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Show m ' . .. : &"" " '- What Will Be Done ,r Willi Our Emigrants. The following address -was delivered de-livered by Mr. P. A. Wann, i - Traffic Manager, Salt Lake Route, Vv ta meeting of the California " development Board held at Los ,, Angeles, California, January , . 12th, 1912. V From five years experience in Southern California, the first answer to this question would Be: we want "Tillers of the Soil." I think it can be stated beyond contradiction that a man who will give the proper attention to cultivating commodities that can ' be raised on an acre of our soil can make more money per acre -than in any other section in this -or -any other country, but it is like any other business, it must 'ihave close and careful attention I believe firmly within five years .after the Panama Canal is opened the population of our State will be doubled and in time two -will be one of the richest States in the Union. IFast transportation by water .end by rail will open the markets of :the worldto us, and this will 1 mean that we will have one thousand manufacturers to one we have today. Indeed, I believe be-lieve the territory between Los .'Angeles and our Port will be occupied oc-cupied mostly by large and small manJfccturing plants, who will jrequire all kinds of skilled labor. I meed not point out to you at this time the commodities that we -grow and are how being .hipped all over this country and !to foreign lands. These shipments ship-ments can easily be more than double and the enterprising imer;chant can without doubt find 'markets for same, as the sterling (quality of the "goods" sell rthem. When some of our friends arrivehere they will be surprised at the prices asked for our best Hands as I was when I came here -v five years ago, yet I presume a great many of them will do as I 1 have done, buy acreage in South- I -ern California; but I have done I ' more -than this, believing when I the Panama Canal is opened a .1 -very large number of farmers I will locate in the States of Nevada I and Utah where cheap and good I lands can be purchased. I have I been buying what has . commonly I been called "Desert" lands in J Utah at $250 to $4.00 per acre, 1 and believe I am safe in saying I these same lands will, within a I few years, increase in value the 1 same as lands liave in Kansas, I Nebraska and other middle I Western States. It is not so 1 many years ago you could have 1 bought one half the farm acreage I in Kansas for less than $3.00 an acre, and today you cannot buy the same lands for less than 1 $100.00 an acre. 1 I know you must realize what I it will mean to the Wholesale California Merchant when tlie " 1 States of Nevada and Utah arj I populated with Jthrifty farmers 1 and merchants. 1 I representa railroad that runs I its trains between here and Sale i Lake City, 781 miles, and there 1 are as good lands along the line I of the road as there are in any I Eastern or Middle States. The n enterprising farmer can procure II water and in large quantities. m Tests for water have been made H in what is known as "dry farm- ing" territory, which proved B most successful. Indeed I know of several cases where parties 8 have bored for water and found it from nine to thirty-six feet I from the surface. These so M called desert lands have been neglected T.om the fact that it was bslisvel no water could be nil minima nn i nna.i h'i mi mi i found, yet the country is full of underground rivers. In Las Vegas, Novada there are today over ninety-five artesian artes-ian wells and large tracts of land are being developed.- The Las Vegas Fruit Lands Company are now developing 10,000 acres, The Clark County Land Company 5,000 acres, and the Winterwood Ranch Company own large acreage and are planting 1,000 acres in apple trees. There aro now in this field 14 well drilling rigs, and the changes in this territory within the next few years, from "Desert Scenes" to beautiful farms, wi)l be one of the wonders of the age. Tho Moapa Valley is a second Imperial Valley and it will b-but b-but a short time till their shipments ship-ments will be thousands of cars each year of melons, asparagus, celery and indeed all kinds ol early vegetables. The State of Utah has done a great deal to develop their lands, the Utah Agricultural College establishing experimental farms at different points in the State, aud the result has been that hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of acres which have heretofore been used for range purposes, and could not find a purchaser at $1.25 per acre, can now raise from 30 to 35 bushels of wheat to the acre. This has been demonstrated beyond be-yond question. For your information will state briefly the improvements taking place in Utah, in addition to the dry farm system being taught by the State, there has been organized, organ-ized, and under development, companies promoting irrigation along tho lines of. the Salt Lake Railroad which will reclaim nearly near-ly a half-million acres of desert lands in the following counties: Washington County, 150,000 acres. Iron County, 50,000 acres. Beaver County, 60,000 acres. Millard County, 100,000 acres. Utah County, 60,000 acres. 100,000 acres of the foregoing are now ready for the settler in Iron, Beaver and Millard Counties, Coun-ties, and the development work is being pushed. This territory is being populated daily by the influx of tillers of the soil looking for gcod and cheap lands. In addition to the above the U. S. Land Office a little over a year ago designated for entry, under what is known as the Smoot Amended Homestead Act, 1,500,-000 1,500,-000 acres, and on January 1st of this year 2,000 entries had been made of 600,000 acres, leaving about 800,000 acres available under un-der the Act, and when the U. S. Government completes the necessary nec-essary surveys there will be several sev-eral more millions of acreage open op-en for settlement Remember, I am only quoting to you what I am advised is being be-ing done in the territory tributary tribu-tary to the Salt Lake Railroad, The passing of the desert is no better illustrated than by the fact that in the 500 miles of construction con-struction across what up to tha time had been termed a "desert' country, the Salt Lake Railroac sunk a series of twenyt-nine successful suc-cessful wells. These wells were not sunk with any reference t apparent existence of water, but were sunk at points where watei was a necessity for the operation of the line. Although it is hardly know to the outside world, southern Utah and eastern Nevada contaii a section of semi-tropic countrj formed by the rapid fall in ele vation to the south and west o the rim forming the original basin ba-sin of Lake Bonneville (Great Salt Lake.) This semi-torpic area ar-ea of Utah and Nevada will rival I ! even the lands of jjbuthern California Cali-fornia in tho production of every thing save citrus) fruits. The development of this section is but just begun aftdt with propor conservation of tho water which flows through this area, hundreds of thousands of acres, now valueless, value-less, will bo brought to.a condition condi-tion whore thoy will support, an immense agricultural and horticultural horti-cultural population, The rapid development of this section seems to Bear out the prophecy made by President Brigham Young of 'the Mormon Church when in 1853, at Beaver City, he stated tnat sooner or later this portion of the great intermountain country would become tho granary of tho southwest south-west To help -along a good cause tho company I ivpresentsent out last year from Salt Lake City a Special Spec-ial Industrial and 'Educational Train, which stopped at the principal stations in Utah and Nevada, where lectures were given by experts in Dry Farming, Farm-ing, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Soils and Field crops, Live Stock, Home Economics, Irrigation and Drainage, Sterol optican Views, etc., 'and it proved -uch a success, and was so much ' appreciated that it was decided to send out a similar' train this year, which left Salt Lake City m January 5th and it will stop at 21 different towns where lectures will bo givon on ihj different subjocts. This train is in charge of our Industrial Agent, Mr. Douglas White, and we aie indebted to tho Utah Agricultural College and the University of -Mevada for their hearty su port. |