USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume I > Part 46
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There can be no question but what Mr. Newell was absolutely correct in this statement. There are two difficulties to be surmounted, to make the water supply available. One is to conserve the water supply in the various streams by proper reservoir systems, so that the flush waters of the spring months, when but very little water is needed, can be utilized for the dry months of the late summer and fall, when water is necessary and the supply of water in all of the streams-is very limited.
The second proposition is to bring the water of some of the rivers where there is an over-supply, to the valleys of the rivers where there is not sufficient water to irrigate all of the land.
The great Government reservoir at Jackson Lake in Wyoming which impounds
SALMON DAM, ON THE SALMON RIVER IRRIGATION PROJECT, 7 MILES WEST OF ROGERSON The dam is 600 feet long; 220 feet high; roadway at top 18 feet wide
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the upper waters of the main Snake River, can be extended in such degree that a far larger amount can be conserved than is possible under the present construc- tion. Besides this, in various places along the Snake River, there are opportuni- ties presented for establishing great reservoirs large enough to store sufficient water to irrigate immense areas of the arid lands. Most of these localities have already been investigated, not only by private companies, but by the engineers of the Government as well, and found to be entirely practicable. A notable in- stance of this kind is the projected reservoir at American Falls, where it is esti- mated water can be stored in sufficient quantities to irrigate more than one million acres of land not now subject to irrigation.
The water of the Payette River, one of the largest tributaries of the Snake River, has a water supply more than sufficient to irrigate all of the lands of the Payette and tributary valleys, and to bring this water onto lands riparian to the Boise River is a comparatively easy engineering feat. The Payette Lake is a nat- ural reservoir site, which can at a comparatively small expenditure be fitted to store hundreds of thousands of feet of water.
So it is with the waters of the Salmon River. There is an opportunity for reservoirs at the head of this stream, where large amounts of water can be stored and made available for use in the tributary valleys of the Snake River. It would require not only the reservoirs, but extended tunnels in order to throw the water of this stream into the Boise River, but it is only a question of money in order to accomplish this great result.
FUTURE POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT
It is to be hoped that a policy will be inaugurated in the future with reference to irrigation matters that will insure the completion of these and other great projects, and enable the people of the United States to secure the benefit of the bounties Nature has showered upon this favored state. Not only have individ- uals, but the Government as well, been too prone to look upon the reclamation of arid lands as a matter of investment only. This is undoubtedly a proper method of considering the subject, when it comes to private capital, but the benefits to be derived to both state and nation by subjecting the millions of acres of non- producing lands now existing in Idaho, as well as in other western states, to the revivifying influence of water, cannot be measured in dollars and cents.
It is not a question of cost. It is not a matter in which the Government can expect to be directly reimbursed by its citizens who can take advantage of its generosity and provide themselves with homes. The average value of choice farining lands in the Twin Falls section, in the Boise Valley, and in the Payette Valley, is in the neighborhood of two hundred dollars per acre. Several millions more acres of equally fertile lands can be put under cultivation. Even though the farmer or would-be farmer had the means, he could not invest any such an amount in new lands that would require years to be put under perfect cultivation. It is impossible for the Government to expect for any lands a greater reimburse- ment from the settler than $100 per acre. In fact, it is doubtful whether the ยท Government should make any charge in anywhere near that amount. Of course, by extending payment over a long term of years, and at a very low rate of inter- est, the payments not to commence until the water is actually applied and profita-
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ble crops begin to be raised, would make payments of a considerable amount comparatively easy.
It must be borne in mind, however, that many of the projects that can be successfully completed, and enable vast amounts of the public domain to be brought under successful cultivation, will cost a large sum, in many places equal- ing $500 an acre, in order to bring the water to the land, but when this is done the works will last for all time and the water and the land will be indissolubly united.
It is short-sighted financial policy for those in charge of our governmental affairs to reason that because one million acres of land would cost five hundred millions of dollars, and that the Government could not reasonably expect to have paid back directly to its coffers more than one hundred million dollars, it thus entails a loss of four hundred million dollars. Nothing could be further from the truth. The great Panama Canal cost this Government four hundred million dollars, but if it had cost four thousand million dollars, and not one dollar of revenue over and above expenses had ever been derived from its use, it would still have been a magnificent investment from a financial standpoint for the gen- eral Government to have undertaken, by reason of the indirect benefits resulting from its completion.
So it is, when we come to consider the capacious harbors that have been built by Government assistance on both our coasts; when we remember the great rivers, out of which there have been made water highways of incalculable benefit to the people, by reason of the millions of dollars appropriated for their benefit by the general Government. Our arid lands, like the swamp lands of the South, like the cut-over timber lands of the Middle West and of the Pacific Coast as well, are worth a hundred fold more to the general Government, if, under its ben- efactions, they can be made available for farming purposes, than will be the amount of any investment made in order to bring about that happy consummation.
Not only will the population of the country be vastly increased by thousands of happy, contented and prosperous people .- and it will be remembered in this connection that the irrigated lands will sustain triple the population of non-irri- gated lands,-but every man and every woman of this greatly increased popula- tion will pay taxes both directly and indirectly to the Government, as well as to the state, and not only will the Government receive back from the settlers a proper amount to be paid as purchase price of the lands, but it will continue to receive a revenue from those occupying such lands that will last for all time to come.
When it is remembered that it is men and women that form a commonwealth, that make the glory of a nation, that give it wealth, prosperity and importance among the other nations of the world, then it must be conceded as sound policy that any expenditure of the funds collected by the Government from the people at large in such manner as to greatly increase the acreage of lands that can be cultivated, will do more to quickly achieve the mighty results for which every good citizen hopes, than any other governmental policy that can be outlined after the most careful thought.
SECRETARY LANE'S IDEA
Hon. Franklin K. Lane, who continuously during President Wilson's two administrations has been Secretary of the Interior, and the most efficient Secre-
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tary the country has ever been blessed with, has given active attention to the in- tricate problems to be solved in connection with the remaining public lands, and in his annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918, took up the matter of the returning soldiers and requested the Congress to make an appropriation to be immediately available, and to remain available until expended, of the sum of one hundred million dollars, to be expended under the direction of the Secre- tary of the Interior for the investigation, irrigation, drainage, and development of swamp, arid, waste and undeveloped lands, for the purpose of providing em- ployment and farms for honorably discharged soldiers, sailors and marines of the United States, and also suggested the passage of an act providing for cooperation between the states and the United States in the settlement of soldiers, sailors and marines upon state lands and lands acquired until such act.
The Secretary, in his report, points out that Congress has already taken the first step in solving the problem, "by appropriating $200,000 for an examination into the reclaimable land resources of the country, one-half that sum to be ex- pended for a survey of possible irrigation projects, and the other half for an examination of those lands which need to be drained and of those huge tracts of lands which once were forests, but now are neither forest, pasture, nor farms, the logged-off lands of North, East, West, and South."
The secretary then proceeds to call attention to the fact that of these three classes of land, fully two hundred million acres can be converted into farms, either by irrigation, draining or clearing.
The secretary further shows that although no complete survey has ever been made of the land resources, it is estimated that there are from fifteen million to twenty million additional acres of arid lands in the West for which water is available if properly conserved, and he then gives a careful estimate of the cut- over and logged-off timber lands lying mostly within the eastern half of the United States, at 228.509,000 acres, and states that the swamp lands of the whole country amount to 79,005,023 acres.
In his report the secretary asserts that it is not necessary to confine the sub- ject of reclamation to those states containing Government lands, but urges that the plan be made adaptable to all of the states, so that each state from its unused lands may carve out farm settlements, by cooperation between the states and the Federal Government upon plans that can readily be worked out.
Unfortunately, the time of the last Congress was so limited that there was no opportunity after the submission of the secretary's report, to act in accord- ance with his ideas, and to make the preliminary appropriation of one hundred million dollars that he requested. It was soon ascertained, however, that the pub- lic sentiment of the United States was overwhelmingly in favor of the propo- sition, and the prominent men of all political parties, and the political journals in all the great cities gave unqualified sanction and approval to the plan evolved by the secretary, and undoubtedly it will be favorably acted upon by the suc- ceeding Congress.
Any suggestions made by Secretary Lane were bound to be fully and fa- vorably considered by the people of the country, but an additional interest was taken in this matter on account of the attitude of President Wilson and ex-Presi- dent Roosevelt.
The President in his address to Congress on December 2, 1918, said :
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"I particularly direct your attention to the very practical plans which the secretary of the interior has developed in his annual report and before your committees, for the reclamation of arid, swamp, and cut-over lands. * * * The Congress can at once direct thousands of the returning soldiers to the reclama- tion of the arid lands which it has already undertaken if it will but enlarge the plans and appropriations which it has intrusted to the Department of the Inte- rior. It is possible in dealing with our unused land to effect a great rural and agricultural development which will afford the best sort of opportunity to men who want to help themselves; and the secretary of the interior has thought the possible methods out in a way which is worthy of your most friendly attention."
Ex-President Roosevelt in February, 1919, in the last article he wrote for the Metropolitan, entitled, "Eyes to the Front," said:
"We should spend hundreds of millions of dollars reclaiming land for the returning soldier and arranging labor bureaus so that he may be certain to have every chance to work. The man who has gone into the army should be given in peculiar fashion the best chance that this country affords to become a farmer' or to work at his trade or profession. If possible he should be encouraged to be- come a farmer, in accordance with some such plan as that proposed by Secretary Lane."
Certain it is, that the interest throughout the country caused by the attitude taken by the secretary, and its general indorsement by the people, warrants the hope that an awakened public sentiment will continue to favor the expenditure of whatever money may be necessary to make the arid lands of the Northwest fit for human habitation, and to give all needed assistance to redeeming the swamp lands and the cut-over lands of all sections of our country for a similar purpose.
DRY FARMING
The term "dry farming" is a misnomer. The words have been adopted as a convenient means of distinguishing farming carried on under particular methods of cultivation in a section where there is but a slight rainfall. Its salient features are deep plowing in the late summer or early fall, the rough surface being allowed to remain until the following spring, when it is replowed or worked over with the harrow and the surface thoroughly cultivated. This causes what may be termed a crust to form on the surface and prevents any rapid evaporation of moisture, thus permitting a good crop to be raised the next year, even in some sections where the rainfall does not exceed eight and nine inches. Of course, under such peculi- arly dry conditions the land should be summer fallowed every other year in order to conserve the rainfall for the growing crop of the following season. There are a number of sections in Idaho where dry farming is carried on on an extended scale, Power, Teton, Fremont, Madison and Bonneville counties in the eastern part of the state, and Adams, Washington, Valley and Boise counties in the west- ern part being particularly well adapted to this method. The low lying lands of the valleys are not successfully cultivated by dry farming, the real success by this method being usually obtained in the foothills lying between the low valleys and the high mountains. The method has been in vogue only a few years in Idaho and promises in the future to be as important a source of grain production as farming in the humid regions of the state or in the irrigated valleys. Hon. George A. Day, then state land commissioner for Idaho, a man who never speaks of a
STATE DEMONSTRATION FARM NEAR SANDPOINT
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subject unless his thorough knowledge enables him to talk intelligently, in an ad- dress before the Dry Farming Congress at its Tulsa, Okla., meeting in October, 1913, made an interesting statement of this subject, and one which is undoubtedly correct and worthy of reproduction ; he said in part, "I have not had time to study carefully the situation in other states, but an intimate knowledge of our own soils, precipitation and altitudes causes me to conclude that my own state, Idaho, will have its greatest growth and development during the next ten years through agri- cultural development of lands that only a few years ago were regarded as of no value except for short season grazing, but which are now being turned to profitable use through dry farming methods. A careful analysis of our own situation indi- cates very clearly that dry farm crops can and are being produced with a greater degree of certainty and with a better margin of profit than the crops which are commonly produced in the humid sections of the corn belt. The precipitation that does occur has less latitude in quantity and less seasonal variation than occurs in most humid districts. Systematic conservation of moisture and fixed routine in dry farming management give us crop yields that are regular, consistent and profitable."
EXPERIMENT STATIONS
The old style farmer, who relied upon methods for the sole reason that they had been practiced by his father, and while using his energy and muscles to the fullest extent, seemingly forgot that brains had been given him to reason with, has, thank God, nearly disappeared from Idaho, and in this new state our farmers are universally adopting new and up-to-date methods and are necessarily achieving the best results. The state through its public institutions is doing much to assist in culture of the soil. The agricultural department of the State University has established experiment stations in different parts of the state for the careful study of local conditions. At Clagstone, in the western part of Bonner County, is a station which deals with problems common to Northern Idaho where there is usually sufficient rainfall to insure successful crops without irrigation. At Sand- point farm experiments for improvement of methods of cultivating cut-over lands are being conducted. At Aberdeen, in Bingham County, is situate an experiment station devoted chiefly to investigation of dry farming methods; and in that section large quantities of potatoes are grown without irrigation and shipped for seed to other places. At Jerome, in the new county of that name, the experiment farm is given over almost entirely to studying the problems of potato raising, and the other state experimental farm near Caldwell specializes in irrigation prob- lems and variety tests. All of these stations work in cooperation with, and report to, the central station at Moscow, where a farm of 405 acres belonging to the state, gives special attention to the breeding and feeding of livestock.
It is through the Hatch and Adams acts of Congress that the maintenance of these stations at Aberdeen and Jerome are made possible; the Hatch Act was approved in March, 1887, and provided Federal assistance in the maintenance of experimental stations ; the Adams Act approved March 16, 1906, doubling the original appropriation provided for by the Hatch Act. The state for the years 1917 and 1918 received from the United States the sum of $60,000 for experi- mental work and appropriated therefor $32,000 from state funds. Through its office of irrigation investigation and its bureau of plant industry the general gov-
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ernment is actively cooperating in the work at Aberdeen and Jerome. And in addition to these efforts the United States consuls and special agents of the Agri- cultural Department are searching the arid and elevated regions of the earth for hardy, drouth-resisting plants and seeds adapted to the arid regions and high altitudes of this country, and have already had considerable success, having ob- tained Durhem wheat from the Mediterranean, Kaffir corn from Africa and other agricultural novelties that seemingly fit the soil and climate of arid Idaho. Through the intelligent cooperation of all these forces, farming is being reduced to a science and crop failures will soon become a thing of the past.
IDAHO LANDS
While the reports made by the different county assessors to the State Board of Equalization do not furnish an exact basis for the determination of the amount or value of the different classes of agricultural lands of the state, still it is the best available source of information. The following table shows the acreage and value of these lands.
Class of Lands
Acreage
Valuation
Full water right
1,736,72I
$ 69,954,014
Partial water right
12,274
525,685
Dry farming lands
1,606,114
22,015,378
Grazing lands
3,281,723
19,796,145
Rainfall area
840,822
28,918,349
Timber lands
1,655,268
22,792,190
Cut-over timber lands
988,742
4,936,053
Arid sagebrush
48,304
I47,055
Waste lands
989,621
1,663,920
Total
11,159,589
$170,748,789
In the irrigated and rainfall sections of the state under this showing there are 2,602,252 acres of land under cultivation, and adding the dry lands thereto makes a grand total of 4,208,366 acres. The greater part of the grazing and waste lands mentioned and practically all of the sagebrush lands can be irrigated. A large number of irrigation projects of different kinds are now being constructed and many more are in contemplation which will be constructed in the future. Besides this, there is a vast acreage of dry farming land to be brought under cultivation. It is not unreasonable to prophesy that in two more decades there will easily be twenty million acres of land in Idaho under actual cultivation.
FARM PRODUCTS
Practically every crop grown in the United States in the same latitude can be successfully raised in Idaho. Wheat is the leading crop, about half a million acres being sown annually and the average quantity produced each year during the five years (1913-17 inclusive) was about twenty bushels. The principal wheat growing sections are in Clearwater, Idaho, Latah, Lewis and Nez Perce
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counties in the northern part of the state and in the dry farming districts, es- pecially in the counties of Bonneville, Fremont, Jefferson, Madison and Power.
A considerable portion of the wheat crop is converted into flour in the state, but by far the larger portion is shipped to the milling centers of the Middle West and East, or to the Pacific coast cities for exportation to foreign countries. American Falls is the greatest wheat shipping point in Idaho and one of the greatest in the intermountain country. Lewiston is also an important shipping point for wheat, on account of its advantages of water transportation.
In some portions of the state the wheat is harvested with a machine called the "combined harvester," which cuts the heads, threshes, cleans and sacks the wheat in one operation, at a cost of less than one dollar and a half an acre. For- merly, from sixteen to twenty-four horses were required to draw a combined harvester through the field, but the work is now performed by a steam or gaso- line tractor.
Oats ranks second in the number of bushels produced, most of the crop being used for feeding purposes within the state. Fremont, Latah, Nez Perce and Twin Falls counties lead in the production of this cereal, though some oats are raised in every county in the state for local consumption.
Barley is raised in the valleys of the Clearwater, Lower Salmon and Snake rivers in the Lewiston country and it is one of the staple crops in the dry farming section of Southeastern Idaho. Some of it is sold to breweries, but the greater part is fed to cattle and hogs. It is no uncommon occurrence for an Idaho barley field to produce seventy-five bushels or more to the acre.
Corn is grown in various parts of the state on irrigated lands, and rye is also raised in some places, but neither corn nor rye can be considered as a leading grain crop.
In the production of hay, Idaho is the second state in the Union. The lead- ing forage crops are alfalfa, timothy, red clover and orchard grass, alfalfa alone making more than half the total crop. Twin Falls, Canyon and Lincoln counties are the great alfalfa counties of Idaho, though large crops are raised in nearly every county. Three, and sometimes four, cuttings of alfalfa are made in a season, the total yield often running as high as seven tons to the acre. Alfalfa is regarded as one of the very best Winter foods for cattle and hogs, and new uses for it are constantly being developed.
Idaho, Bear Lake and Latah counties stand at the head of the list in the production of other kinds of hay. Within recent years the farmers of the Snake River Valley have been giving their attention to the production of clover seed, with the result that over one million dollars' worth is raised annually. In 1915 the clover fields of Twin Falls County showed an average yield of $123.34 per acre for the seed alone. Idaho holds the world's record for clover seed, with a yield of fifteen and three-quarters bushels to the acre.
Potatoes constitute one of Idaho's leading field crops. Bingham, Bonneville and Twin Falls counties produced over one million bushels each in 1915, and some of the other counties were not far behind. From the Idaho Falls district 588 carloads of potatoes were shipped in 1911. Five years later the shipments from the same district reached over three thousand carloads. Twin Falls is also a great potato shipping point. In the "Burley Potato Contest" of 1910 W. B. Gilmore, of Payette, won second prize by producing 560 bushels on a single acre. Not
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satisfied with this, Mr. Gilmore made another effort, and in 1913 broke the American record by raising 75312 bushels of marketable potatoes on a measured acre. The quality of the Idaho potato makes friends for it wherever it goes.
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