Grants Pass daily courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1919-1931, 1919-08-13
OLD ORDER OF FARMING Dis
oARDED FOR NEW AND MORE
SCIENTIFIC METHODS
WATER KING N SOUTHERN ORE,
Thousands Of Acres to Be Cleared
and Planted 10 Alfalfa; Better
Livestock on Ranches

'@The era of prosperous develop
ment that is at hand in the William
ette and the Umpqua valleys Is
dawning upon the Lower Rogue and
its tributaries that water the fertile
areas of Josephine county" says a
correspondent of the Portland Tele-
gram. who recently visited Grants
Pass and the Rogue River valley.
Bankers. real estate men, county
officials. ranchers, growers of fruit
and dairy and stock men all are
looking forward to the fufillment of
an expansion prophecy that is more
fact analysis based on present con-
ditions Of growth than a forecast
There is a revival OF lumber ac-
tivity held up by the war; there is
a wide interest in irrigation about
to bear fruit in project that win
put thousands of acres under ditch;
there is strong movement toward
building up pure-bred herds of dairy
and beef cattle; new orchards are go
ing into the ground in the frostless
hill lands that viii be put under the
ditch; new blood is coming in to
handle big ranch holdings recently
purchased in the Illinois, Applegate
and Rogue river valleys; building is
active; merchants report business
good; road construction campaigns
are making the couptry's remote dis
tricts more accessible; the standards
of farming have been raised mater
tally; hundreds of acres OF new land
will be put under cultivation in the
next two years everywhere there.
seems to be the one objective before
Josephine county, and that is to
make the county 100 per cent effi-
icient."
The Telegram's staff correspon-
dent cites the River Banks Farms as
an example of the new progress that
is sweeping over the valley. and
says:
Throughout the lower Rogue dis
trict, centering about Grants Pass.
the same revision of methods to pro-
duce efficiency are seen. Some Bit
ter lessons learned by experience are
now being turned to profit in ap-
portioning the land. Orchards are
planted above the sharply defined
frost belt that follows the river bot.
toms and alfalfa is replacing them.
with the resulting increase in dairy
ing.
Final arrangements are being
made to put in at Grants Pass an ir-
rigation district that viii serve over
5000 acres along the river bench
and lower hill lands. The Grants
Pass Gravity District Improvement
company has been formed and it is
the plan to contract for the construc-
tion OF the ditch and for the water
from the Irrigation and Power COM
pany. Later developments will throw
bigger acreage under ditch. There
are thousands of acres of scrub tim
ber to be cleared off from the land
as level as floor lying at the city's
gates.
Fruit crops this year are enor-
nous, and the high prices will yield
a return the mere anticipation Of
which has stiffened the orchard in
dustry and will result in setting for
ward the day when the lower Rogue
will reach it's high level of produc-
tion.
1. Postwar lumber and mining re-
lvivals, the demand for building ma
terials bringing into operation the
cement plant below Gold Hill and
the outlook for a resumption Of con-
struction work on the California and
Oregon Coast railway extension are
but items in the general prosperity
OF the district.
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