USA > California > Imperial County > The history of Imperial County, California > Part 20
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Farm Home Department and Home Demonstrator. This department was organized for the purpose of offering to farm women opportunities for successfully meeting war emergencies, and also to improve farm home conditions in the coming years by means of trained home demon- stration agents. In each of the fourteen farm centers a farm home com- mittee was organized among the women members, and a chairman elected. These fourteen chairmen also serve in the capacity of directors on the county-wide organization of the farm home department. While it is a department of the farm bureau, this organization of women is practically independent of the main organization, taking on the charac- ter of a rural women's club. Under the leadership of the home demon- strator the principal work is food conservation, demonstrations in can- ning, planning home gardens, kitchen efficiency, sanitation and kindred
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subjects. The home demonstrator also attends the night meetings at the fourteen different centers and gives lectures on the subjects above men- tioned. The work promises to be one of the most important undertaken.
ACTIVITIES
The accomplishment of the farm bureau during its short life of less than two years cover a wide field, as follows :
I. Grasshopper Campaign. One of the first works undertaken was the grasshopper campaign, with the result that over 16,000 acres were successfully "treated" with poison and ridden of these destructive pests. The financial saving ran into thousands of dollars.
2. Agricultural Clubs for boys and girls have been organized in the Valley with excellent results. Besides agricultural contests, raising corn, etc., pig clubs for both boys and girls have been organized, there being five such organizations now in the Valley. These pig clubs are a contest in producing the greatest increase in weight at the least cost of labor and feed. The contestants are largely guided by scientific data on feed- ing as well as experience of hog growers. The data from the university on pig feeding cover experiments with feeding pigs on various rations to eight different lots of pigs, as follows: Barley ; barley and alfalfa pasture ; barley and pasture with self feeder ; barley, tankage and pas- ture ; barley and cut alfalfa ; barley shorts and pasture ; barley, cocoanut meal and pasture ; milo, maize and tankage in self feeder and pasture. Results showed that greatest profits came from the lot fed on last- named rations, viz., milo, maize, tankage in self feeder and pasture, with a profit of $7.03, an average feed cost of 6 cents, with amount of 4.I pounds feed per each pound gain. The poorest profit came from lot fed on barley alone, with a profit of only $1.42, an average feed cost of 8.1 cents, with amount of 6 pounds feed per each pound gain. At the end of the contest, which covers a period of 105 days, prizes are award- ed to the winners, consisting of : First, trip to Eastern cities on tour with winners of agricultural clubs ; second, trips to University Farm at Davis.
3. Disease Control. In conjunction with the University of California and the Federal Government, hog cholera is being successfully combat- ed through vaccination with anti-hog-cholera serum and virus fur- nished by the university. The Federal Government also sends down
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here frequently an expert on cholera, who gives personal demonstra- tions in vaccination, and lectures on prevention by proper sanitary measures, etc., at farm center meetings. Bovine tuberculosis, contagious abortion in cattle, blackleg, are treated in the most approved manner.
4. Landscape Gardening. In no place in the world is the need of beau- tification by tree and shrub planting greater than in the Imperial Valley. The University of California, through its extension work, has sent ex- perts to work with the farm bureau to work out plans of landscaping the school grounds, several of which are already under way.
5. Cost Records. In co-operation with the University, also, farmers are being encouraged to keep records of costs and profits, in order to eliminate unprofitable farming. An expert bookkeeping specialist is to visit the Valley soon, starting each farmer who has applied for the course in bookkeeping, and at the end of the year will help him close the books and take off a balance sheet of profit and loss and point out the "leaks" if any.
6. Publicity. A monthly publication, The Farm Bureau Monthly, is published each month and mailed to all farm bureau members. This con- tains many articles concerning the fundamental problems of the farm- ers in the Valley, notices of meetings, personal items, progress of con- tests in feeding pigs, progress of cow-testing, with butterfat scores of high cows, and special articles by experts on timely subjects.
7. Livestock Fair. A successful county fair, under the able manage- ment of A. M. Nelson, former secretary, was put on with the co-oper- ation of the El Centro Chamber of Commerce. A fine showing of regis- tered hogs, cattle, horses, poultry and turkeys, was made and prizes awarded to winners. The fair was an unqualified success and bids fair to become a permanent institution with permanent fair grounds.
8. Irrigation Problems. An uninterrupted supply of water for both irrigation and domestic use is absolutely necessary for the prosperity and even the life of the people of the Valley. The only source of supply is through diversion canals of over 80 miles in length from the Colorado River. For years the people of the Valley have unaided been attempting to solve the problem of an adequate water supply during low water peri- ods in summer.
As early as October 2, 1916, the farm bureau passed a resolution to the effect that the magnitude of the irrigation works and flood protec-
.
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tion was such that it became imperative to enlist government assistance, and further that the Secretary of the Interior and the University of California be requested to make an immediate co-operative investiga- tion and an early report on the quickest and most effective means of se- curing these results of providing the Valley with an adequate and per- manent water supply. A committee, consisting of Walter E. Packard, Phil Brooks and A. M. Nelson, went to El Paso to meet members of the reclamation service, at their invitation, to confer on request for co- operative investigation of the irrigation situation. Director A. P. Davis, of the reclamation service, with other reclamation officials had visited the Valley on invitation, had made inspections, met with directors of the irrigation district, and that now the reclamation service was en- gaged in making preliminary investigations.
In the latter part of March, 1917, a report was received from the board of engineers, consisting of Dr. Elwood Mead, D. C. Henry and Joseph Jacobs, outlining their findings, and asking for recommendations of the directors of the farm bureau. The recommendations made by the farm bureau were as follows : First, abandon Colorado River as naviga- ble stream; second, to arrange treaty with Mexico so as to bring main canals and protective works wholly within United States; third, nation- al control of works and provision for a fair division of cost of con- struction and maintenance of canals, protective works and storage dams between Mexican and Imperial lands, based on area served ; fifth, government control of flood protection, assuming cost of same on same basis as work included in rivers and harbors appropriations; sixth, construction by government of storage works on basis of repayment of cost by lands benefited; seventh, construction of high-line canal to ir- rigate lands above present area on basis of repayment of costs by lands benefited ; eighth, unified control of Colorado River and tributaries by commission composed of Federal and state government officials of States through which the Colorado and tributaries flow; ninth, the se- curing through government action of a water supply for the main canal from Laguna Dam; tenth, the appropriation of $50,000 for preliminary surveys and study of plans above outlined.
9. Farm Loan Associations. The farm bureau was active in bringing about the formation of five farm loan associations, with more than 100 prospective borrowers. This means cheaper money for the farmer,
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probably five and a half per cent. Over half a million dollars has been applied for to be used in buying stock, making various improvements, purchase of land, as well as taking up old mortgages. .
IO. Pima Cotton Seed. In co-operation with Long Staple Cotton Ex- change, over 150,000 pounds of government inspected pima cotton seed, a new variety of Egyptian-a long staple cotton of superior qual- ity-was distributed among the farmers of the Valley. Over 8000 acres will be planted.
II. Better Silage Crops. Seeds of several new varieties of sorghums were brought in and distributed as demonstrations to the farmers, with the result that the amazing yield of over 46 tons to the acre was pro- duced in one instance. This was Honey Sorghum. Other plots yielded 36.6 tons, 31 tons, 45 tons, 36.4 tons, with an average of 39 tons. This, compared with former yields, considered satisfactory, of from 9 to 15 tons of milo, Indian corn, or feterita, is significant of a greatly in- creased feed yield, and will result in thousands of dollars gain in the dairy industry.
12. Land Colonization. The farm bureau by resolution endorsed plans of Dr. Elwood Mead having for their purpose the purchase of large tracts of lands in the State, these lands to be subdivided under State supervision and re-sold to settlers on long-time payments.
13. Annual Assembly. Each year an annual agricultural convention is arranged by the farm bureau, to which are invited to speak on the program speakers from the University of California, experiment sta- tions, State and county officials, and specialists in various lines of agri- culture and commerce. Three such assemblies have been held during the past three years, at Brawley, at Imperial and at Holtville. The event is now looked upon as a regular county institution.
14. Milo Selection. A campaign for saving selected milo seed was started, with the result that many tons of superior seed are available for this year's planting.
15. Associations. As a result of activities of the farm bureau, through publicity, assemblies and other meetings, several associations have re- sulted, notably The Milk Producers' Association, Cotton Men's Asso- ciation, Hog Growers' Association, Bee Men's Association, marketing associations, cow-testing associations, and others still in process of formation.
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16. Labor Bureau. As a result of a canvass put through by the farm bureau in co-operation with the State and county councils of defense, the acute labor shortage was attempted to be relieved by the creation by the county board of supervisors of a county labor bureau.
17. Gopher Control. With the co-operation of the University of Cali- fornia, a campaign to exterminate the destructive gophers from the Valley started. An expert was sent here, who made a two-weeks' tour of the Valley, giving lectures to center meetings and demonstrations to farmers, and especially to the officials of the irrigation companies. The gophers caused thousands of dollars worth of damage each year, not only to crops, but in the way of starting road-flooding from irrigation ditches.
18. Miscellaneous. Many minor activities, such as the distribution of thousands of State, Federal and experiment station bulletins on every branch of agriculture, home economics, horticulture, live-stock indus- tries, etc. Other work is undertaken, such as the aiding of the Red Cross, Liberty loans, etc., through the centers.
HISTORY IN BRIEF
The Imperial County Farm Bureau had its inception at the first annual agricultural assembly at Brawley, on December 18, 1915, which was called together by W. E. Wills, of Brawley ; Walter E. Packard, of the Meloland experiment station ; and A. M. Nelson, of El Centro, all of whom were instrumental in making the first agricultural assembly the great success it achieved. Preliminary plans were laid at that time, the completion of which was accomplished at a later meeting at the Bar- bara Worth, El Centro, on March 4, 1916, where the duly elected presi- dents of ten different farm centers met with Mr. Wills, Mr. Packard and Mr. Nelson. The centers and their representatives were as follows : Verde, James N. Cook; Mt. Signal, Grover Lofftus; Eastside, S. E. Robinson; Meloland, Phil Brooks; Eucalyptus, J. T. Pitts; Seeley, Wm. Moores; Magnolia, C. E. Phegley ; Westmoreland, C. F. Boarts ; Mesquite Lake, Jake Lorang; South Fern, W. R. Lienau ; Heber, Geo. Meyers. After plans were outlined by B. H. Crocheron of the Univer- sity of California, State leader of farm advisers, a temporary organi- zation was effected, and on March 11, 1916, the following officers were elected :
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Officers: R. E. Wills, president; S. E. Robinson, vice-president ; A. M. Nelson, secretary ; C. F. Boarts, treasurer, and later, R. E. Wills and Walter E. Packard were elected directors-at-large.
President. The office of president was held by R. E. Wills for one year, when, at the annual elections, Walter E. Packard was elected, holding office until June 25, when he resigned to accept the position as assistant State leader of farm advisers at the University of California. Mr. Grover Lofftus was then elected president, and served until he re- signed to take up his residence in Los Angeles. At the annual election in February, Mike Liebert, director-at-large, was elected president.
Vice-president. This office was held first by S. E. Robinson and con- tinued in office for two years, and was followed by W. R. Lienau, who was elected at the annual election in February, 1918.
Secretary. A. M. Nelson was elected secretary and held the office until he resigned in September, 1917, to join the Liberty boys at Camp Lewis, and on that date A. E. Madison was made secretary.
Treasurer. C. F. Boarts was elected treasurer and held office for over two years, and then, at the annual meeting in February, 1918, asked that another treasurer be elected, with the result that Frank Vander Poel was chosen.
Farm Adviser. Paul I. Dougherty, of the University of California and University Agricultural College at Berkeley and Davis, was called in July, 1915, and served in that capacity with earnestness, zeal and ef- fectiveness until October, 1917, when he joined the Liberty boys at Camp Lewis. C. E. Sullivan, also of the University of California, was appointed, and later J. P. Hertel, of the University of Wisconsin, was appointed an assistant farm adviser.
Home Demonstration Agent. Upon the completion of the organiza- tion of the farm home department in March, 1918, a home demonstra- tor was sent down by the University of California-Mrs. Della J. Mor- ris, formerly domestic science teacher in El Centro and graduate of Ames College, Iowa.
Farm Home Department. Directors of the farm home department are as follows: Mrs. Frank M. Ballou, Acacia center; Mrs. A. H. Smithson, Verde; Mrs. W. H. Kirby, Mesquite Lake; Mrs. Walter Wilkinson, Meloland; Miss May Beattie, Calipatria; Mrs. L. O. Ban- nister, Westmoreland; Mrs. B. D. Irvine, Magnolia; Mrs. Wm. M.
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Moores, Seeley ; Mrs. Frank M. Moore, McCabe; Mrs. Stuart Swink, Mt. Signal; Mrs. F. M. Wright, Eastside; Miss Mildred Boyd, South Fern ; Miss Elsie Angel, La Verne.
Additional centers were added from time to time, including Calipat- ria, with H. H. Clark as director; La Verne, H. F. Barton, director ; Acacia, J. M. Grafton, director.
LW
J.W. Peterson Q. B. M.D.
CHAPTER XI
MEDICAL HISTORY
BY DR. F. W. PETERSON
THE first doctors coming to the Valley had no easy time of it in the pursuit of their profession. There were often long journeys to take out over the trackless desert, and it was necessary to make these on horse- back, for few roads were such that one could pass over them with a buggy. As the ditches or canals were cut through there were seldom any bridges put across and the traveler was compelled to ford the streams. There were no hospitals or any buildings that in any way would answer the purpose of these. There were very few houses in the towns and none in the country. What surgical work had to be done was quite often done out in the open.
A number of amputations were performed with nothing but a mes- quite tree to keep off the sun's rays. The few settlers that were here were usually pretty well scattered, necessitating long journeys for the doctor.
The summer heat, in those earlier years, was intense. There was lit- tle or no verdure to break the blinding glare of the sun, and it was not unusual for the thermometer to rise to 128 or 130 degrees Fahrenheit during the middle of the day. But owing to the dryness of the at- mosphere there were few or no prostrations. There was comparatively little sickness in those days. The most of the men who came into the Valley were young and able-bodied and a large percentage of them had no families, or if they had, had left them behind, back in civilization, so that the proportion of women and children in the Valley was small. Brave souls there were though who refused to be left behind, who wanted to have a part in the developing of the country and refused to be daunted by the hardships of the desert life, and others soon fol- lowed, inspired by their example. Thus the Valley homes were estab- lished and the doctor became a necessity.
This, perhaps, explains the fact that the first doctors, or most of
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them, did not come with any definite idea of establishing themselves in the practice of medicine. Dr. W. S. Heffernan, who was probably the first doctor to enter the Valley, came in 1900, not to practice medicine, but as secretary of the then newly organized California Development Company. Incidentally, he looked after considerable work profession- ally and along this line he covered the greater part of the Valley and often made trips far into Mexico. At one time he left Calexico at mid- night on horseback and rode all night and the greater part of the morn- ing, arriving at his destination near Black Butte mountains, at ten o'clock. He holds the distinction of having officiated at the birth of the first white child in the Valley in October, 1900. Dr. Heffernan first took up his stay in Imperial, which consisted of a few tent houses and a number of tents. Later he removed to Calexico, where he spent a num- ber of years, in fact until the dissolution of the development company. So much of his time, however, was spent in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the interest of the company that he could hardly be said to have had a permanent residence at Calexico at any time.
In 1901, Dr. F. P. Blake came to Imperial. It is said that his first of- fice was in a tent, under a mesquite tree. Later he put up a small wooden building, two doors north of the Imperial Hotel. This consisted of but two tiny rooms, but they were ample for his bachelor needs. His equip- ment was exceedingly unpretentious, but it was considered ample in those days. His practice covered the greater part of the Valley. He was for years the only doctor there. He had no horse or buggy and went out in the country only as the parties came in with their own convey- ances and brought him out. He was for three years the only doctor in the Valley who devoted his whole time to his practice. He left the Val- ley about 1907, and for a number of years was absent from his usual haunts, but has now for several years been located in Calipatria.
Dr. Blake had been in Imperial a year when Dr. T. R. Griffith, com- ing from Boston, drifted into the town. He had come in quest of health and he pitched his tent under another mesquite tree, not far distant from the one under which Dr. Blake was domiciled. This for a while was practically the entire medical fraternity of the Valley, all lodged under two Imperial mesquites. Dr. Griffith stayed in Imperial a year and then moved down near what is now known as Heber, on a ranch. He took no active part in the management of the ranch and did very
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little in the way of practicing medicine. After a year's stay here he felt sufficiently recuperated to take up the practice of his profession and, moving to Celexico, which had begun to develop into a small town, he opened up an office in a small tent house on Imperial Avenue. The house is still in existence, though later moved over onto First Street. Pos- sessing a gifted mind, Dr. Griffith, nevertheless, had little or no inclina- tion toward practicing medicine. The varied assortment of anomalous characters, both Mexican and white, possessed a peculiar fascination for him. He was seldom at his office, which bore all the marks of neg- lect, but could be found out mingling with people of the place. Natural- ly a linguist, he readily acquired a fair knowledge of the Spanish, and within a year was speaking this language fluently, with a studied Cas- tilian accent.
Knowing the place as we do, knowing the man, we cannot wonder at his attachment to it. The first doctor of the town with a love for pio- neering, though not with an adaptability for it, he found here the breath of pioneering on everything and everybody. There was the spirit to do and to dare; to undertake without hesitation the apparently impossible. There were also the unsuccessful ones, the derelicts in life, the down- and-outer, a motley assortment of humanity which had come from all parts of the country to this new land of promise with the last lingering hope that here they might redeem themselves. Some made good and others again sank to still lower depths of degradation, poverty and crime.
But to the doctor student of humanity, to the lover of the strange and anomalous in character and in life, they formed a most interesting group. There, too, were the officials of the California Development Company, their clerks and attendants, comfortably housed in several large adobe buildings, which lent to the community a touch of gentility that would otherwise be lacking and helped to intensify the contrasts. There, too, was the life across the line, a town composed almost entirely of adobe buildings and practically wholly Mexican. Here were stores and drinking booths. Here was the gay, careless life of the land of mañana. Here of an evening could be heard the Spanish guitar, often accompanied by a more or less strident voice, sometimes distinctively plaintive, sounding clear and distinct through the still night air. A town it was, more distinctively Mexican than it has ever been since. The
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Colorado washed it away, with only a touch of the corruption which later has become the whole life of the community.
Such was the life of the border when Dr. Griffith came to Calexico in 1904, and such it was when in the fall of 1905 he sold his few office belongings to the writer and left for Riverside, where he has been in active practice ever since.
There had been some high water in the New River during the sum- mer of 1905, which had washed away the approaches to the bridge, thus interrupting traffic to the country lying west of town. A foot bridge was constructed across the river, but this was washed away during one of the winter floods, and thereafter all communication with the country west of the town was by boats. Some enterprising white fellow would build a boat and charge a person from fifty cents to a dollar to ferry him across. Hardly would he have earned enough money to cover the cost of the boat before some sudden rise in the river dur- ing the night would carry the boat down stream, and it invariably fell into the hands of some Cocopah Indian, who dwelt down stream and on the farther side. Thus the Indians soon came to have a monopoly in the ferry business. There were then a rather large number of them who lived west of the river. There are still a few living there, but most of them have succumbed to the ravages of tuberculosis and venereal diseases. The Indians used these boats to good advantage. If the ferry business was a little dull and they were a little short of funds in their community settlement, one of their number would suddenly get sick and another one would come across for the doctor. The trip across the river was always free to the doctor, but the patient, of course, had no money to pay him, and he was therefore under the necessity of having to pay for his ride back to town. This method of money making had, of course, its limitations.
It was the writer's good fortune to spend that memorable year of floods in the Valley's border town. The place then suffered most from the break. Many and varied, indeed, were the experiences. It was a time that tried men. Many a brave soul did he see finally give up in despair and leave the Valley, never to return. Many had put their all in here and went out penniless. Practicing medicine during those times had its trying experiences. It was difficult and at times almost impossible to get around over the country. A saddle horse could cover all the dry land,
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