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Show IRON COUNTY AND THE NEWCASTLE PROJECT Like a lovely woman, the Escalante valley needs but to be seen to be admired. Even the prospective settler, whoso attention Is centered on climate, water and soil, will have his instinct for the beautiful aroused by the panorama there unfolded. A broad, gently sloping plain, once the bottom of Lake Bonneville, stretches away to purple mountains; those pleasant patches of green on the smooth floor of the valley are fields of grain and alfalfa. A merely casual inspection will convince the observer of the fertility of the soil. In that region the Newcastle Land company com-pany Is making possible the development of prosperous pros-perous farms. The Irrigable land, consisting of some 24,000 acres, with an additional C,000 acres of dry-farm land, lies at an elevation of 5,000 feet and has an average slope of twelve feet per mile, making irrigation and drainage matters of extreme simplicity. sim-plicity. The average annual precipitation is sixteen six-teen inches and there is an abundance of subterranean subter-ranean water within easy pumping distance. In PILING UP THE GRAIN ON THE NEWCASTLE PROJECT the vicinity of Enterprise water is obtained at from forty to seventy-five feet, and on the New-" castle tract, even nearer the surface. Analyses of well water from Lund, Beryl and Nada, on the Salt Lake route, show that it will serve admirably admir-ably for irrigation purposes. The Newcastle company secures its gravity water by impounding impound-ing the flow of several canyon streams; the reservoir is located in the Pine Valley mountains at an altitude of 7,000 feet. The dam joins two steep walls of basalt in a narrow gorge; its construction, as well as that of the headgates, canals and laterals, Is of substantial and enduring character. When the proposed alterations are completed the reservoir will store 27,000 acre-feet acre-feet of water. The lands awaiting tillage at Newcastle are in three classes: those irrigable by gravity water, those that depend on pumped water, and the arid lands. The soil Is alluvial, formed by the disintegration of granite, limestone, and volcanic vol-canic rock; ranging from a sandy loam to a clay loam, it is ilch in potash and carries considerable organic matter. There is good depth, varying to fifty feet and more, and uniform in richness. The predominating natural growth is a high and sturdy sagebrush, frequently attaining the height of a man. In soil and climatic conditions this region closely resembles the celebrated Cache valley, one of the richest farming district in the entiro West. A wide variety of crops is grown at Newcastle, New-castle, and this statement applies to Iron county f as a whole. The staples are wheat, rye oats, barley, alfalfa, corn, beans and potatoes. Corn, on the arid lands (without irrigation) yields forty to sixty bushels per acr&, wheat, twenty bushels; rye, twenty-four bushels, oats, fifty bushels; po- f tatoes, two hundred bushels; alfalfa, five tons per acre; all these yields increase marvelously with judicious irrigation. There are a few settlers on I the tract, but no available statistics of their crop production. iSugar beets do extremely well and a guarantee to raise 7,000 acres of beets will bring about the erection of a sugar factory. Much of the land recommends itself to horticulture, horticul-ture, particularly to the production of apples, . pears, plums and berries. $ If the Garden of Eden contained all manner of good things, the three-acre tract at Newcastle is no distant rival. Under the guiding hand of the enthusiastic head gardner, Mr. Noble, a region re-gion dubbed "desert" by the early pioneers grows a list of food plants that would furnish a fair foundation for a vegetarian dictionary: beans, beets, cabbage, cantaloupes, carrots, cauliflower, corn (sweet and field), cucumbers, lettuce, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, spinach, squash, to- $i matoes, turnips and watermelons. The company .also maintains a farm of several hundred acres which it operates both for profit and example. There, it demonstrates the wisdom of recognizing recogniz-ing one's relatives; the kinship between dairying, hog raising and agriculture is one no farmer should ignore. The land company has erected a modern concrete con-crete hotel for the comfort of those who come to inspect the land. Beryl, the shipping point for Newcastle, is fifteen miles distant, on the Salt Lake route; the railroad company has established es-tablished low fares for homeseekers to that sec- , tlon. The location of these lands on a transcon- " tinental railway system will prove an impoitant factor in their development. State experiment stations are situated at Cedar City and Enterprise. Enter-prise. Newcastle farm lands, with perpetual water right, are selling for an average prfce of $G0 per acre. Lands irrigable by pumping, and dry-farm lands, are much cheaper. Turning from specific locality to the county as a whole, the possibilities broaden. Iron county had in 1912, 1,192,28 acres of unappropriated unappropri-ated public lands of which 347,107 were surveyed. The Sevier National forest, partly within the county, contains about 756,000 thousand board-feet board-feet of saw timber. In the number of sheep supported the county under observation ranks second in the state; as a summer range it remains unsurpassed. The pasturage area is enormous, although steadily decreasing de-creasing as the farm acreage grows. The proximity proxi-mity of the Dixie National Forest reserve, 700 square miles in extent, with a grazing fee for cattle of 25 cents per head, makes the raising of beef an attractive undertaking. There are about 10,000 cattle and 3,000 horses in Iron county. The importance of dairying and hog raising on every fa"rm is occupying more and more attention; atten-tion; the expanding markets, both north and south, are increasing their demand for meats. As the name indicates, there are vast deposits of iron; it is stated that the county contains enough iron to relay every mile of railway and to rebuild every steel structure in .the United States. The ores belong to the hematite and magnetite classes; some of the iron-ore exposures expos-ures stand out 200 feet above the surrounding country. The bed is about one and one-half miles broad and twenty miles long, running northeast and southwest along the eastern and southern slopes of Three Peaks, Granite mountain and Iron mountain, at elevations of from 5,000 to 8,000 feet. Within a few miles of the iron are extensive coal measures, near Harmony, and extending into Washington county, is a vast body of semi-anthracite coal of excellent quality; in the canyons east of Cedar City are great quantities of bituminous coal. Altogether, there are some 3,000 square miles of coal lands, practically untouched. Marble, gypsum, fire clay, together with low-grade low-grade gold, silver, lead and copper ores further enrich the region. It requires no prophetic vision to foresee the time when these natural resources will build up great industrial centers, and those great centers will need food. The development of large enterprises enter-prises is beyond the reach of men of limited capital; cap-ital; possession of a prosperous farm and consequent conse-quent independence, is a rational ambition. For general farming, experts regard the Escalante valley as one of the choicest locations in the West. |