penses on a 40-acre farm do not in
yolve a larger acreage outlay than
the purchase price of well-improved
fertile farms in New York or Penn
syivania.
Few who seek homes in the New
lands of the West have money
enough to meet these expenses. Men
with ample capital are not willing to
endure the hardships of pioneer life.
When the settler with small capital
runs out of money he finds borrow
ing difficult and costly. Interest
rates are high: far more than the
profits of an improved farm would
Justify, let alone a farm being deyel-
oped. The time in which loans arc
made is too short to be paid out of
income. Settlers in borrowing money
have to make promises they cannot
fulfill.
Create Ready-Made Farms.
These things cause some settlers
ta fail and discourage others in
every way qualified and worthy.
With q suddenness that prevents
our realizing 1t we have reached a
situation in Western irrigation dis
tricts where a man with $1,000 to
$4,000 capital has no better chance of
becoming farm owner than did the
peasant farmer in Europe a genera
ton ago. The acreage cost of the
irrigated farm in many new, sparsely
settled districts is greater than the
acreage cost of farms in the densely
peopled sections OF England and Ger
many. They have, therefore, become
too costly for the unaided efforts of
the men who most need them and
who will make the best use of them.
If. therefore. the Reclamation Act
is to be an aid in extending economic
equality, it must do more than build
irrigation canals, it must, by Great
ing ready-made farms and giving bet
ter opportunities for the settlers to
borrow money for improvements,
give the frugal and industrious home
seeker a fair working chance to sue
ceed.
If we adopt this system it will not
be an experiment. We will not have
to break any new trails. 1t is a
working success in both Old and New
Worlds. Ireland Germany, Dem
mark and Australia have found II a
sound business policy, and an agent
for upbuilding rural life of incalcula-
BILE value
A Billion Spent Well.
Since the beginning of the century
over a billion dollars have been fur
nished by different governments to
enable men of small capital to own
the land they cultivate; the results
have been little less than marvellous.
In Australia 1t has created new
kind of agriculture, more than
doubled the income from the State
irrigation works and caused new
ones TO be built by the State.
The principal features in all these
nh