Show ck lo 10 hiie 8 11 J RO a arbuse 74 PA c 0 F W OIL D 51 1 ail r 17 rk I 1 w AN I 1 fa t M A 44 P X an X 24 rf i ACK to the soil I 1 idaho or bust I 1 well anyway chicago woke wok e up the other morning to store stare at a scene a bit out of the ordinary on the grounds of the chicago 9 motor club at sixtieth street and cottage stage grove aenus within a stones throw of the midway of worlds fair tame fame first impressions pres lons recorded several big army trucks 25 23 automobiles of varied vintages and makes a score core or more of bungalow trailers men inen and women in children of it all ages totally family washing flapping on lines fires going the ehuell of bacon and coffee family breakfast groups and a big sign that set forth that the chicago motor club was entertaining gen W D scotts modern caravan en route from brooklyn N Y to buhl idaho times change and we with them sagely remarked in an ancient philosopher they do indeed though bough probably we change less than do the times bior chicago young as it Is it was not incorporated us it a city until 1837 ha has seen many a caravan headed vest est in the old days but were caravans of prairie schooner ners s drawn try by oxen exen or mules and the men and women were going forth to face the unknown fight indians indiana turn up the prairie sod contend with grasshoppers and drought and put up a fifty fifty battle with fate for a home and a ihirg hi ing not kot so tills this caravan it was traveling in comfort and at speed it knew just where it was going it vas scheduled for kindly attentions along the way and a warm welcome its land was secured there was water for irrigation houses and warehouses were ready everything do down dovin vin to the last detail had bad been arranged failure was unthinkable success seemed assured shades of nit kit corson carson marcus whitman and brigham young what a contrast the lincoln highway of 1921 to the santa fe trail of the thirties the oregon trail of the forties the mormon trail of the fifties the pikes peak or bust of the sixties the figures of the census of 1920 show that the trend of the population from the country to the ity has become greatly accentuated since 1910 now kow for the first time la in the count rys history i lore than halt half the entire population Is living in in urban territory that Is to say that ot of the population of persons persona per cent are living in cities and per cent in rural communities in a the census of 1910 the corresponding percentages were mere and this Is a condition that Is regarded as neither desirable nor entirely safe therefore many are arc the projects to get city dwellers back to the soil back to the soil I 1 an american slogan tor for americans I 1 yet the country does not extend a general invitation to all comers it Is not ready to support on au indefinite number of miscellaneous applicants mother nature Is very far from being the benevolent old soul she Is pictured by the who write farm prospectuses prospect uses she does not give her bount bounties les for nothing she demands full payment and she exacts full penalty tor for mistakes it la Is the surest kind of a sure thing that the country home that pays its own way means hard work ork for somebody there will be blisters backaches and sore muscles that will have to be worked from soreness into strength lre ere the billowing grain brain delights deligh tl ills his eye the city roan man will understand why providence dence or nature or evolution pro eded him with eyebrows moreover there ts Is a slow ness and a deliberation tit in natures w m ays and methods that to the city man used to doing things upon the instant will be little less than maddening it la Is useless to rage against the hie ordered processes process es they cannot cannoa be hurried the alic city man must learn to wait for seed time and harvest and to possess ills his soul in patience so it Is evident that there Is a balance to be i truck ek the city is one fhlug the country Is an L other the city cannot be transplanted in the country and no one can call strike tills this balance tor for the would be back to the lander ladder lie must do it for far himself in striking sinking this balance ho however mever there la Is more to be taken into account than the dollars there ore are the beauties of nature there la Is pure air undefiled by smoke and soot boot a place in the sun suit w lib no skyscrapers overhead to shut out the blue ii ity and the stars and the moon honest thirst that makes nectar of the gods out of water front from the well vell bud and buttermilk from the springhouse spring house an appetite that would put a soul under the ribs of death sleep the 11 like e of which no city roan man ever leion s from many viewpoints farming Is the highest and best of callings leann farming InC Is an honest business the firmer farmer 1 ls no useless consumer no parasite he Is a producer lie he contributes directly to the wealth of the nation lie ile Is independent and Is if beholden to no man tor for place or favor ile he does not climb up by dragging others down land is IB the fundamental natural resource front which the nation draws its it life and the farmer Is the I 1 bulwark of the country yes te back to the land la Is the right thing for the right man lie he will find Lo independence dependence mental A K 4 1 tap OMY e RZ moral and financial ue ile will find a real home and old mother nature will likely throw in health strength and happiness for good measure one of the photographs reproduced lie herewith reIth lhowe royal koyal N allen alien of the chicago motor club welcoming william D scott leader of the caravan sir mr scott used to live in minneapolis then lie he went to boston later lie he became a successful I 1 sales manager in brooklyn with mith a home at decatur street ile he Is a middle aged man with ith a wife and two children during the war he made a reputation as a four minute man ue he hail bail made up his big mind to drive to the west this summer buy a ranch hang bang up his hat and grow up with the country several of his neighbors grew interested and asked to go along and how the colony idea started then sir mr scott wrote to commercial clubs and state and county officials in different parts of the west gov david W davis of idaho responded promptly ith a definite offer mr scott went to idaho and made a study of land in twin falls falla county along the snake river heres the way mr scott tells it that settled it when I 1 saw that land I 1 knew it N was as just the place I 1 was looking tor for and I 1 immediately med lately took an option on acres the land was offered to me at the uniform price of an acre with water rights 25 an acre to be paid down at purchase and the balance within ten years at 6 per cent interest this whole land project Is supervised by the state date it Is 19 inanc ed by the idaho farm development company the president of which Is E T meredith who ho was president wilsons Wll Wil sons secretary of agriculture and who Is a practical farmer fanner and the proprietor of an agricultural newspaper in fit des moines IB ia mr meredith and his associates incorporating under the fary cary act spent developing these thee tracts the waters of three trib of the snake river draining the watershed of the Jar harbidge jarbidge bidge 47 miles southwestward from our colony were dammed and impounded in the cedar creek reservoir thence a steel flume leads the water down through the canyon of the little salmon river irrigating the lands which we have taken up for our future homes and ranches we haiie hae in all an area of about three miles by six tills this irrigation enterprise immediately made fertile many thousands of acre t which theretofore had been merely a sage sagebrush bruh prairie the aiva had been used only us as futile cattle runge und 1 was one of the most knost sparsely settled districts in the state with irrigation there a better country tor for growing alfalfa onions and the famous idaho potatoes on forms farms in the sume neighborhood and enjoying like advantages to ours there have been grown world record crops of alfalfa wheat heat to the tune of 92 bushel to the acre find and potatoes rating as high as 9 bushels to the acre huhl our nearest railroad town toun Is about 12 miles from the most distant ranches of our colony it la Is a lively town only nine years old hut but with ith about population A fine road w alch Is more than FA fio miles long find and which bach runs directly through our tract connects cuhl buhl with the new mining town of Jor corbidge bidge out of the Jarhl dge mountains the interests have taken more gold than all the yellow vellow metal yielded by alaska the town rown of Jarll de Is the natural center of that lint rich country and our colony will be its nearest source of supply with bilth n R good road running str straight streight night into it mr air scott returned to n bubbling over with nith enthusiasm ills his was infectious lie he was besieged with applications for membership lut cut acres will make only tracts of 40 acres each so a weeding out process was nos begun every prospective member was put through the third degree the rule was let laid d domi doan that every accepted member must be per cent american must have at least in cash must be able to take care of himself and family until the first crops crop are marketed even then the members of the colony were mere quickly secured in the meantime the idaho pt acir ale e who to had bad evidently taken a shine to the brooklyn people were doing their part governor davis visited brooklyn and addressed a meeting of the colonl colonists ts the buhl chamber of commerce sent ben it bushman one of its leaders and secretary of the rotary club with offers of service from the chamber and the club so the deal went through vilt without hout a hitch bitch A icv 7 am f al ay iy and the start was waa made from brooklyn on july 28 the ouy semblance of trouble waa ivas oer the selection of those to form the first caravan ot of course there was disappointment on the part ol of those who to had to walt wait but there were reasons why hy all could not so go the principal one Is that it Is impossible to clear the sagebrush off nil all of the acres all at once and prepare the land for cultivation also sortie some members require time to close out their business interests to advantage probably the second caravan will not set out oot tim next summer bummer of the colonists as a whole mr scott says tills this of the or more in our colony about 60 per cent are Brooklyn ites approximately 25 per cent low live in other boroughs of new york about 10 per cent hall from new jersey or new england while the remaining five per cent come coma from scattered localities some of them in the tha south about 10 per cent of the whole number of these pioneers are former residents of the we west st but not more than 15 per cent of them have had any practical experience at farming either in the tha east or in the west nobody I 1 Is borrowing trouble because of lack of experience however idaho Is by no means shortsighted to the advantages the success of so widely advertised an enterprise holds out experts from the idaho agricultural college are to provide supervision and skilled labor for the first year we are told that if we work in harmony with these thesa experts obeying their directions they will guarantee results the idaho authorities predict that we wa can pay out by the end of the third year on thol tha proceeds of alfalfa onion seed and potato crops crop As further evidence that idaho waits tor for us with welcoming arms anna outstretched a construction company already Is at work erecting permanent bungalow homes for many of our party to be ba available directly on our arrival and there li Is being built a warehouse in which may be stored such household effects pending their occupancy of their new dew domiciled domiciles domi ciles as aa the colonists may elect to forward to idaho instead of consigning to the auction tulin before they shake the ant of brooklyn from their feet probably there will be not less than KO 30 carloads of freight chiefly household effects to he be forwarded by rail some people would doubtless think that an automobile journey of 2500 miles was quite a trip under the circumstances and that the railroad rall rond could do the job not only faster but easier the colonists have figured that all out says mr scottt scott in the first place railroad transportation rates rate are awfully high we vie travel much more cheaply this way besides a motor car Is an essential on an idaho ranch why by not dot kill two birds with one ona stone alone weve got a pretty complete ca caravan ravani were ere traveling pretty comfortably speeding 14 4 lot permitted the idea being to maintain a puce pace of rubout 12 miles an hour on an average tl ti caraan touring only during the day and pitching its ita each night in addition to the ger cars and the bungalow trailers there are three three ton serece sen ice trucks ai administration car a traveling ra mid and a quartermaster Iso car and a pair of extra trucks whose duty it will be to te run ahem of the caravan during the tha nights to 0 o keep it properly supplied with provisions and equipment and nally dually 6 the tour itself appeals to us senti gentl mentally were seeing the country to advantage and nd wre mere going to hove have the delight of going through ugh yellowstone national park the caravan reached chicago by way of albany buffalo and niagara blat anra falls cleveland and toledo it started N arst est from chicago over the lincoln high way it will ill follow the way to cheyenne wyo where great doings were scheduled broncho busting a ba bacue and fl a regular out where tho thet west begins vale bration |