The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1916-08-11

the commercial centerS for making
the venture, and at the present stage
of the game a large percentage OF
the people ire ready to bet on his
failure. If the matter is not well
understood it is time to make a care
full study of it all; if It is well under
stood it is time to make application
of what is known.
Racing With Possible Failure
This problem of dry farming in the
desert is a very complicated one. Few
people have any comprehensive idea
of it. and that fact coupled with a
comprehension of it's importance to
this county is the reason for this
paper making a careful study of it
and reporting upon it for it's readers.
The people who are settling the des-
ert are of the several walks of life
not far removed from the actual
physical activities, and while some of
them have been driven by poverty to
seek the enlarged homestead. as a
means of existence, many of them
choose it as best suited to their small
capital and their knowledge of ma
ture and soil and dry farming, out of
nature and her forces in honest
struggle for supremacy.
Immigrant and College Man
A good many of the settlers are
very poor; some of them are of
foreign birth and having come from
agricultural regions they understand
the common language of soil and CHI
mate better than they understand the
ways of trade in their newly adopted
country. Some of the settlers are
people accustomed to the comforts
and many of the luxuries of Ameri-
can life, and are full of the spirit of
enterprise and bring with them to
their claims, fine furniture, good
stock, the best Of implements, good
books and whatever seems necessary
to fortify them for the long period
of unrest that always accompanies
the tr%ansplanting of a family to a
strange land.
Thirsty but Sick of Water
At one homesteader's claim you
may find these things, and on en-
tired and thirsty you may be
offered a cool drink of pure water
in a clean tank for a great dis
In other homes you may see
every evidence of poverty and it's
hard struggle. The water offered you
may have been hauled from a river
or a canal, and the vegetable mat
ter in 1t may have been affected by
the heat until it is insipid or distaste-
full or absolutely repulsive. They
may empty the tank and cleanse it,
and then drive a long distance to get
pure water, only to find that this
pure water is contaminated by being
In the tank that had river water in
it the day before, and standing in
the burning sun, a condition arose
battles ordinary cleansing. Peo-
pie using bad water are likely to be-
come i'll, and it is a hard lot to be
III in the desert and still have to use
Of the water that created the illness.
Testing Sweet Disposition
If people are going to break out
tracts of sage brush land and
put it into grain they must have
much machinery or horse power.
Horses require feed and water and
The man who has ever hauled water
! few miles to water stock, has in
7ariably been convinced that a bunch
If horses drink more when you haul
t to them than they do at the we'll
,r stream. But every settler on the
desert whether poor or well7to-do
lauls all Of his water for a while.
And if the supply is Unexpectedly ex-
lausted it is inconvenient to hitch up
and go seven miles for a load of
water before the ordinary operations
# cooking and eating and drinking
AN be resumed. That is one of the
where the sacrifice Of ones
ceilings comes in. The settler may
cad in his paper that a good show is
to town, and that doesn't
him at all. But II his boy
,oes out in the field at supper time
md tells him that an accident has
happened and there is no water for
upper, that bothers him. If 1t Is
our miles over the ridge to the we'll,
nd seemingly twice as far back with
he load, it requires a sweet DISPOSE
ion and a strong heart to see the
natter thru without burning out any
# life's precious fuses. II it so
lappens that the school house is To-
ated too far from ones home to be
f any service, then it is no use for
he parents to wish they had taken
ONE other tract of land.
Bonnie Scotch Names
Some of the settlers located where
here are patches Of rocks that have