White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1924-05-23
HOW THE REPORTERS SIZED UP OUR Land
SETTLEMENT PROJECT

prize Holsteins, and painted the fol-
lowing word picture of his impress
sions of the land settlement project:
Two years ago Ed Ponsat, late of
Battery d, 146th field artillery and
overseas veteran, got off the train at
White Bluffs, on the Columbia river,
in Benton county.
1t was in the late summer and the
thermometer hovered around the un-
comfortable mark. Ponsat was one
of the first world war veterans to
take advantag of the states White
Bluffs Hanford land settlement pro-
ject, and had signed up for one of
the first so units that were opened up.
Everything did not look the best
on the afternoon that Ed got off the
train at his future home. He had
paid down the $612.5O required for
him to secure a tract. The state
had erected for him one of the three
room houses, the barn and the
chicken houses that go with each
tract. 1t had sunk his we'll and
installed the pump for his irrigation.
All was in readiness for him to
begin his battle against the hot
sands and the sage brush. Ponsat
moved his family from Walla Walla
and began the battle.
TRACT TESTIMONIAL TO
HIS LABORS
Today the 20-acre tract is a graphic
testimonial of his labors. Where the
winds once drove the hot sands
into dunes, they now rustic thru
one of the finest alfalfa fields in the
valley. Where the sun once beat
down on a barren waste land, it now
puts red blush onto mammoth
strawberries. Where sage rats once
scurried in and out among the sage
brush, pure bred Holsteins now
Craze in green pastures.
The "magic wand" of Priest val
ley water has turned barren 20 acres
into means of living for an ex-
soldier. But the water would have
been useless without Ponsat's untir-
ing labors and his determination to
stick to his place until he had made it
a productive unit in the soldier land
settlement plan.
What Ponsat has done, others have
done or are doing. There are now ap-
proximately So ex-soldiers who have
settled in the White Bluffs Hanford
district under the states settlement
plan.
The first unit called for the estab-
lshment of so tracts. These were all
taken up so the last legislature appro-
priated more money for the work and
100 tracts were then laid out.
The state builds the house, barn and
chicken house. All these buildings are
uniform. Then it digs the well, in
stalls the pump for irrigation, advances
money for fencing material, clearing
land, seeds and electric current for the
first three years.
The settler must pay but $6l2.5c
down to obtain tract. The total cost
Of placing man pnla tract is ~ ,SSl
After the first payment nothing falls
due until three years, when the bal
ance must be met in 20 annual install
ments.
Not man in the valley is dissatis-
fed with his lot. All have had won
derful success with their crops. The
strawberries go on the market early
and get top prices. Their cabbages
are the earliest in the state and bring
from 51a to cents pound.
The frost this year has damaged the
fruit crop, but has not destroyed it.
At the present time there are 49 va
cant tracts in the entire lot OF 100,
the majority of which have but recent
ly been offered. An attempt is being
made to interest veterans in these
tracts as they will be thrown open to
any settler if they are not secured BY
ex-serv;ce men in the near future.
~ce~o%~o<N->o/~c~os~~
Jay Austin returned Wednesday
from St. Helen's, Oregon, where
he has been teaching, to spend the
summer vacation at the ranch near
Vernita. Levi Austin, accompan-
led by his family, also returned
this week from Brewster, Wash.