| Show ae 0 aae ta ai 13 nt 0 nw I 1 A qan V RAI is eel ato t 0 agop a P A N 4 awn ile 70 4 14 lk p N vt i R 4 11 M 11 1 P R IN 4 W I 1 07 9 W h I 1 I 1 ft I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 7 K AA I 1 vt 1 ilk 11 i R ria w ap 4 i 1 A P EJ 1 e n efti gg kt t agag 4 ACK to t tile soil idaho or bust I 1 LO 1 ts irta I 1 well wel anyway chicago woke up the other oilier morning to stare nt at a scene a bit out of the ordinary on it tile grounds of the chicago A da 9 motor dub club at sixtieth street and S i cottage groe avenue within a stones throw of the midway of worlds fair fame first impressions pres recorded several big army trucks 25 automobiles of varied vintages vi n t n ge a and makes a score or more of oe bungalow trailers men and women in khaki children of sit all ages family washing flapping on oil lines fires going the omell of bacon an and coffee family breakfast groups and a big sign that set forth that the chicago motor club was entertaining gen W D scotts landern caravan en route from brooklyn N Y to buhl idaho times change and we nye with them sagely remarked an ancient philosopher they do indeed though probably we change less than do tile the times bior chicago young as it is it was voas not incorporated pu ratel as a city until 1837 has seen many a caravan headed west ivest lit in the old dais but were caravans of prairie schooners ners drawn by oxen or mules and the men and women were going forth to face the unknown fight indians turn up tip the prairie sod contend with grasshoppers and drought and put up tip a fifty fifty battle with fate for a home and a living not so this caravan it was traveling in comfort and at speed it knew just where it was going it was scheduled for kindly attentions along the way and a warm welcome its land was secured there was water for irrigation ilou houses sea and warehouses were ready ENery everything thing down to the last detail had bad been arranged failure was unthinkable success seemed assured shades of kit carson marcus whitman anti brigham young what a contrast the lincoln lithway ligh way of 1921 to the santa fe trail of the thirties the oregon trail of the forties the mormon trail of the fifties the pikes peal peak or bust of the sixties I 1 the figures of the census of 1920 show that the trend of the population from the country to tho the rity city has become greatly accentuated since 1910 now for the first time in the count rys history nore than halt half the entire population la Is living in ur bitti territory that is to say that of the population lation of persons persona glo per cent are living in cities and per cent in rural communities in the census of 1010 the corresponding percentages were nere and this Is a condition condit lon that bat Is regarded as neither desirable nor entirely sate safe therefore many art are the projects to get city dwellers back to the soll SOIL back to the soli soil an american slogan for americans yet the country does does not extend a general invitation to all comers it Is not ready to support au an 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 fult full penalty for mistakes it Is tile the surest kind of a sure thing that the country home that pays its own way means hard bard work for somebody there will be blisters backaches and sore muscles that will have to be worked from soreness into strength ure ere the billowing grain brain delights dell blits its ills eye the city roan man will understand why providence or nature or evolution pro tided him with eyebrows moreover there Is a slowness vIness and a deliberation tit in natures nature ii anys ays and methods that to the city man used to doing things upon the instant aill ill be little less than maddening it Is useless to rage against the ordered processes ses they cannot be hurried the city mao man mutt must learn to wait for seed time and harvest and to possess posses ill his soul in patience so it Is evident that theris a balance to be struck tile city is one tilling the country is another the city cannot be b transplanted in III the country and no one con can strike this balance for the would be back to the lander iander lie must do it for himself in striking this balance however there Is more to be taken into account flan fl an tile hie dollars there ore are tho the beauties of nature there Is pure air undefiled by smoke und anti soot a place in the sun still with no skyscrapers overhead oveil lead to shut out the blue ory and tile the stars and ami the moon hone honest st t thirst that makes nectar of the gods out of the well viell and buttermilk from the springhouse spring house au an appetite that would put a soul under tile ribs of death sleep the like of which no city man ever knows from many viewpoints farming Is the highest and best of callings farming fanning Is 19 an honest bustness business the farmer Is no useless consumer no parasite lie ile Is a producer he contributes directly to the HIP wealth of the lie nation ile he Is independent and Is beholden to no man tor for place or favor ile he does docs not climb up tip by dragging others down lanil land Is 14 the fundamental natural resource from which the nation cation draws its life and the farmer la Is the 1 bulwark of the country yes back to the land Is the right thing tor for the right man ile he will find independence mental al X I 1 VIA IM 2 k I 1 ll 11 44 a moral and financial lie ile will find a real home and old mother N likely throw in health strength and happiness lor for good measure one of the photographs reproduced herewith chows loyal N allen alien of the chicago motor club welcoming william D scott leader of the caravan mr scott used gilve to alve in minneapolis then lie he went to boston later lie he became a successful sales manager in brooklyn with butth a home at decatur street ile he Is a middle aged man with a wife and two children during the war lie made a reputation as a abour our minute man ile he had made up ills his mind to drive to the west this summer buy a ranch bang up op his hat and grow grov up with the coultry country several of his neighbors grew interested und and asked to go gc along and how the colony idea started ilien then mr air scott wrote to commercial clubs and state and county officials in different parts of tile the west gov david IV davis of idaho responded promptly with a definite offer mr scott went to idaho and made a study of land in twin falls 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 was just the place I 1 was looking tor for and I 1 immediately took an option on acres the land was offered to tile roe 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 0 per cent 16 interest terest tills this NI whole iole land project Is supervised by the state it Is financed by the idaho farm development company the president of which la Is a 13 T meredith who villo was president wilsons Wll Wil sons secretary of agriculture and who Is a practical farmer and an the proprietor of an agricultural newspaper tit n des moines in mr meredith and his associates incorporating under the cary net spent developing these tracts the K maters aters of three trib of the snake river draining the watershed hed of the Jur burbidge bidge mountains 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 frA irrigating gating the lands which we have taken up for our future homes heroes and ranches we have in all an area of about three miles by six this tirl firt gatlon gation enterprise immediately made fertile many thousands of ancret which theretofore had been merely a sagebrush prairie the ana alva an a had broil beets used only as cuttle range und and via was a one of the most spars sparsely elv settled districts in tile the state with irrigation in there a better country tor for growing alfalfa onions and the famous idaho potatoes on farms lit in the same neighborhood anti enjoying I 1 like advantages to ours there have been grown drovin world record crops of wheat heat to the tune time of 02 bushel to the acre and pota potatoes rating as high ns as bushels to the acre built buhl our nearest town Is about 12 miles from the trost most distant ranches of our colony it Is a ahey town only nine dine years old but with about population A fine rond road which Is more ill than n n 5 50 0 miles long and which runs directly through our tract connects buhl with the new mining town of Jar harbidge jarbidge bidge out of the Jar blige the guggenheim interests have taken more gold that than till nil the yellow vellow metal yielded by alaska the town toun of Jar harbidge jarbidge bidge Is tile natural center of that hat rich country and our colony will mill be its ne heart art source of supply with ith a good gond road running f craight into it mr scott returned to brooklyn bubbling over with nith enthusiasm ills enthusiasm was infectious lie he was besieged with applications for membership rut but the acres will make only tracts of 40 acres each so a weeding out process was begun arvery prospective member was ivas put through the third tle degree gree the rule ens laid boix doix down it that every accepted member must be per cent american must have at denst in cash wust be able to t take care of himself rind fam family fly until the first crop chopi are marketed even then tile the members of the colony were quickly secured in the meantime the idaho le who villio hit evidently taken a shine to the brooklyn were doing their part governor dails visited brooklyn and addressed a meeting of the colonists the ali built buhl chamber or of commerce sent ben 11 II bushman one of its IN it s leaders ant and secretory secretary of the rotary dull club with offers of service from the he chamber and the club so the deal went through without a hitch 1 k aa 4 ae 0 r i am of JAY pit W al M aft tr at 4 4 r J a cra Z i and the start was made from brooklyn on july za the only semblance of trouble was over thy the selection of those to form the first caravan of 0 course there was disappointment on the part of 0 those who had to wait but there were reasons masons uh why jr all quid could not go the principal one Is that it Is impossible to clear the sagebrush off all of the acres all tit once and prepare the laud land tot for cultivation also some members require time to close out their theer business interests to advantage probably the second caravan will not set out till next summer of the colonists as a whole mr scott says this of the or more in our colony about 60 per cent are approximately 25 per cent now live in other boroughs of new york city 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 west but not more than 15 per cent of them have had bad any practical experience at farming either in the tha east or in the west nobody Is borrowing trouble because of lack ot of experience however idaho Is by no means shortsighted to the advantages the success of so widely advertised an enterprise holds bolds 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 guaran tee results the idaho authorities predict that we wa can pay out by the end of the third year on the tha proceeds of alfalfa onion seed and potato crops As further evidence that idaho waits for via us with welcoming arms outstretched a construction company already la Is at work erecting permanent bungalow homes tor for many of our party to be ba available directly on our arrival and there la Is being built a warehouse in which way may be stored such household effects pending their occupancy of their new domiciled domiciles domi ciles elles as the colonists may elect to forward to idaho instead of consigning to the auction ann before they shake the dust or of broolis broo lyn from their feet probably there will be not less ies than 30 carloads of freight chiefly household effects to he be forwarded by rall rail some people would doubtless think that an automobile journey of 2 2 00 miles was quite a trip under the and that the railroad could do the job not only faster but easier the colonists have figured that all out says mr scott in the first place railroad rill road transportation rates are awfully high we travel much more cheaply I 1 tills this way besides a motor car Is an essential or on an idaho ranch why not kill two birds with one ona stone wee got a pretty complete caravan were traveling pretty comfortably speeding I 1 h I 1 not permitted tile the idea being to maintain a stead puce pace of about 12 miles an hour on an average tl L caravan touring only during the day and pitching its bivouac each night in addition to the passenger cars and the bungalow trailers there are three three ton service trucks RL ai administration car a traveling pos tollice lice and a quartermasters car cai and a pair of extra trucks whose duty it will be ba te t run ahead of the caravan during the nights to it properly supplied with provisions nud and equipment ant and finally the war itself appeals to us senti mentally were seeing the country to advantage and were going to have the delight of going abro through agh yellowstone national park tite the cil ravan reached chicago by way of albany buffalo and niagara falls cleveland and toledo it started m host est from chicago over the lincoln leich way it will follow the way to cheyenne wyo where great doings were scheduled bron broncho clio busting a b abrl bacue and a regular out where the west begins |
