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COMMISSIONER INDUSTRY, AGRICULTURE
AND IRRIGATION

ISSUED BY
SUNSET MAGAZINE HOMESEEKERS BUREAU
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

MACKAY SCHOOL OF MINES, STATE UNIVERSITY, RENO, NEVADA

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MAIN DAM ON THE TRUCKEE IRRIGATION DITCH

CHAPTER |

In Which Is Contained Much that Is Decidedly at Variance with Outside Public Opinion Concerning the
Agricultural Resources and Possibilities of this Great Arid-land State

STATE where no special attention until recently has been paid to its agricultural
resources; desolate and unpropitious when viewed from the car windows of the
transcontinental trains which traverse little of its farming sections; and for fifty

years given over to mining as its paramount industry, with stock-raising second and farm-
ing third in the industrial list; with a preconceived opinion in the minds of the public
that, generally speaking, it is as hopeless of transformation into fields of husbandry as
are the tablelands of central Asia, or the Desert of Sahara—Nevada is somewhat handi-
capped in its appeal to homeseekers in that conditions are not what they are understood
to be and that this great inland empire has its own marvelous agricultural destiny.

Progress of Agriculture and Irrigation.

But we have been making progress the last few decades, and very much so in agri-
culture and irrigation. In keeping with this advance, economic pressure is constantly
crowding the surplus population of the country into every opening and available field
of opportunity. Necessity—that wise old mother of invention—has the comfortable
faculty about the time we are apparently up against a stone wall to disclose that the
wall is not an obstacle after all, but is capable of being turned to very excellent advantage.

Now, it happens that while many are bewailing that all the desirable public lands
have been appropriated and no further opportunity is left the homeseeker, irrigation and
agricultural progress—more particularly the conservation of the natural sources of water-
supply, improved methods of irrigation, and more intensive methods of farming—have

3

guietly and without much ado embraced areas of the public domain once thought value-
less within the domain of opportunity for settlement. Moreover it is a question whether
the settler on the portion of public domain remaining unappropriated has not opportunities
fully equal, if not better, than the Western pioneers of half a century ago. ‘The landless
of to-day overlook the fact that those early pioneers, while they unquestionably had the
choice of lands easiest of cultivation, were yet heavily handicapped by distance to trans-
portation lines and absence of social and educational opportunities. The twentieth
century settler need not go beyond easy access to transportation lines, and ordinarily will
find in the arid West, more particularly in Nevada, that he can procure land capable of
reclamation and of producing, under irrigation, bountiful crops within close proximity
to railroads, schools, churches, social opportunities and local as well as general markets.
But the handicap of the first pioneer settlers, which is here obviated, is exchanged for
another of a different character—the necessity of providing water for irrigation.

The Four Factors of Agriculture.

There are three factors which are essential to successful agriculture, in addition
to the fourth which is the human factor of plowing, planting, and harvesting, namely:
climate, with respect to the mean and extreme range of temperature of the seasons; soil,
with respect to the constituents required for plant life, and humidity, with respect to the
moisture necessary to grow crops. ‘The latter factor in the arid region must be supplied
by irrigation. It was once thought that Nature could not be improved upon by any
artificial means of supplementing a natural deficiency of humidity. But that belief has
been overthrown by the comparative results of the fruitfulness of like soils: in the one
instance dependent on the uncertainties of rainfall, and in the other on moisture
within the control of the agriculturist, to be given his crops when needed and withheld
when not. Farmers who have had experience under both conditions are substantially
unanimous in their preference of irrigation over rainfall. It is contended that not only
is there a greater certainty of harvest, but that, other conditions being equal, equivalent
lands will grow larger crops under skilful irrigation than with rainfall.

We have stated that Nevada, contrary to prevailing opinion, holds the promise of a
great agricultural future. On what ground is this outlook based? The answer is: On
climate, soil and irrigation; the conservation of the surface and subsurface waters
of the State to supplement the deficiency of climatic humidity.

THE CLIMATE OF NEVADA

Nevada has a range of climate greater than any other state or territory, with the
single exception of California. Its northern boundary is the same as that of Pennsylvania,
its southern boundary is on the same parallel as the northern boundary of Mississippi,
Alabama and Georgia. It wedges Southern California from Arizona on the south; and
north, it adjoins Oregon and Idaho. Southern Nevada is semi-tropical, almost frostless,
and with a growing season of over nine months’ duration. Northern Nevada has a
climate with moderate winters, temperate summers and a five-months’ normal growing
season from the middle of April to October. ‘The elevations of its valleys are not
extreme—from 3,000 to 5,500 feet in the northern and central parts of the State, and
from 2,000 to 4,000 feet in southern Nevada. ‘These altitudes are lower than many
of the most fertile valleys of the other intermontane states.

Separating these valleys, one from another, are mountain ranges, some of great and
others of moderate elevation, with a general north and south trend. “These have a modify-
ing effect upon meteorological conditions, tending to cause the precipitation of moisture
on the high peaks and ranges rather than in the valleys and to temper the intense heat
of summer in the latter with cooling winds from the mountains. The atmosphere is clear,
healthful and invigorating. The absence of humidity during the summer months causes
the earth, after sunset, to radiate its heat into space, with the result that even in southern
Nevada the nights are comfortable. Between June first and the beginning of October, in

4

northern and central Nevada frosts rarely ever occur, and in southern Nevada frosts
are confined to the late fall and winter months. Contrary to the belief of those
unfamiliar with the climate of the State, the winters are as a rule mild. ‘The stormiest
season is from the middle of January to the middle of March. Snow rarely falls to a
depth greater than two feet in the valleys, and the normal duration of snow on the ground
is from three to five weeks. April and May are unsettled—days of balmy spring weather
alternating with cold “‘snaps,’’ raw winds and frosts. By the first of June, however,
and frequently earlier, steady summer weather begins and lasts until October, with
warm and hot cloudless days and cool but frostless nights. About October first
occurs the equinoctial storm, lasting about ten days and usually accompanied with
the heaviest rain of the year. After this, the remainder of October, all of November and
frequently the greater part of December is glorious fall weather, compensating with its
charms the disagreeable features of the spring.

Manifestly, on this showing, which is confirmed by reference to meteorological
records, the climate of Nevada is generally, and in some instances extraordinarily, favor-
able to agriculture.

RICH AND eFRUIDFUL, SOIL

Is the soil of Nevada’s valleys inferior or destitute of the elements which nurture
plant life?

Nature, to initiate, in this State has placed in her natural desert flora an almost
infallible criterion of soil values. Ordinarily, in northern and central Nevada, the
growth and thriftiness of the black sagebrush is determinative of the character of the
soil, and only in exceptional cases the rule does not apply.

The alkali deserts are barren of vegetation other than a few stunted weeds and thorn-
bushes. These deserts, in the present stage of agricultural science, at least, are hopeless
of reclamation and are only valuable for their mineral contents of salt, soda, and borax.

Natural Soil Classifications.

The following classification of soil values, based on the character of the desert flora
in Nevada, will be found substantially correct in almost every instance:

LUXURIANT BLACK SAGEBRUSH, from three to five feet high, denotes invariably a
rich soil with all the constituents required by plant life including nitrogen and humus
in abundance. Such land in Nevada will yield bountifully any crop within the
climatic range.

MEDIUM BLACK SAGEBRUSH, from two to three feet high, reasonably thrifty in
appearance, indicates invariably good soil free from alkali, with sufficient nitrogen,
humus, and all other necessary constituents required by plant life. Such land under
irrigation will produce in northern and central Nevada from three to seven tons of
alfalfa to the acre, twenty-five to fifty bushels of wheat, or from 175 to 400 bushels of
potatoes, and relatively all other crops within the climatic range.

MEDIUM BLACK SAGEBRUSH WITH GREASEWOOD, with occasionally thorn-bush or
shadscale intermixed, or patches of wild rye, denotes first of all surface moisture and
usually a soil rich in humus and nitrogen. The presence and relative thriftiness of the
black sagebrush is the natural criterion by which to judge of the quantity of alkali con-
tained. If the black sagebrush thrives, the fear of excess alkali in the soil may be
dismissed. Lands of this character will frequently grow wheat, rye, emmer, potatoes and
certain other crops without irrigation, due to the soil moisture naturally present, when
dry-farming methods are followed. There are thousands of acres of land of this char-
acter in the State susceptible of cultivation without irrigation, which at the present time
are lying fallow. Most of this is in private ownership, chiefly of stockmen.

STUNTED BLACK SAGEBRUSH AND THORN-BUSH are indicative of a soil deficient
in nitrogen and humus, but not essentially of the other constituents required for crop-grow-
ing. The nitrogen and humus may be supplied, where the conditions otherwise are
favorable, and such land be made very productive. Land of this character should be

5

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NEVADA

ALFALFA AT LOVELOCK,

subjected to soil analysis as a determinative, with which its location and climatic conditions
will govern the profitableness of its reclamation.

SHADSCALE AND SALTBRUSH are indicative of alkali more frequently than other-
wise, and grow in the lowlands along the course of the drainage of alkaline waters from the
uplands.

The moisture and heat variant, or relative aridity of one section of the State with
another, is to be given consideration as modifying to some extent the foregoing classifica-
tions, more especially with respect to the thriftiness of the black sagebrush. ‘The relative
degree of moisture normally present in the soil will be reflected in a greater or less growth
of black sagebrush on equivalent soils, provided the moisture is not excessive. Beyond a
certain limit of soil moisture, it is to be understood that black sagebrush will not thrive
but is displaced by greasewood, nor will black sagebrush grow upon lands containing
more than a negligible quantity of alkali.

Area of Arable Land in Nevada.

Among the states and territories, Nevada ranks fourth in area, with 110,690
square miles of surface; 869 of which is water. The land area may be roughly classified,
from the agricultural standpoint, into three groups, namely: alkali wastes and barrens;
mountainous and rolling grazing lands, and arable valley lands. While no accurate
computation has yet been made by either the State or the National Government of the lands
in each group, sufficient data is obtainable on which to base a reasonable approximation.
According to such calculations, the alkali deserts and verdureless barrens occupy approxi-
mately one-sixth of the total area of the State, or about 12,000,000 acres. The moun-
tains, hilly and rolling lands, unsuitable for agriculture but affording excellent range for
cattle and sheep, and on which 500,000 head of cattle and 1,500,000 head of sheep find
subsistence, is estimated at 40,000,000 acres. The total area of arable valley lands is
estimated at not less than 18,000,000 acres. “The immensity of this latter acreage may
be conceived when it is stated that it is equivalent in area to all of Massachusetts, New
Hampshire and Rhode Island combined.

Any average quarter-section of this 18,000,000 acres of arable land under irrigation
will support a family; on no inconsiderable portion of it, eighty acres under cultivation will
support a family, and under intensive farming and fruit-raising, in many instances, sixty,
forty, and as low as twenty acres will support a family. Including natural grass meadows,
less than five per cent., or only about 750,000 acres of this arable area, is today under
cultivation. But the farms that are reclaimed are an indication of the wonderful possi-
bilities of the soil, latent until released to fruitfulness by the magic of irrigation!

THE REAL PROBLEM—WATER

On the foregoing showing, the problem for solution in the reclamation and colonization
of Nevada involves neither climate nor soil. The climate is propitious! the soil of at
least 18,000,000 acres is all that could reasonably be desired by the husbandman! The
problem instead is to correct the deficiency of climatic humidity by artificial irrigation.
Water is the talisman of the desert—without which the desert is, and with which the
desert vanishes, transformed into waving fields of alfalfa and grain, the verdure of
plant and fruit, tree and shrubbery, the homes of farmers, and the seats of villages, towns
and cities.

Between the settler and the fruitfulness of the land lies this problem of water, and it
is our purpose here neither to underestimate nor overestimate the difficulties which must
be conquered. If unconquerable, there would be no necessity for this booklet. On the
other hand, nothing will be gained by minimizing the obstacles which must be overcome.
For a settler who under a false statement of facts might be induced to come to Nevada
expecting to select a homestead on the public domain, and through his own efforts and at
small outlay to develop a water right for it, would not find such conditions existing
except in rare instances, and his grievance at the misrepresentation would be genuine.

8

While, unquestionably, there are many isolated tracts of land in Nevada on which a
settler might discover and by his unaided endeavors conserve a water-supply for its
reclamation, it is to be understood that such instances are essentially rare and not every
search by the homeseeker might find reward.

Where, then, is the opportunity for the settler in Nevada? ‘This will be answered
clearly and definitely in the succeeding pages, after a discussion of the water-supply of
the State, which is first in order.

W ater-Supply of Nevada.

In that third of the United States lying between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers,
on the east, and the beginning of the Rocky Mountains on the west, the country is level
or undulating, without mountains or hills of any altitude worth mentioning. ‘The result
is a comparatively even distribution of rainfall throughout extensive areas. The topog-
raphy of Nevada on the contrary shows approximately two hundred valleys, great and
small, separated from one another by mountain ranges, anywhere from 2,000 to 7,000
feet higher than the valley levels. The effect of this on the distribution of rainfall is
marked. The mountains gather the storms, intercept the precipitation, and while the
valleys occasionally get rain or snow, the ratio between the rainfall of the latter and the
mountains is probably not more than one to three. When it is stated that the average
annual precipitation in the valleys of northern, eastern and western Nevada is not likely
more than eight inches, in central Nevada not more than five inches, and in southern
Nevada not more than four inches, this should not be understood to represent but a small
part of the actual rainfall over the State. Moreover, there is often a wide variation in
rainfall between one valley and another immediately adjoining it but separated by a
mountain barrier. Several valleys have an annual precipitation very much greater than
the averages stated above, others considerably less.

Effects of Mountains on Humidity.

These mountain ranges are factors of supreme importance in the agricultural reclama-
tion of the State. The winter snow is conserved in the higher altitudes to melt gradually
during the spring and summer, giving rise to the streams and rivers which supply water
for irrigation. Moreover, the mountain valleys and canons afford many opportunities for
storage reservoirs. AA dam thrown across the outlet of an upland valley through which
a stream flows, or which is surrounded by a large catchment basin, impounds the waters.
The run-off which otherwise would flow to waste in the early spring before irrigation
begins and in the fall after irrigation ceases, is thus conserved and regulated to flow only
when required for crop-growing.

Stream measuremenis of all the principal rivers of the State disclose the fact that
without a water-storage system on a given stream, about seventy per cent. of the total
annual run-off flows to waste during the non-irrigation season. As only a small fraction of
the flood waters of the Nevada streams is yet conserved by water-storage system, it
follows that not more than a third of the actual surface water-supply is yet utilized for
irrigation. The field thus left open for reclamation enterprises is attracting lively attention
at the present time, and will be discussed more fully under the chapter relating to the

Carey Act.

Principal Rivers and Streams.

The waters of only five small rivers in Nevada reach the ocean, namely: the Virgin
River with its tributary, the Muddy, in southern Nevada, which flows into the Colorado
and thence into the Gulf of California; and the Owyhee, Bruneau and Salmon in northern
Nevada which are tributaries of the Snake and the latter in turn of the Columbia. All
the other streams either flow into lakes without outlets or ultimately disappear by
evaporation or by percolation.

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The principal rivers are the Humboldt, Truckee, Carson, Walker, Reese, Muddy,
Owyhee, Quinn, Virgin, Bruneau, Salmon and White. In addition to these are a great
number of creeks and brooks which in some instances are feeders of the larger streams, and
in others are independent and lose themselves in the valleys. To these sources of water-
supply for irrigation must be added springs which occur in many parts of the State
and from which considerable bodies of land are irrigated; also, artesian or subsurface
waters, which latter have challenged special interest within the last two years and will be
discussed separately.

Water Rights and Appropriated Waters.

Water, under the laws of the West, is subject to appropriation. The essence of
ownership, however, is “beneficial use,’’ without which no right exists. In the ownership
of water, the season during which it is put to beneficial use is a limitation as well.
Therefore, a farmer who has a water right will be protected in its enjoyment during the
irrigation season, but during the remainder of the year any one else may make application
for all or a part of that which flows to waste, termed “flood waters,’’ and on impounding
and putting the same to beneficial use may acquire ownership.

The natural flow of nearly all the streams during the irrigation season is already
appropriated. But only a relatively small portion of the flood waters are appropriated.
The State law permits the applicant for the flood waters of a stream to acquire by con-
demnation proceedings any lands in private ownership required for storage reservoirs,
diverting canals and ditches. “The appraised value is based on the actual use to which
the land proposed to be condemned is put by the owner. As this is usually grazing, the
acreage value is not high. If the reservoir site be on the public domain it may be secured
by application to the Government.

We have stated that the appropriated waters of the State are utilized in the irrigation
of approximately 750,000 acres of land. Were the flood waters of the streams that now
flow to waste during the non-irrigation season impounded and conserved to flow only
during the irrigation season, and all such surface-waters put to a reasonably high irrigation
duty in place of the present more or less wasteful methods, it is safe to say that such waters
would be sufficient to reclaim and put under a high state of cultivation not less than

3,000,000 acres of land.

Water Storage Systems Require Capital.

Unfortunately for the homeseeker, water-storage enterprises are expensive undertakings
and, as a rule, have to be carried out on a scale sufficiently large to reclaim many hundreds
of thousands of acres of land in order to bring the relative cost per acre within reasonable
limits. “Therefore, preceding the settler in such cases must ordinarily come the ‘reclamation
project,” carried through at the expense of the national or state governments or by
private capital operating under the Carey Act. The storage reservoirs and diverting
canals are constructed to bring the water to the land, when the land with the water right
is sold to settlers on instalment payments covering usually ten years. A number of such
enterprises are in progress in Nevada at the present time, the most notable being the
Truckee-Carson National Reclamation Project in Churchill County. Carey Act projects
by private enterprise covering proposals to reclaim something over one million acres of
land are in various stages of progress, from that of the temporary withdrawal to deter-
mine the feasibility of the project, through the stage of final segregation of the lands and
contract with the State to construct the irrigation works.

During the year 1912 and thereafter, portions of the lands of certain of these projects
will be thrown open to entrymen. Under the State law water must be available for
delivery to the entrymen before the land of a Carey Act project may be sold to settlers.

11

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CARLLLSEAR EPEAT

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NEVADA

ARTESIAN WELL IN THE SMITH VALLEY,

SUBSURFACE WATERS

In the foregoing we have discussed only surface waters. But in the last two years
increasing attention has been given to the possibilities of reclamation by utilizing subsurface
waters. Underground streams and lakes have been discovered at varying depths in many
valleys. One would imagine that a state with such little rainfall and where evaporation
is so great would be the last section of the country wherein bodies of underground water
might be expected. ‘Ihe contrary appears to be true. In about twenty different valleys
borings have been made, and in nearly all of these artesian flows have been encountered.
Nor has the depth been great, usually between 200 and 400 feet. Some wells have
found flows as shallow as 80 feet, and in only comparatively few instances has it been
necessary to go deeper than 500 feet.

What is the origin of this artesian water? In most instances it may be satisfactorily
accounted for as coming from the percolation of melting snows in the porous strata of
contiguous mountain ranges and which is retained under pressure in the bordering valley
basins by an impervious stratum above. But in many instances artesian water exists as
abundantly in the regions of least rainfall. The most probable explanation of the latter
phenomenon is made clear when we examine cross-sections of the surface contour of the
State. From the region of greatest rainfall, including the extraordinary precipitation on
the eastern slopes of the Sierras, there is a general southeasterly slope or decrease of
surface elevation towards the Colorado River. It is well established that water has a
gravity movement or flow underground as well as on the surface wherever opportunity
exists. It is therefore quite probable that some portions, at least, of the underground waters
found in southern Nevada were originally precipitated upon mountains and in valleys
hundreds of miles distant.

The economic feasibility of developing subsurface water for irrigation depends upon
three factors, namely: the cost of the well, the quantity of its flow, and the value of the
land for agricultural purpose when reclaimed.

The last factor is the only one of the three which can be closely estimated in advance.
The character of the soil, climatic conditions and proximity to market and transportation
lines will enable a very accurate estimate to be made of the value of the land proposed to
be reclaimed when under cultivation. Suppose the land be covered with a thrifty growth
of black sagebrush, indicative of good soil, in northern and central Nevada such land
will bring in a gross average income from $25 to $40 per acre, if in alfalfa; $20 to $50
per acre if in wheat; $75 to $300 per acre if in potatoes, and proportionally in all other
crops. In the nine-months-long season of southern Nevada, where from eight to twelve tons
of alfalfa per acre are grown, and fruits, cantaloupes, and other intensive farm-crops
grow luxuriantly as well, the income of good land with water sufficient for its irrigation
will range anywhere from $50 to $400 per acre.

Quantity of Water Required for Irrigation.

The quantity of water required per acre in all instances will vary according to the
nature of the soil: whether porous and gravelly, or loamy and compact, and the proximity
to subsurface moisture. On ordinary soils and under average climatic conditions, it has
been determined that one-half an acre foot of water for each month of the irrigation
season is usually sufficient. But it is to be understood that soils and climatic conditions
vary, and while a less quantity might be ample on naturally moist and loamy soils, certain
deep gravelly soils will require considerably more. Also, that there is a variation in the
quantity of water required by different plants. The half-acre foot per month during
the irrigation season, however, is a safe rule in the majority of instances. ‘This is equiva-
lent to a constant flow of 3.75 gallons per minute.

13

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Artesian Wells.

The most practical artesian well is one having a casing diameter of 10, 12 or 14
inches. The cost of a 10-inch artesian well from 350 to 400 feet deep will be ordi-
narily somewhere between $1,000 and $1,250. ‘Taking the higher figure as the cost of
the well, a flow of 375 gallons per minute would be sufficient to irrigate 100 acres of land
on the basis of one-half acre foot per month per acre. The cost of the water right would
be, therefore, $12.50 per acre. On the other hand, a flow of but 125 gallons per minute
would afford sufficient water for but 33 acres, making the cost of the water right $37.50
per acre. Shallow wells are proportionally less expensive, and many of the best wells
so far drilled in the State are not over 250 feet. The flows of 10-inch wells range from
as low as 50 gallons per minute to as high as 1,350 gallons per minute, in the case of the
Passno well at Las Vegas.

With the factors of depth and flow indeterminable, except by actual dmilling, and
varying not only in each locality but with each well, it is obviously impossible to give
other than a qualified estimate of the probable average cost of artesian water rights per
acre of land. This is likely somewhere in the neighborhood of $20. But such estimate
is not submitted other than as an approximation. ‘The chief point to be considered is
that artesian well drilling to reclaim arid lands is receiving such increasing impetus since
its inception into Nevada as to preclude any thought that the average results are other than
economically profitable. Where two years ago there was little or no drilling being done,
at the present time there are perhaps twenty or more drilling outfits in active commission in
different parts of the State.

Cheap Power for Pumping.

That cheap power is available in western and parts of southern Nevada will surprise
many. Such, nevertheless, is the fact. The tremendous development of mining and its
demand for power has stimulated the construction of hydro-electric power plants on the
streams flowing from the eastern slopes of the Sierras, particularly on the Truckee and
Owens rivers. About 20,000 horse-power is at present generated and conveyed by pole
and wire lines for hundreds of miles in western and southern Nevada, supplying light and
power for cities, towns and villages, mines, mills and manufactories, and traversing in
their courses mountains and valleys, farming sections and arable wastes. [hese power
lines have excess power in the spring and summer during 19 hours of the day, or other
than between 6 and 11 o’clock in the evening, the time of the “peak load.’ Rates for
power pumping for irrigation for 19 hours a day can be obtained at from 1.2 cents to 1.5
cents per kilowatt hour. This is equivalent to gasoline power at about 8 cents per ga!lon.

Cost of Electric Power Pumping.

On the basis of 50 per cent. efficiency for the pumping plant, the power cost of
pumping one acre foot of water 10 feet elevation, with electric power at 1.5 cents per
kilowatt hour, will be 31 cents; 20 feet elevation, 62 cents; 30 feet elevation, 93 cents; 40
feet elevation, $1.24, and 50 feet elevation, $1.55. On the basis of three acre feet of
water required to irrigate the land, the power charge per acre would be at 10 feet pumping
elevation, 93 cents per season; at 20 feet pumping elevation, $1.86; at 30 feet, $2.79; at
40 feet, $3.72, and at 50 feet, $4.65. These figures do not include allowance for
deterioration, replacements and maintenance. With electric power the cost of maintenance
is largely negligible, since the plant requires but little attention. The annual charge for
deterioration and replacements may be estimated ordinarily at about 15 per cent. of the
cost of the pumping plant.

A New Field for Reclamation.

It will be at once apparent that where water in sufficient quantity may be obtained
at a pumping elevation not greater than 50 feet with electric power at such rates, pumping
water for irrigation is economically feasible even for the growing of ordinary farm staples

16

such as alfalfa and grain. Where more valuable crops are grown, such as potatoes,
fruits and market vegetables, the pumping lift may be 100 feet or more and still be
within economical limits. [he field that is thus opened is one to which very little attention
has yet been given. Nevertheless, it is bound to challenge marked attention in the
immediate future. Not only is the electrically-driven pump, in time, coming into its own
in this State as a means of stimulating the flows of artesian or driven wells, but in many
places water in abundance may be found in gravel strata 20 to 30 feet below the surface,
and here the farmer may dig his well at odd times without appreciable expense and
install a pumping plant at not excessive cost. Also, there are many places where it will
be found cheaper to pump the water from a stream having little grade or fall to the
land on its bank, than to secure rights of way and construct a ditch several miles in
length to bring it upon the land by gravity flow.

An artesian well with an insufficient flow may be equipped with a pumping plant
and a very large flow obtained. It is to be remembered that the pressure of a column of
water 50 feet high is 21.68 lbs. per square inch; hence a pump in an artesian well,
taking the lift 50 feet below the surface, may increase the flow surprisingly. More often
than otherwise it will be found far more economical if electric power is available to equip
a well with a pumping plant than to sink additional wells to secure the required amount
of water. In recent years a great advance has been made in deep-well and centrifugal
pumps suitable for irrigation pumping. One style of pump may be adapted to one set of
conditions and unsuited to another, and it is very desirable that those contemplating the
installation of a pumping plant get the best disinterested engineering advice. The Nevada
farmer who is in doubt as to what style of pumping plant he may require should take
up the matter with the State Engineer.

TRANSPORTATION

The practical homeseeker who has read the foregoing, with his interest and attention
awakened, will at once put the question: “What are your market conditions? If I raise
crops in Nevada, can I sell them? What are the transportation facilities to ship in what
I require and to get to market what I produce>”’

Replying to the latter question first: Three transcontinental railroad lines cross the
State from east to west, the Southern Pacific, the Western Pacific (only recently com-
pleted), and the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. The first two traverse
northern and central Nevada and the last mentioned, southern Nevada. In addition to
these main lines, there are branches and feeders traversing the agricultural valleys and
extending to the leading mining camps, aggregating a total length of over 1,000 miles.

Until within about a year, freight rates were excessively high. Since the rulings, how-
ever, of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1910 and 1911 on class and commodity
rates affecting Nevada, transportation charges are as reasonable as elsewhere. ‘The effect
of these traffic decisions is already felt in stimulating the industrial growth of the principal
towns on the transcontinental lines. This is more particularly true of Reno, the metropolis
of the State, which, by reason of its location as a distributing point, is succeeding to the
wholesaling business for northern, central and western Nevada, hitherto monopolized by
the Coast terminals.

Railroad transportation at reasonable rates therefor may be found conveniently
accessible to nearly all the valleys, the exceptions being those in the extreme northern
and south-central parts. Projected railroad lines are surveyed to traverse much of this
territory.

THE MARKET FOR FARM CROPS

The market conditions in Nevada for home-grown agricultural products are unsur-
passed in America. ‘This is a large statement to make, but is borne out by an investigation
of the facts.

We must remember that, relatively, only about the one-hundredth part of the entire
area of the State is under cultivation, and that the greater portion of the population is not

17

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TYPE OF THE INDIANS OF NEVADA

engaged in agriculture but in mining and stock-raising. Finally, it must be borne in mind
that Nevada is one of the foremost states in raising cattle and sheep, hundreds of thousands
of head of which are shipped annually to the San Francisco, Chicago, Omaha, Kansas
City and St. Louis stockyards. Almost all the cattle and a considerable portion of the
sheep are fattened before shipment in Nevada, consuming approximately 500,000 tons
annually of alfalfa and other forage grasses fed from the stack. Hay for stock feeding
sells uniformly at from $6 to $7 per ton on the farm. ‘The finer grades of alfalfa inter-
mixed with timothy and bluegrass are baled and sold in the towns and mining camps at
from $12 to $20 per ton. Hay and forage crops, to date, constitute the chief agricultural
staple, due to the pre-eminence of the stock-raising industry. Very little hay is exported,
however, on account of the local demand, and this is also true of the cereals. The flour
mills at Reno, Lovelock, Minden, Nordyke, Paradise and Sheridan not only purchase all
the local wheat, barley and oats obtainable, but are large importers of these cereals from
California and Utah. While the price of hay is fixed by the local demand, that of the
cereals mentioned is governed by outside quotations.

Potatoes is the principal export crop; with hay, it is the only agricultural staple
which the State produces in quantity sufficient for its own consumption. Nevada potatoes
are said to be the finest grown in America, and all in excess of the local demand commands
a ready premium in the California markets. The price varies through a considerable range,
but for the past five years has been as often above as below sixty cents per bushel, or $20
per ton. The average yield is about six tons of marketable potatoes per acre. Yields as
high as ten and fifteen tons to the acre are not uncommon where soil conditions are
specially favorable and the grower is expert.

The market for all other vegetables, fruits, berries, butter, cheese, eggs, poultry and
pork required to supply the local consumption of the towns and mining camps, is far in
excess of local production, and enormous quantities are annually imported.

The Nevada farmer has no unsold crop on his hands at the beginning of the succeeding
season. Moreover, he is not restricted to one or two possible crops for planting, but may
choose from a considerable range for rotation in order to get the best results from his land
and maintain its fertility for the longest period.

In Conclusion.

One other important fact needs to be presented in concluding this chapter on the
agricultural outlook in Nevada. ‘The early agriculturists of this State were primarily
stockmen and farmers who raised forage crops exclusively. The stockman, unless he
happened to have acquired a tract of natural meadow, gave little or no attention to land
reclamation, preferring to buy hay of the farmer to tide his cattle or sheep over a hard
winter or to fatten them for market, rather than to bother with growing it himself. This
condition largely obtains still, and its effect has been to direct the agricultural development
of the State almost exclusively until recently to the growing of hay and forage crops.
The average Nevada farmer raises alfalfa in preference to anything else, and is not
tempted by greater profits to grow any other crop. Alfalfa is sure money and requires
but little attention. Once well seeded and properly irrigated, it will not be necessary to
plow and replant it oftener than once in ten to fifteen years. Nor have the farmers of
the State who grow such quantities of alfalfa given as yet any particular attention to
raising hogs. While beef and mutton are exported in enormous quantities, not enough
pork is raised to supply the home demand. Yet alfalfa is one of the best of hog foods,
and the great profit to farmers has been demonstrated of turning a crop such as alfalfa
into pork.

The very condition of the agricultural industry in this State, devoted so exclusively to
forage crops, spells opportunity for the small and intensively cultivated farm.

19

APPLES FROM PARADISE VALLEY, NEVADA

CHAPTER II

Social Life in Nevada—The Landscape not Without Compensating Charm—Public Schools—State
Institutions—Political Government—The People

In the preceding chapter is presented a general survey of the agricultural outlook in
Nevada. Let us now briefly consider the physical, social and political characteristics of
the State as a place of residence.

As before stated, the car windows of the overland trains as the vantage point of
observation give anything but a true impression of Nevada. None of these three
railroads passes within observation distance of other than a few isolated tracks of
cultivated land, and these—seemingly transplanted oases, foreign to their environment—
serve only to accentuate in the mind of the traveler the sense of overwhelming immensity
and desolation. He sees nothing that is agricultural in the sense to which he is accus-
tomed, and gathers his impressions of the social life of the people from the unprepossessing
visible portions of the stations and towns along the way. What the traveler thus carries
away with him lacks very much of being an adequate or true picture of Nevada, agri-
culturally, socially or otherwise.

Within a little distance of the railroad at Lovelock, for example, is one of the most
productive farm sections in America, yet the traveler in the Pullman car does not observe
it. Only the natural grass lowlands of the Truckee Valley, at Reno, may be seen from
the overland train, the remainder of this highly cultivated valley, as well as the chain
of rich farm valleys leading south for a hundred miles, are only visible from branch
lines. And this is characteristic of the State. ‘To see agricultural Nevada one must go
where the cultivated sections are.

The Charm of the Nevada Landscape.

One who has lived for any length of time in sight of the ocean or of lofty moun-
tains will ever afterwards find something wanting in a landscape without the one or the
other. It is the lure of their immensity and grandeur which he misses, and the alternating
moods which the face of Nature presents with every hour of the day and night. The
morning breaks with a glory unknown to the level plains; the sun in setting paints the
most wonderful of oriflammes in the sky. Peaks, crags and mountain crests an ever-chang-
Ing panorama, a perpetually unfolding mystery! And men and women grow quickly to
love the influence of these far stretches of desert, bounded by the hills, wherein is the
charm of absolute freedom and the spell of eternal peace.

The traveler who has gained his impressions of Nevada from a Pullman car, and
who has, moreover, never lived close enough to Nature to experience what is here stated,
marvels that any one would choose Nevada as a place of abode. Yet thousands of very
highly cultivated men and women reside from choice in this State. Indeed, the ratio of
educated and refined people is fully equal to that of other states. Nevada possesses,
proportionally to population, an exceptionally large number of resident graduates of
American and European colleges and universities. This is attributable to the very con-
ditions under which the State has been forced to make its progress. Mining and reclama-
tion enterprises have each demanded the highest technical skill and training. Mining
camps, also, have been a sort of magnet to attract not only the graduates of law and
medical schools as favorable openings for getting a professional start, but have likewise
lured young college men of varied attainments who sought fortune where opportunity
seemed greatest. It is also characteristic of the Western pioneer that as he prospered he
determined to give his sons and daughters the best education possible. ‘Thus an unusually
high percentage of the present generation of native Nevadans are college men and women.

Public School System.

The founders of the State in adopting a constitution provided that all moneys derived
from the sale of public lands granted the State by the National Government should be

21

invested in United States bonds or the bonds of this and other states, and that the interest
thereon should be forever dedicated to the support of the public schools. Including the bal-
ance due on contract lands, the State school fund aggregates, in round numbers, $3,500,-
000, on which the annual interest is approximately $160,000. In addition to this sum
about one-fifth of the revenue derived from State taxation is applied to educational purposes.
Each district is separately taxed for the erection and maintenance of its school buildings.
The result is an efficient educational system comparing favorably with that of any other
State. There are country schools wherever five pupils reside within a district; graded
schools in the towns; one high school at least in every county, culminating with
the State University, State Normal School and Agricultural College at Reno. Many of
the recently-erected public school buildings are models of their kind. No people have
evidenced greater sincerity and generosity in supporting and improving the efficiency of
their public school system than the citizens of this arid-land commonwealth.

Roads and Highwavs.

The roads and highways of the State are kept up by the counties, and while varying
from poor to excellent, have a good general average. The dry climate is advantageous
to good roads, and it may be stated as practically true that all roads in Nevada are more
or less satisfactory, except where there are occasional stretches of sand, and excluding
some little-traveled mountain roads. A “‘good-roads’’ movement is on in the State, and
many counties are spending considerable sums in road improvement. ‘The State itself is
engaged in constructing a fine highway from the California to the Utah lines, with convict
labor. The system is voluntary instead of compulsory and is giving good results.

Political System.

The State and counties are governed by a thoroughly organized political system,
preserving law, order and good government. One is ordinarily as safe in Nevada as he
would be anywhere else. Election laws are stringently enforced protecting the purity
of the ballot. The police system is effective and the State’s judiciary is of a high order
of ability and probity.

The People of Nevada.

The tourist who seeks for types such as “‘Alkali Ike’’ in present-day Nevada, may
find such in remote places, as well as other opportunities for frontier diversion. It is a
big State, with a population that is essentially cosmopolitan, and human nature is here
found in all its characteristics from the highest to the lowest. But social lines are drawn
as clearly in Nevada as elsewhere. One may find about any kind of society he seeks,
and the choice is not forced upon him. He will find the substantial majority of the
people wholesome, temperate, hospitable, generous and self-reliant. A people, in the
main, accustomed to the comforts and many of the luxuries, who travel much and are
well informed. Their home and social life is as refined and the conventions of good
breeding observed as habitually as anywhere else.

CHAPTER II

Opportunities in Nevada Requiring Capital—Carey Act Reclamation Projects—Subdividing and
Colonizing of Large Ranches—Industrial Openings

The National Government granted the State of Nevada, under what is known as the
Carey Act, for its selection from any part of the public domain within the State two
million acres of land. ‘The lands subject to selection must be ‘“‘desert in character.”

That is to say, they cannot be forest or mineral lands but must essentially be reclaimable
arable lands.

Excluding the railroad land grants, forest reserves and all other lands held in private

ownership, the remaining area of the unappropriated public domain aggregates, in round
numbers, 56,000,000 acres. Of this area, at least 12,000,000 acres* are capable
under irrigation of producing crops. From this latter area the two million acres may
be chosen. The least number of acres which may be selected in the State under the act
is 1,280, or two sections, and the maximum is the largest tract which may be reclaimed
under any feasible proposed irrigation system.

Outline of the Carey Act.

The Carey Act in its essence is intended to provide a means whereby private
capital may profitably undertake enterprises for the reclamation of the arable lands of
the public domain, of a lesser magnitude than the great undertakings of the Government.
Under the Desert Land and the Enlarged Homestead acts, the settler can enter upon
and reclaim from 160 to 320 acres and acquire patent. [he Carey Acct fills the gap
between what the individual settler is able to do by his own efforts in reclaiming a single
homestead or desert-land entry on the one hand, and the great undertakings of the
Government on the other. What is beyond the ability and means of the settler to do
for himself, and yet is too small for the Government to undertake under the Carey Act
is left as a field of opportunity for private enterprise. [he reclamation company does
not acquire title to the land, but derives its profits from the sale of water rights to
entrymen, quite similarly to the method adopted by the Government in its reclamation
enterprises.

How the Carey Act Applies.

Owing to the general misinformation about the Carey Act, in order to explain its
practical workings we will carry its operations through an hypothetical case.*

The applicant knows of a tract of arable public land which, in his opinion, may be
reclaimed by impounding and diverting the flood waters of a certain stream. He ascer-
tains that such flood waters are unappropriated and makes application therefor in the
office of the State Engineer. At any subsequent time he may apply to the State Com-
mission of Industry, Agriculture and Irrigation, which is charged with the administration
of the Carey Act in Nevada, for the temporary withdrawal of the lands proposed to be
reclaimed. He pays a fee of one cent per acre to the State and deposits a sum suf-
ficient to defray the actual expenses of the State Engineer in making a preliminary
examination of the proposed tract to determine, roughly, its feasibility. If the State Engi-
neer reports favorably, the Commission will at once make application in the United States
Land Office for the temporary withdrawal of the lands from entry and sale under any
of the public land laws. The applicant has now one year to make all necessary surveys
and determinations, and for the preparation of all the engineering data covering the
proposed project. If after such is completed he is satisfied to proceed with the undertaking,
within the year must file with the State Commission triplicate copies thereof and, on
approval, two copies will be filed with the United States Land Office, accompanied with
an application on the part of the State for the complete segregation of the land to Nevada
as a part of the two-million-acre grant. The filing fee in the United States Land Office,
$2 for each quarter-section, must be paid by the applicant. If the Secretary of the
Interior approves the application, the segregation is made.

Within three months from the date of such approval the applicant or his assigns
must enter into a contract with the State for the construction of the reclamation works, and
also file a bond in a sum equal to five per cent. of the estimated cost thereof, conditioned
on the carrying out in good faith of the terms of the contract. The contract will state
the price at which the contractor agrees to sell water rights to entrymen upon the lands;
the terms and conditions of payment therefor by the settler (usually in ten equal annual

*Part of the 18,000.000 acres of arable lands in the State hitherto mentioned. ; “ ;
+Bulletin No. 2, Nevada Bureau of Industry, Agriculture and Irrigation, Carson City, Nev., gives a
complete analysis of the Carey Act. Sent free on receipt of four cents postage.

23

VGVAAN ‘ONAY LY AILLVO AUIVa

SUGAR-BEETS FOR THE FALLON SUGAR FACTORY

VGVAAN ‘NOSUVD ‘LAaULS NIVN

payments, with interest on the deferred instalments at six per cent. per annum) ; the price
at which the State agrees to sell the land to the entrymen (usually $1 per acre, payable
in four annual instalments without interest) ; the quantity of water per acre required for
delivery during the irrigation season to constitute a water right, and all other details with
respect to the conduct and carrying out of the undertaking. Within three months from
the date of the execution of the contract, construction work must be commenced, and
prosecuted with reasonable diligence thereafter. One-tenth of the total construction work
must be completed the first year and the whole project completed within three years,
unless an extension of time is granted for reasonable cause.

When the work has so far progressed that the contractor is able to deliver water
upon a part of the project, it may be thrown open for sale to entrymen in units. When
the project is completed, any lands within the segregation which are found not economi-
cally feasible to reclaim may be relinquished. Each water right is a definite interest in
the irrigation system, and when all the lands are sold and the settlers have completed
their final instalments, they own not only the land but the entire irrigation system as well,
and the contractor is eliminated.

Large Profits in Carey Act Enterprises.

Carey Act projects, properly conducted, are very profitable, and where the engineer-
ing work is competent, there is no reason why they should not possess the maximum
certainty of success. The water-supply is subject to accurate measurement beforehand.
The cost of the impounding dams, reservoirs, canals, ditches and laterals can be likewise
estimated with substantial certainty. And, lastly, the value of the lands when reclaimed
can be determined by soil analysis, in conjunction with the climatic conditions. The
States charges but $1 per acre for the land and allows the contractor to charge as much
for the water right as the soil’s fruitfulness when reclaimed will justify, and yet leave
the settler “abundantly satisfied with his acquirement of the land and water right.” The
price for the water right will range from $25 to $75 per acre in northern Nevada, and
to $100 per acre in southern Nevada. Such price is gauged almost entirely by the land
values, irrespective of the cost of the reclamation works per acre; and the project is not
“feasible” if the margin of profit to the contractor between cost and selling price of the
water right is not sufficiently large. As a general rule, the difference between the esti-
mated cost of the water right and the authorized selling price to entrymen is not less than
100 per cent. and frequently very much larger. While the contractor never owns any
of the land which the irrigation system reclaims, he is protected as thoroughly as though
he did. For from the date of the execution of the contract with the State, a statutory
lien attaches against the land for the selling price of the water right, and this lien is
superior to any mortgage or other obligation which the entryman can put upon it, and is
only lifted on the final payment for the water right.

Only within the past two years has Nevada given any attention to the Carey Act.
The Legislature of 1911 passed a comprehensive measure covering the administration of
Carey Act lands, generally considered now to be the model law of the kind among the
arid land states. Its tendency is to eliminate fraud by close State supervision, and to
be of practical aid to legitimate enterprise devoted to the reclamation of the State’s arid
wastes.

Artesian Carey Act Projects.

The discovery of artesian water in many of the valleys has led to a number of
applications for Carey Act lands where the proposed system of reclamation is by means
of artesian wells and pumping plants. In order to meet the situation, which is without
precedent elsewhere, the State Commission devised and adopted a procedure which
enables the contractor to undertake the sinking of artesian wells on a segregation without
being compelled, under his bond, to carry out the enterprise beyond the limits of ‘‘economic

27

VGVAUN ‘ARATIVA UVIS NI MOUND AFHL SV SATddv

feasibility.” In other words, the State recognizes the inherent uncertainties of the under-
taking and will not compel the fulfilment of a proposed project beyond what is reasonable
and just, but permits the contractor to relinquish all lands which he originally undertook
to reclaim, on proper showing that the progress of the undertaking has demonstrated that
such lands cannot be reclaimed except at greater expense than the profits of the under-
taking warrant. The field of opportunity for artesian Carey Act projects in Nevada is
very extensive and yet is only in small part covered.

SUBDIVIDING THE GREAT RANCHES

As previously stated, the second industry in importance in the State, after mining,
is stock-raising. Nearly all the early farmers, as distinguished from the stockmen, had
each a herd of cattle or a flock of sheep. The State land grants until they were
exhausted enabled land to be acquired at a low price and in large tracts. The result
was that big ranches became the rule, and tracts of thousands of acres passed into single
ownerships. The agriculturist was thus deprived of many opportunities for securing
arable lands which he would have been glad to have entered upon and reclaimed.

Each succeeding year, now, more and more of the arable lands of these great ranches
is becoming too valuable for mere grazing purposes. In some instances there are vested
water rights sufficient to reclaim extensive areas, and in other cases the land is so situated
with reference to natural streams as to be entirely feasible of reclamation. In former
years the stockmen viewed with little favor the advent of the small farmer. That day is
past; more particularly since the Government adopted the policy of leasing and exercising
federal supervision over the public range lands. “The stockman is thus protected from
trespass in what he leases, and the fear that the new settler may encroach upon his range,
after once getting a foothold as a farmer, is removed.

A number of owners of arable tracts capable of reclamation and subdivision into
small farms, within the past year have signified willingness to put them on the market.
The ranch owner, as a rule, is not disposed to attempt the colonization of the tract him-
self, but prefers to sell outright for a lump sum, usually part cash and the balance in
annual payments with interest. The prices asked, as a rule, are reaonable, and afford
opportunity for the purchaser to make a very substantial profit by subdividing the tract
and reselling it in small holdings.

These great ranches also offer special inducements for community colonization; that
is to say, where a number of homeseekers and their families desire to immigrate in a body
in order to settle in a new country with their kinspeople and neighbors. ‘There are
instances where ranches of from ten to fifty thousand acres can be acquired, part arable
lands and part range lands, capable of a combination of both farming and stock-raising,
and which offer special opportunities for whole communities to settle upon and develop
into prosperous little commonwealths.

Drainage of Swamps and Lowlands.

There are several instances in the State of extensive areas of swamp-lands along the
course of the various rivers which could be drained at reasonable expense, and thus
reclaim in each case several thousand acres of rich silt bottom-lands. This land is now
covered with tules and natural grass and is used for pasture and the growing of wild
hay. The soil is likely to contain some alkali, but which may be readily leached out
when the land is drained. The high subsurface water-table causes the alkali to rise and
in many cases about all there is of it is immediately visible on the surface. The con-
struction of drainage ditches followed by the ‘“‘washing’’ of the land—flowing fresh
water over it for a few weeks during the fall or spring—in the majority of instances will
remove the salts. The silt is frequently from ten to fifty feet deep, black from the humus
of decomposed vegetable material. Its fertility when drained is prodigious. Crops of
from fifty to seventy-five bushels of wheat, ten to fifteen tons of potatoes and from twenty

29

to thirty tons of onions per acre are not unusual on these drained bottoms. Such land, after
drainage and with a sufhcient water right, is worth easily from $150 to $250 per acre.
The drainage problem does not involve tiling, but deep ditching transverse with the land’s
gradient, and these laterals leading into the main drainage ditch or channel deepened
to permit the water-table of the tract to be lowered from three to six feet.

INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITIES

Local capital and enterprise have largely kept pace with the industrial requirements
of the State. While in some isolated instances there may be profitable openings, it may
be stated, as a general rule, that Nevada is well supplied with mercantile establishments
of all kinds, foundries, machine shops, flour mills, and the lesser local industrial shops and
manufactories. [he State is growing rapidly, however, and there is always an opening
for a live man with capital in any community, and especially in this virgin commonwealth.

We can mention, nevertheless, a few special opportunities for financial enterprise
which, at the present time, are entirely open, as follows:

WooLeN MILLs: Since Nevada clips annually about 6,600,000 pounds of wool,
has abundant cheap electric power and an invigorating climate for workmen, it would
seem that where the raw material is produced in such quantity there should be an opening
for a profitable woolen mill. At the present time the Nevada clip is shipped to Boston
or Philadelphia for manufacturing into goods which are shipped back again to the
Coast.

BEET-SUGAR FACTORIES: The first beet-sugar factory in the State will be completed
and in operation at Fallon by the time this booklet reaches the public. It will have a
daily capacity of 650 tons, and was erected at a cost of about $600,000. ‘This season’s
operations will hardly be an indication of its success or failure, since the beet acreage
planted is inadequate, and the farmers are not as yet familiar with beet culture. The
operating company has had wide experience in manufacturing beet-sugar, however, and
in carrying through to success the educational propaganda required to teach the farmer
the art of growing beets. Their practical enthusiasm over the outlook is extremely
reassuring. Beets grow prolifically in the State and are found to contain an extraordi-
narly high per cent. of saccharine. ‘The ultimate success of this initial factory from which
so much is hoped will supply the incentive for the erection of others, by reason of the
fact that many other great tracts of land in different portions of the State are equally
adaptable to beet culture.

LIGNITE BRIQUETTING PLANT: Coal retails in Nevada from nine dollars to
seventeen dollars per ton, and is shipped in from Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The
larger part of the fuel used for domestic purposes is wood. At several points in the
State are extensive veins of sub-bituminous coal and lignite, conveniently located to rail-
road transportation, and of a tested quality that would make excellent briquettes. The
local demand for such fuel would alone make a briquetting plant on any of these veins
a highly profitable enterprise.

ALFALFA MEAL MILLs: While Nevada is pre-eminently an alfalfa-growing state,
the first alfalfa meal mill has yet to be erected. ‘There are several localities where such
a mill would prove profitable. It is to be remembered that the supplies for all the
mining camps off the railroad have to be transported by teams. Owing to its convenience
in handling, alfalfa meal would have a ready sale to teamsters in preference to baled
hay. The demand from this special source alone would be extensive.

CREAMERIES: There are a number of profitable creameries in the State. But there
are opportunities for many more. ‘The climate and great extent of grazing and forage
lands should put Nevada naturally in the first rank as a dairying state. ‘This is one
of its greatest lines for development and as yet, we might say, the industry is but fairly
started. The conditions in Nevada—high altitude, pure water, abundant nutritious
grazing and forage crops, and a specially healthful climate for stock—are ideal for
dairying. ‘The butter and cheese produced by the present creameries are unsurpassed,

30

CHAPTER IV

Opportunities for the Homeseeker of Limited Capital but Rich in Courage and Enterprise—He Must
Come Prepared to Accept the Conditions of a New and Unusual Environment—To Succeed He
Must Be One to Enter into the Spirit Which Actuated the Men and Women of
the New West—The Spirit Which Delights in the Conquest of Adverse
Nature in Order to See the Wastes Spring Forth with Abundance

It was a government reclamation engineer®* who said:

“The call of the West comes to us to-day insistent and inviting. The desert—
mysterious, silent, expectant, quivering under cloudless skies—holds a promise of freedom
and independence to the careworn and to the discouraged. It offers the uplift of
unmeasured distances and the individual home with that broader freedom of action which
comes with life in the open. Irrigation canals long enough to girdle the globe with triple
bands have spread wide oases of green in the arid places. Cheerful and prosperous
communities dot a landscape once vacant and voiceless.”

Versatility of the West.

Not every homeseeker will be satisfied with conditions in the arid West. Not every
homeseeker can cope with conditions in Nevada. America is so large and the West so
wonderful in its versatility that there are places and opportunities suitable to everyone who
will but seek and find. ‘This State holds opportunities for men and women of a special
type. Those who have in their blood something of the venturesome pioneering spirit,
who can cheerfully and courageously cope with some adversity, and, if necessary, with
hardships, who are energetic and resourceful, and to whom a few years of struggle is as
nothing if the goal of a thrifty competence is assured.

There are many thousands of such men and women in America, who, if they but
knew of the opportunities here, would give this State first choice, and who would find
nothing but hope and happiness in the conquering of success. On the other hand there
are multitudes for whom it would be a mistake to come here. For them there are other
sections of the country infinitely better suited. But for the homeseeker, adapted to meet
the conditions here, there is no other land which holds for him such promise.

Qualifications Required of the Settler.

Let us digress briefly to discuss the qualifications which a homeseeker should possess
who expects to acquire unimproved land in Nevada and through his own labor and
resources bring it under cultivation. This is the pioneer settler. We are not here referring
to the homeseeker who is able to buy improved property, but to the one who must start on
the virgin desert, clear the sagebrush, till and plant the land, and where was waste when
he began will, in time and through his labor, experience and effort, transform it into a
homestead of trees, garden, orchard and field.

It is quite evident that he and his family should be of strong fiber and have that
in their characters which takes joy in the wide freedom of the desert; who have a natural
love for mountains and far-stretches of gray landscape; and who will not repine from
loneliness and longing for scenes left behind, but can from the day of their coming call
the wastes “‘home.”’

And the homeseeker will have to possess some little capital, proportional to how
many are dependent upon him. It is not easy to fix any minimum. Much will depend
on his ability and resourcefulness. If we say $2,500, some would succeed with less
and others need twice and three times that. Perhaps we can give a clearer idea by
assuming a hypothetical case.

The Hypothetical Settler.

Let us assume that the settler has a wife and possibly children, none of the latter
old enough to be of material assistance. He writes to the State Commission issuing
this booklet, stating all the pertinent facts about himself; what experience he has had
in farming and if any in irrigation; what farming implements he has; whether any work-

*C, J. Blanchard. 31

AN EVIDENCE OF THE FER!

horses, wagons, mowing machines, etc., and the extent of his cash capital. Also what
crops he has been accustomed to raise and the kind of farming he prefers. [he Com-
mission will advise him to the best of its ability as to the locality or localities in the State
he had best visit and will put him in touch with those from whom he can secure land,
the price of the land, the terms of payment, and the character of the soil.

If he writes asking if he may not take up land in the State under the Homestead or
Desert Land acts, he will be told that if he has not previously exercised such right he
can do so in Nevada, since the unappropriated public domain covers millions of acres.
But that he can do nothing with any land he can homestead or acquire under the Desert
Land Act, however naturally arable, without there is water obtainable for its irrigation.
That while dry-farming may succeed in certain places in the State, the successes so far
have been usually where there is a natural subsurface water-table close enough to supply

32 CUTTING ALFALFA ON THE WIDE

* THE NEVADA SOIL

a substantial part of the moisture required for the crop. That he might, if he prefers
to undertake the search, in time find a quarter-section on which he could file that is
susceptible of reclamation from some unappropriated natural stream, but he must bear
in mind that there are not many streams in the State whose natural flow during the
irrigation season is not already appropriated. On the other hand, that the conservation
of the flood waters of any stream by the construction of a private storage system is likely
to be beyond his individual resources. Lastly, that if his resources permit, he might find
a quarter-section favorably situated for the development of artesian water and employ a
custom drilling outfit to put down a well. If he encounter a flow sufficient to reclaim
twenty acres or more to begin with, he is independent and on the highway to success.*

* The State Commission is preparing a bulletin on artesian reclamation in Nevada, and special atten.
tion will be given to the subject from the standpoint of the individual entryman on the public domain.

OF THE RECLAIMED DESERT 33

He will be told that unimproved land, with a water right sufficient for its irrigation,
can be purchased on the instalment plan for from $30 to $75 per acre, depending on
the location and the value of the land when reclaimed. For $50 per acre to the higher
price he should get level sagebrush land within close proximity to a railroad and to some
settled community. Eighty acres of such land, under ordinary cultivation, and forty acres
under the best farming methods, will support a family.

Possibilities of a Sixty-acre Tract.

Let us assume that the hypothetical settler possesses $2,500 cash capital; has some
farming experience but none in irrigation; has disposed of all his horses, wagons and
farming implements and has retained only his domestic and household effects. That
he exercises good judgment in selecting a sixty-acre tract of level sagebrush land with a
good water right, for which he contracts to pay $65 per acre, one-tenth in cash and
the balance in nine equal annual instalments, with interest at six per cent. That he brings
his family and household effects with him and takes possession of the tract in the early
fall. He will need a house to live in and this will have to be primitive. If he is at
all skilful he can build it himself. A three-room house, 14x35 feet ground plan,
with tongue and groove floor, rough board walls, lined on the outside with building or
roofing paper and battened, with windows, doors, etc., will cost for the materials about
$300. Such a house cloth and papered on the inside will be reasonably comfortable
and inviting. He will need to buy a wagon, a span of good work-horses, harnesses and
a cow. ‘These three items will cost him about $500. A shed, stable and corral will
cost him for the materials about $75 more. He will need about eight months’ supply
of hay to feed his stock, unless there is a convenient pasture near which he can rent. ‘This
will require about ten tons which, hauling it himself, will cost him about $75. He must
purchase groceries and supplies for himself and family during the ensuing twelve months,
which at $30 per month will cost $360. Allowing $50 more for clothing and incidentals,
these several items foot up to $1,750. He will need to buy a plow, mowing machine,
rake, and various farming implements before he can harvest his crop, costing altogether
about $175. And he will need to buy seed.

During the fall, winter and early spring he will be able to clear his land and do
what leveling is necessary. The sagebrush stumps he can use for domestic fuel. He
will have to dig his service ditch from the source of water-supply, possibly half a mile in
length. He had best employ a surveyor for a day, costing $10, to give his grade
lines and those of the principal diverting ditches on his tract. He will plow his ditches
and afterwards shovel them out. He will require a few dollars’ worth of lumber to make
his distributing boxes.

By planting-time he will have decided as to the best crops to put in. During the fall
and winter he has gathered all the information possible from local farmers, corresponded
with the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station at Reno, and supplied himself with
government and experiment station bulletins regarding irrigation methods and _ the
culture of the crops he has selected. He has finally decided, let us say, to grow twenty
acres of alfalfa, five acres of potatoes, and put the balance of his ground in wheat.
Reserving one acre for house yard and corrals, this leaves him thirty-four acres for grain.
His soil being the ordinary gravel loam which underlies the black sagebrush will not
require plowing before seeding for either alfalfa or wheat.* He will follow competent
advice as to the time of planting, as also the furrowing of the land for irrigation. The
spring moisture in the soil will start the crop. The alfalfa this first year will have to be
watched with the greatest care, not to give it too much water or too little. From the
middle of April until his crops are harvested he will employ an experienced irrigator
whom he will pay about $40 per month and found for four months and a half, at
a total expense for labor and keep of about $200. His alfalfa, wheat, and potato seed
will cost him another $200. He will have to hire a custom reaper or header to cut
his grain and a machine to thresh it. All the other work will be done by himself and

* Not every soil can be planted in alfalfa or grain without plowing, but it has been found satisfactory
on much of the black sagebrush land where the surface is even, and resulted in excellent stands.

34

his hired man. After paying for all, his original cash will be exhausted, but he will
have his crops harvested. If he has employed a competent irrigator, they should be
reasonably good.

The first year from his twenty acres of alfalfa he should get one crop of from
thirty to thirty-five tons. Reserving what he will require for stock feed, he will have
possibly twenty tons to sell which at $7 per ton will bring him in $140. His wheat,
on new soil, should yield ordinarily thirty-five bushels to the acre and at $l]
per bushel bring him in about $850 net, after sacking and transportation charges.
From his five acres of potatoes, assuming a fair normal yield, he would harvest about
thirty tons, which should bring him in about $500 after reserving seed for the following
year. ‘The total value of his marketable crop, therefore, would be close to $1,500. After
paying his second instalment, amounting to $590.60, principal and interest, he will have
about $900 left, also all his grain and potato seed, and a considerable part of his farm-
grown food supplies to carry him over until next harvest. He has learned much of the
art of irrigation and, with the experience gained, the following year should largely
increase the value of his crops. His twenty acres of alfalfa, for example, the second
year and thereafter should produce five tons to the acre.

The foregoing, while it expresses conditions and results more or less ideal, is
based on the substantial assumption that the settler had selected a tract of good
land requiring little or no leveling; that he had taken possession of it the fall before,
thus giving him time to clear it, construct his ditches and establish his home before
planting-time; that he had purchased the best of seed, sown it at the proper time and that
instead of attempting to irrigate the tract himself, had the wisdom to employ an
experienced irrigator who prevented him from ruining any crop by the blunders his
inexperience would naturally make, and that his water-supply had been adequate. ‘The
price of $65 per acre for the uncleared land and water right is reasonably ample to
get land and a water night of the character described. And in addition it will be
noted that the conditions of level land and the crops chosen are such as to permit the
seeding of most of the total acreage without plowing.

Even in this instance, it is evident that the settler could not well have succeeded with
less than $2,500 capital. Yet we know of settlers who have been successful with as
low as $1,000 capital, and some who have not succeeded with $5,000 capital. The
largest factor in the equation is the settler himself. Good judgment in selecting his land
and water right, in conducting the business of clearing and seeding his farm, and then,
if he knows nothing of irrigation, in employing the most skilful man who does. Where
crops are grown by irrigation, the man with the irrigating shovel holds the key to the
situation. By giving a crop too much or too little water, or at the wrong time, he can
cause the loss in a day of more than his wages for a year. But under his skill the kiss
of the water to the thirsty soil causes the desert to smile with verdure and bloom, and
arid Nature to grow pregnant with harvest.

The Homeseeker with Capital.

The homeseeker with more capital may exercise his choice between a larger acreage
of unimproved land, or to purchase outright improved land. Improved farms of from
eighty acres to several hundred acres, depending on location and fruitfulness, will cost
all the way from $50 to $250 per acre. Many of such farms are in the hands of owners
who are far from being up-to-date agriculturists, and can be made to produce four and
five-fold greater harvests than at present. The homeseeker with from $8,000 to $25,000
capital will do well to visit the agricultural districts of the State with a view to acquiring
improved farm property. The opening in Nevada to secure farm lands which can be
made highly profitable is unsurpassed, and is due largely to the fact that only in a
degree has the farming industry in the State as yet made any transition from the old-style
farming—following the lines of least resistance—to the new, where the soil is made to
give forth its greatest possible abundance.

35

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CHAPTER V

Agricultural and Horticultural Crops, Plants, Fruits and Trees Which Thrive Generally or in Special
Localities in the State

Unless along the banks of some river or stream where cottonwoods grow, the valleys
of Nevada in their natural state were destitute of trees, if we except the Yucca or
joshua-tree which can be found standing in uncouth shapes on the southern deserts. In
the high mountains are indigenous pines and pinon, fir, juniper and cedar, and along the
mountain streams grew the quaking-aspen, elder, choke cherry, and a considerable variety

of bushes and shrubs.
Ornamental and Shade Trees.

Wherever civilization has established itself in the valleys, ornamental, shade and
fruit trees have been planted and many varieties grow with extreme thriftiness. Perhaps
the quickest growing of these trees for general purposes is the Carolina poplar, and one
of the most valuable for shade and ornamental purposes. In five years it attains
large proportions, lives to a considerable age, and is profitable to grow as a fuel. The
cork-bark and English elm, black walnut, locust, maple, hawthorne, box elder, mulberry,
and many other varieties of northern trees do well in all parts of the State, including most
of the ornamental evergreens. In southern Nevada may be added the catalpa, palm,
olive, and possibly in places certain varieties of the eucalyptus. Some of the glorious
trees of from ten to forty years old in the towns and early farming settlements testify to
the possibilities of ornamental shade trees in this State.

FRUIT-GROWING

Very little attention has as yet been given to fruit culture, save in a few instances.
While most of the farmers have an acre or two of orchard, as a rule the trees are not
cultivated, alfalfa or other grass grows at will between the trees and little care is given
to intelligent pruning. Only in rare instances are any preventive measures taken against
frosts, with the result that the crop is uncertain and during the bearing years the trees
are too heavily loaded. There are, however, a few well-kept orchards, well located
along the hill slopes to escape the frosts, and which bear prolifically. Apples, pears,
peaches, plums, prunes, apricots, cherries, quinces, pomegranates, nectarines are grown,
and it has ceased to be a question as to whether or not certain favorable sections of the
State will not eventually develop into important fruit-growing districts. The frost-pro-
tected hill slopes are to be chosen, and the homeseeker looking for an orchard site will
find what he is seeking in a number of places and be able to secure the land at low cost.
The fruit crop, while limited as yet, is unexcelled both in flavor and in keeping qualities.
It is possible that in some portions of Pahrump Valley and on the Virgin River, in
extreme southern Nevada, oranges, lemons, and grapefruit may be grown. The danger
being from winter-killing is due to the fact that throughout southern Nevada there is apt
to be each winter a few nights when the temperature will fall below the frost point and
once in several years as low as fifteen degrees Fahrenheit. “The improvement in orchard
heating in recent years and the rareness of frosts and extreme cold in southern Nevada
give promise that such citrus fruits may yet be successfully grown.

Berries and Small Fruits.

Blackberries, raspberries, dewberries, loganberries, gooseberries, currants, strawberries
and the like grow thriftily in almost every section of the State.

Cantaloupes and Watermelons.

Southern Nevada, like Imperial Valley, is a natural home for the cantaloup, casaba,
and watermelon, which are grown and shipped by the carloads East from Moapa and
Las Vegas. The cantaloupes grown on the Muddy River bottoms and at several other

37

VGVAIN ‘NAGNIA LV AVH VA1VIIV ONIIVd

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points south will rival those produced anywhere else in the country. ‘he crop is very
profitable, bringing in a gross income of from $100 to $350 per acre. While cantaloupes
and watermelons are raised generally throughout the other agricultural sections, it is more
for household and local consumption.

Market Gardening Crops.

PotaToEs: This is the principal export crop of the State. Not every section of
America is adapted to growing this great staple. The Nevada potato has taken the
first award at several fairs, international expositions and produce shows, and if equaled in
points of good qualities by those grown in any other favored sections of the country for
the tuber, it is unsurpassed, to say the least. It grows evenly, when properly cultivated,
of uniform size, clear and healthy skin, firm texture, free from disease, is not watery and
when cooked is dry, mealy and white as a snowdrift. In every market where the Nevada
potato is known it commands a premium. It is no mean agricultural art to get the
best results in potato-growing. It requires experience and intelligence to know when
and how to plant the crop, how deep the irrigation furrows should be and the precise
quantity of water required. But where the art is mastered the profits from potato-
growing one year with another are very great. [he average yield is about six tons to the
acre, or 200 bushels, under any reasonably skilful handling, but the leading potato
growers of the State grow from eight to fifteen tons per acre. The average selling price
is about twenty dollars per ton or sixty cents per bushel. A net profit of $200 per
acre on the crop is not unusual in seasons of good prices.

ONIONS: This is likewise a very profitable crop, but for the best results requires a
black silt soil, usually found only along the river-bottoms. From fifteen to thirty tons
per acre are harvested from such lands. The market varies between wide extremes, some
years hardly paying the cost of the crop and another year giving an enormous profit.
This is an important export crop.

SUGAR-BEETS: To supply the new sugar-beet factory at Fallon with 65,000 tons
of sugar-beets per annum, a large opening is created for the growing of sugar-beets
throughout the tributary territory. Ass stated in a previous chapter, the local farmers are
as yet unfamiliar with beet culture. For the homeseeker who is, there is a great opening
to lease land of the farmers on shares, to acquire lands by purchase or to homestead on
the Truckee-Carson Reclamation Project. Tests of beets grown in the vicinity for a
number of years gave a general average of seventeen per cent. sugar; purity 89.95. The
price paid for the beets is based on sugar content: five dollars per ton on a base rate of
fifteen per cent. sugar, and thirty cents per ton for each per cent. above. In addition there
is a compensating additional allowance for varying distances of transportation from the
field to the factory.

CELERY: This is a crop which seems to be particularly adapted to the soil and
climatic conditions in the State. There is a strong demand both from local sources and
for export. Nevada celery is tender, brittle, grows thriftily and is free from rust and
disease. It requires a sandy loam or silt soil, and its growth is extremely profitable.

ASPARAGUS: Like celery, asparagus is a crop now attracting attention in many
places where tests have proved it to be specially adapted. About 200 acres are grown
in the Muddy Valley, maturing in March, and commands a high price in the Chicago
and New York markets. Profits as high as $400 per acre have been made.

OTHER VEGETABLE Crops: All ordinary garden vegetables, such as corn, tomatoes,
lettuce, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, egg-plants, turnips, carrots, etc., may be grown
generally throughout the State.

FORAGE CROPS.

ALFALFA: This is the State’s most important agricultural crop. All soils, excepting
those containing an excess of alkali or having a water-table nearer than six feet below
the surface, are adapted to its growth. The yield will vary from two tons per acre on

39

inferior soils in northern and central Nevada to seven and eight tons on better soils and
as high as twelve tons in southern Nevada. In the higher altitudes, 4,000 feet and over,
two crops are grown, with the third crop left for fall pasturing; at lower altitudes, approxi-
mately 3,800 feet elevation, three full crops are harvested; while five and six crops
mature in southern Nevada. For stock feeding, the hay is fed on the ranch and sells
uniformly at about $7 per ton. The finer grade, mixed with timothy and bluegrass, is
hauled or shipped to the towns and mining camps where it brings from $12 to $20 per ton.

SORGHUM: The recent introduction of several varieties of the sorghums in a few sec-
tions of Nevada, including broom corn, sweet sorghum, Kaffir corn, and milo, with the most
satisfactory results, indicates that the soil and climate are all that could be desired for
the growth of these valuable staples. Milo, especially, is a drought resisting crop and
may yet be successfully cultivated here by dry-farming methods in certain localities.
Under irrigation, however, the sorghums do extremely well and seem to grow as thriftily

as anywhere in the Middle West.

CHAPTER VI

Conditions in Nevada Exceptional for Raising Hogs for Export and to Supply the Local Markets—Most
of the Pork, Bacon and Ham Consumed Is Imported from the Middle
West—Poultry Business—Apiaries

The hog, for no reason other than the farmer has slept on a money-making oppor-
tunity, has been grossly neglected in Nevada. Recently, however, there has been some-
what of an awakening. A number of farmers in different sections of the State have
discovered that the humble porker is full of money-making possibilities, and have turned
their attention to swine-raising. [They have discovered that there is large and certain
profit in the enterprise and with no danger that the market will be affected by any excess
supply. Moreover it is found that one acre of alfalfa will support and fatten from
eight to twenty hogs.

PROEE IN THE HOG

The best practice is to have the alfalfa acreage divided into fenced lots, permitting
the hogs to forage on one lot at a time so that the land may be irrigated and have a
chance to partially dry out before the pasture rotation brings the hogs again on the
field. Where the hog has plenty of room, his inclination to root is very much abated,
Moreover his general healthfulness and freedom from contagious disease such as hog cholera
is materially improved. At the Nevada Experimental Station, at Reno, hog
cholera serum is prepared, and the Nevada farmer, discovering a case of supposed
cholera in his drove, can isolate the suspect, innoculate him with the serum and _ the
whole drove if necessary. The day is past when the hog grower, if he is informed, need
fear any considerable loss from this formerly disastrous contagion. Alfalfa hay as a
winter ration is almost as satisfactory as when grazed in the field. The farmer, however,
to get the best results should grow wheat, oats, barley, corn, cow peas, sugar-beets,
pumpkins, potatoes or pie melons, depending on the climatic conditions and character of
his soil, as a side crop, to be fed with the alfalfa for a month or two at fattening time.
Every crop best suited to producing pork seems to be specially adapted to growth in
this State, added to which as an advantage is the moderate winter climate. Under
good handling, alfalfa, turned on the farm into pork, is equivalent to selling the hay
crop for $25 or more per ton, instead of $7 per ton. A forty-acre Nevada farm, with
thirty acres in alfalfa and ten acres in a side crop, will grow everything required to produce
annually from 50,000 pounds to 100,000 pounds of pork, which at five and one-half
cents per pound, the minimum price, will bring in an income of from $2,750 to $5,500
per annum. ‘Thus the farmer on a forty-acre tract, if he is wide-awake, can make more
money than the back-number farmer on a quarter-section of the same kind of land.
40

POULTRY-RAISING

The poultry business has its technical side, and one person may succeed in it where
many others will fail. There is much detail about it, some special knowledge required
of the habits, diseases and characteristics of the domesticated feathered family, and the
successful are those who make poultry-raising a study and the marketing of the eggs
and fowls a specialty. From the standpoint of poultry-raising in Nevada, the following
facts are important: First, that not enough poultry and eggs are produced to begin to
supply the home consumption; second, that the prices for both are higher than perhaps
anywhere else in the country; third, that the climatic and other conditions are as good
here as anywhere else, and lastly, that those who have in recent years gone into the busi-
ness in the right way appear to be making money. The homeseeker, looking for an
opportunity to go into poultry-raising will find Nevada as promising a field as any, to

say the least.
NEVADA HONEY

We have claimed hitherto in this booklet that Nevada is a state wonderfully adapted
to alfalfa; that the Nevada potato, if not the best grown in America, at least has no
superior, and now we are going to make the same claim for honey.

Clear, white, translucent, with a flavor of alfalfa bloom and as delicious as fabled
nectar, if any other section of America produces better honey than this State, in Western
parlance, it has to go some! Let us investigate the reasons. We will not have to
prosecute the inquiry far. ‘There are two, namely: The great stretches of alfalfa fields,
whose purple blossoms distil the sweets, and the cloudless sunshiny days during the
season when the bee gathers honey. ‘There are no days when the worker has to lay
off and get a grouch on about the lowering weather. She can be up with the lark
between the time the first spring blossom comes on the hillside, the white sage appears,
and the apple trees begin to bloom, until the last belated blossom withers in the fall.
There is no rain or moisture in the flower to trouble and annoy her in getting at the
sweets. [he busy bee earns her reputation in Nevada not only by the quantity which
she puts up but by its exquisite quality.

Apiculture is an important industry in Nevada and is growing rapidly at the present
time, due to the introduction of Nevada honey in the Eastern markets and the attention
its fine quality has attracted. At the present time there are about 10,000 colonies, and
from the great extent of the honey flora there is room in the State for at least 100,000

colonies.
CHAPTER. Vil

Valleys, River Systems, Cities, Towns, and Agricultural Communities

The river systems of the arid region largely determine the geography of the
agricultural sections. Along the rivers the pioneer farmers first settled and diverted the
waters for irrigation, following the lines, successively, of least resistance. In time, most
of the land capable of reclamation by local capital and enterprise was put under cultivation.
Now has begun the era of Government and Carey Act reclamation projects, the breaking
up of large ranches into small farms, and the beginning of intensive farming.

THE HUMBOLDT RIVER SYSTEM

The Humboldt River from the source of its longest tributary to the sink where its
waters are lost by evaporation, is nearly 1,000 miles in length. Its drainage area covers
13,800 square miles. About 175,000 acres of land along the river and its tributaries
are under cultivation. The upper valleys at the source of the river have an elevation
of approximately 6,000 feet, descending to about 5,000 feet at Elko, 4,500 at Battle
Mountain, 4,300 at Winnemucca and 4,000 at Lovelock. Some of the richest
farming districts of Nevada are along this river. Near Wells is the Pacific Reclamation
Company’s Carey Act project which is opening up for settlement a 30,000-acre
tract of good land suitable for growing alfalfa, grain and general northern farm crops.

41

VGVAUN ‘YOONWANNIM UVAN UAATM LaTOPNNH

VdGVAAN ‘NAGNIW LY daaHSs

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VdVAAN ‘ONAY YVAN AILLVO

The town of Metropolis came into existence on this project. The water-supply is
derived from a storage system of the flood waters of Bishops Creek and its tributaries.

South of Wells is Clover Valley, not properly a part of the Humboldt River system,
however, but contiguous to it, about thirty-five miles long and from five to ten miles wide.
Although the elevation of this valley is 6,000 feet, and the winters are somewhat severe,
there is a five months’ growing season, producing good crops of alfalfa and grain. Some
splendid apples are grown here, and the valley is worthy of attention from those
interested in a climate producing an apple of the longest keeping quality. The average
annual precipitation is fifteen inches.

About Deeth on the Humboldt, and including Marys River Valley, Star Valley
and Lamoille Valley, is an extensive agricultural section containing about 30,000
acres of alfalfa and natural grass lands, and a very much larger acreage which is
susceptible of reclamation. It is possible that extensive tracts of lowlands in these
valleys, possessing a high water-table—natural moisture within a short distance below
the surface—can be made to grow the ‘‘dry-farming’’ varieties of wheat and cereals
without irrigation. The Fort Halleck Irrigation District recently organized under a
new state law, is constructing an irrigation system to reclaim about 10,000 acres near
Lamoille Valley, at an outlay of about $225,000. Throughout these valleys are a
number of very attractive ranches.

ELKO, the county seat of Elko County, is the center of the greatest cattle and
sheep ranges of the State, and with considerable of a farming section in the immediate
vicinity. It is a thriving town of about 2,000 population, with the outlook for an
important future. It lies on both the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific railroads
and is the business center of a prosperous tributary territory. From Elko north extends
a great stock-raising, mining and agricultural country, clear to the Idaho line, the
importance of which from the agricultural standpoint is not yet more than dimly realized.
Here are the valleys of the Owyhee, Bruneau and Salmon rivers, whose waters
ultimately reach the Columbia and the Pacific. This is a country, as yet, of vast cattle
ranges and far from railroad communication. It is well watered and with great
possibilities for ultimate colonization.

From Palisade south for fifty miles is a succession of long narrow valleys, through
which extends the Eureka & Palisade Railway, the latter continuing on to the famous
old mining camp of Eureka, still on the producing list and once the greatest lead camp
of the world. Only about 5,000 acres of land are under cultivation on Pine and Hot
creeks in these valleys. Practically all the farming is a side issue to stock-raising.

Along the Humboldt, between Palisade and Oreana, a distance of about 160
miles, some 50,000 acres are under cultivation, chiefly in natural grass meadows and
alfalfa. Much of the soil is river-bottom silt, susceptible of easy drainage in many
instances, in other cases not requiring any and naturally highly productive. Here,
again, farming is secondary to stock-raising, with large ranches almost universal. On
Spring Creek, for example, is a tract of 25,000 acres of level arable sagebrush land,
only a small part of which is under cultivation but practically all of which is feasible
of reclamation. This tract is part of a great stock range. In this stretch of country
along the Humboldt it is safe to say that there is room for 2,000 farm families to
acquire independence, where today the land is owned by perhaps a hundred.

South from Beowawe extends Crescent Valley, nearly forty miles in length by ten
miles in width. In many places there is a high water-table, suggestive of possibilities
for so-called ‘“‘dry-farming,’’ where the subsurface moisture supplies most of that
required for crops. The land is level and arable. ‘The possibilities for artesian water
in this valley are excellent.

At Battle Mountain is the confluence of the Reese River with the Humboldt, but only
in seasons of high water do the streams mingle. It is the Humboldt’s longest tributary,
rises 120 miles south, and flows through a series of narrow fertile valleys, along which
for the most part is the Nevada Central Railroad, terminating at Austin. About
15,000 acres are under cultivation throughout the entire river system. Stock-raising
predominates over farming, although there are a number of highly cultivated farms.

45

YAAIW NOSYVYD FHL NO WVYd NVLINOHVT NO NOILONUYLSNOD ONINNIDAd

AUSTIN, the county seat of Lander County, is the principal town of the Reese
River Valley. Thirty years ago it was one of Nevada’s great mining camps. After a
long period of quiescence it is entering upon a revival of its former mineral production.

WINNEMUCCA, the county seat of Humboldt County, like Elko, is the center of a
great stock-raising, mining and agricultural territory; is on both the Southern Pacific
and Western Pacific railroads, and is geographically situated to grow. The attractive
portion of the town is not visible from the railroad. Its population is about 2,000.
It contains many pleasant residences, good schools, churches, a national bank, business
houses and a handsome theatre. From Winnemucca is shipped annually about 3,500,000
pounds of wool and about 1,600 carloads of cattle, sheep and horses.

Extending north from Winnemucca for fifty miles on the Little Humboldt River
is Paradise Valley, the upper end of which is an extremely fertile farming country.
A town of the same name is situated in the center of the cultivated section. It contains
a flour-mill, stores, hotels, and two churches. About 30,000 acres are under a thrifty
state of cultivation. ‘The principal crops are alfalfa, wheat, barley, fruit and vegetables.
Several fine orchards are in the valley and the conditions seem favorable for fruit-
growing. A more perfect conservation of the water-supply would bring under cultivation
a much larger area of arable land.

Northwest from Paradise Valley over a mountain range lies the Quinn River
Valley and west of this, Kings River Valley. While neither of these two valleys
belongs to the Humboldt River system, they are contiguous to it and will be mentioned
here. ‘There are a number of cultivated farms. Stock-raising is the principal industry.
Here are vast stretches of arable desert land, naturally well watered and capable of
reclamation to support a considerable farming population.

The Ellison Ranch Company is completing a Carey Act project to reclaim and open
for settlement 38,000 acres of rich lands on the Quinn River and its tributaries.

LOVELOCK, the last town on the Humboldt, is the center of perhaps the richest
agricultural section in northern Nevada. ‘The soil is the accumulated silt of ages of
river flow finally deposited in this lower extremity of the great Humboldt Valley.
Wells sunk fifty feet and over do not pass through the black humus-laden soil. Here
yields of seven tons to the acre of alfalfa and sixty bushels of wheat excite no comment.
About 25,000 acres are under a high state of cultivation, the principal crops being
alfalfa, potatoes, wheat, barley, and oats. Here is located an important flour-mill.
This valley should make a wonderful spot for the growing of sugar-beets, and undoubtedly
a considerable acreage will be planted from now on as it is within shipping distance of
the sugar-beet factory at Fallon. Crops such as celery, asparagus, corn, sorghum,
tomatoes, etc., grow luxuriantly. Land here, as in many other places, is held in large
tracts, but already the demand for small acreages of such rich soil is insistent. Its
colonization with the intensive farmer on twenty and forty-acre tracts is likely in a few
years to occur. Near here is the Carey Act project of the Lovelock Land and
Development Company, which is constructing an irrigation system to impound 57,000
acre feet of the flood waters of the river in a reservoir site near the Humboldt House
to irrigate certain lands held in private ownership and to reclaim 10,000 acres of
desert land. The latter on the completion of the project will be thrown open to

entrymen.
TRUCKEE: RIVER: SYSTEM

Lake Tahoe, lying partly in California and partly in Nevada, pronounced by
tourists as the most beautiful lake in the world, is the source of the Truckee River.
After flowing about 125 miles, during which it falls 2,442 feet, it empties into Pyramid
Lake, the latter also a surpassingly beautiful sheet of water, somewhat larger than
Lake Tahoe. The scenery along the Truckee is superb. The Eastern traveler on the
Southern Pacific, entering the Truckee Valley, seven miles below Reno, gets his first
and only view from the car window of what might be called ‘Agricultural Nevada.”
Even here it is only the natural grass lowlands or ‘‘meadows’’ that are within the range
of vision. Nevertheless the view of this beautiful valley, walled in by the great Sierras
on the west, is inspiring.

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About 45,000 acres are cultivated from the Truckee River, not including the
lands reclaimed by the Truckee-Carson Reclamation Project lower down. The stream
is harnessed at a number of places with hydro-electric plants, generating energy to light
and supply power for domestic, industrial and mining purposes from Reno to as far
south as Yerington and Wabuska, including Virginia City and the great mines of the
Comstock Lode.

Surrounding Reno is a rich agricultural section with medium-sized farms under a
compartively high state of cultivation. The principal products are alfalfa, potatoes,
and onions with other more or less diversified crops.

RENO, the county seat of Washoe County, and the most important city in the State,
is located on both banks of the Truckee. Its population in 1910 was 10,867. Three
miles distant and connected by electric street-car system is the town of Sparks, population
2,500. Reno is a live, progressive Western city, and its busy thoroughfares thronged
with people, with clanging street-cars and innumerable automobiles, give the visitor the
impression that this is a place of no mean importance, and he is not in error. Its
location so far as scenic environment is concerned is not surpassed even by Colorado
Springs. Its position as a business center with railroads radiating north, east, south
and west gives it an enormous tributary territory. Here are modern business blocks,
department stores, excellent hotels, fine public buildings, schools, churches, libraries, and
a modern theatre where the stars of the first magnitude appear, and Schumann-Heink
and Gadski have sung. It is a city also of beautiful residences, trees and shrubbery,
asphalt and macadam streets. ‘There are churches of all denominations, and a splendid
Y. M. C. A. building; also four large banking institutions with combined resources
aggregating $10,000,000.. Here are located the Nevada State University and
Experiment Station. The University is richly endowed by the state and federal
governments and by Mrs. John Mackay and Clarence Mackay, of New York, widow
and son respectively of the late master spirit during the bonanza days of the Comstock
Lode. ‘There is an able corps of instructors, and 350 students. The Reno Commercial
Club is an organization of leading business men and citizens, with extensive club head-
quarters and will reply to inquiries with respect to the city and surrounding country.

The average annual run-off of the Truckee River is 674,000 acre feet, or sufficient
water if conserved to irrigate 225,000 acres of land. Immediately north of Reno
are several arable valleys capable of reclamation from the river, containing 73,000
acres now in sagebrush. ‘The “meadow”’ lands on the east side of the Truckee Valley,
containing about 5,000 acres, could be drained by deepening the river channel near
Vista about six feet, thus reclaiming from swamp a body of wonderfully fertile bottom-
lands. South of the Truckee Valley lies Steamboat Valley, also highly cultivated
and beyond this is a succession of farm valleys for fifty miles, through which runs the

Virginia & Truckee Railroad and its Minden branch.
THE CARSON: RIVER SYSTEM

Like the Truckee, the Carson River rises in the Sierras and flows northeasterly
about 200 miles, to empty in the Carson Sink. Its estimated annual run-off is 436,000
acre feet, or sufficient to irrigate if conserved 145,000 acres. Carson Valley, situated
on the upper Carson, elevation 4,750 feet, is second to no other valley in Nevada in
soil fertility and grandeur of natural scenery. On its west side the picturesque Sierras
rise abruptly and afford a mountain perspective over the verdure of the fields and thrifty
farms to satisfy the most ardent Nature lover. Five to seven tons of alfalfa and forty
bushels of wheat are ordinary crops. The largest dairy industry in the State centers here, the
farmers owning the Gardnerville Creamery co-operatively, and they have grown wealthy
from turning their forage crops into butter and cheese. Here is also a large flour-mill,
second only to the Riverside flour-mill at Reno in importance. A large land estate in
this valley is being subdivided into small farms, and many new colonists have in the
last few years acquired homes. Land so productive is valuable. ‘The settler will get
exceptional value in fruitful soil, but he must expect to pay anywhere from $150 to
$300 an acre for improved land.

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There are four thriving towns in the valley——Minden, Gardnerville, Genoa and
Sheridan—surrounded by 30,000 acres of land under the highest state of cultivation—with
an additional 15,000 acres of arable lands at the north end of the valley which are
rapidly being reclaimed.

Along the Carson River, between Empire and the Truckee-Carson project at Fallon,
including the farm acreage about Dayton, about 20,000 acres are under cultivation,
producing alfalfa and potatoes as the leading crops.

Immediately north of Carson Valley lies Eagle Valley, containing 12,000 acres of
arable lands, about a third of which is under cultivation, due to scarcity of water-supply
but which will in time be remedied by pumping and storage systems. [he Carson River
traverses the lower side of this valley, consequently its waters cannot be utilized.

CARSON CITY, the capital of the State, is situated in the center of Eagle Valley,
only fourteen miles from Lake Tahoe. The population is about 2,500. In addition
to the State buildings located here, there is a fine federal building. The city is charming
from its picturesque setting and wealth of magnificent trees which line all the streets.
It is expected that during the coming year several thousand acres of rich silt lands close
in to Carson City will be opened to colonization.

TRUCKEE-CARSON RECLAMATION PROJECT

The first reclamation project undertaken by the Government under the National
Reclamation Act was begun in 1903 in Nevada and is still in process of construction
at an ultimate cost of approximately $7,000,000. The first unit of the project was
completed in 1907-08, consisting of a great canal to divert the waters of the Truckee
at Derby, twenty miles below Reno, to the vast tract of arable land in the neighborhood
of Fallon in Churchill County. Work on the second unit of the project was inaugurated
the present year, 1911, namely, the construction of an impounding dam across the
Carson River about fifteen miles from Fallon to store the waters of the canal and the
flood waters of the Carson during the non-irrigation season in a great artificial lake,
capacity 350,000 acre feet. The dam will be of earth and concrete, 800 feet long,
110 feet high, 400 feet wide at the base and 20 feet wide at the top. It will be
completed in 1913, and with the existing appropriated water-supply of the river and
canal system will be the means of reclaiming a total of 200,000 acres of what was
once known as the “Forty Mile Desert,” about 70,000 acres of which are now under
cultivation. The dam will supply many thousand hydro-electric horsepower as well.

FALLON, the county seat of Churchill County, is situated at the terminus of a short
spur of the Southern Pacific beginning at Hazen; population about 1,000, not including
those on the immediately surrounding farms; elevation, 3,970 feet; maximum temperature
105 degrees, minimum 5 degrees, mean 48 degrees, humidity low.

The soil about Fallon is of many kinds, as would be expected in a large tract of
land formed from river and lake deposits, including light drifting sands, loams, clay,
adobe and black peat soils, all occurring in large quantities and affording an extensive
variety for choice. A wide range of crops are grown here: alfalfa, wild hay, corn,
grain, sorghum, potatoes, sugar-beets, celery, asparagus, melons, orchard fruits, berries, etc.
This country is at its beginning, with an outlook such that ten years from now
should see its fruition as one of the greatest agricultural sections of the West. Here is
located a new sugar-beet factory with a capacity of 650 tons per day and which will
give market for a crop that will net the skilful grower from $50 to $75 per acre. One
after the other the older farms are being broken up and sold to settlers in smaller tracts.
Also the vast acreage being reclaimed by the Government is open to homestead entry
at a cost of $30 per acre, payable in ten instalments without interest, and sixty cents per
annum maintenance cost.

Northwest of Fallon, at Fernley, on the line of the Truckee Canal, a fine tract
of land is being reclaimed by homesteaders. This is on “‘thornbrush’’ land deficient
in humus and nitrogen but which is artificially supplied, with the result that splendid
yields of alfalfa in every instance have rewarded the settlers. For information address,

Project Engineer, U. S. R. S., Fallon, Nev.
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THE WALKER RIVER SYSTEM
The Walker River is formed by two branches—East and West forks—which rise

on the eastern slopes of the Sierras. The latter traverses Antelope and Smith valleys
and unites with the West Fork in Mason Valley, thence flowing into Walker Lake.
In Antelope Valley is a natural reservoir site capable of impounding—depending on
the height of the dam—from 105,000 to 240,000 acre feet of the flood waters of
the stream. There are also several storage sites on the East Fork. On both rivers
are a number of power sites. For a reclamation company possessing the necessary
capital to quiet certain conflicting water rights and put in the storage and canal systems
requiring about $1,000,000, there is no more profitable and feasible undertaking in
the West than the consummation of what is known as the Antelope Valley Project
which is still open. The acreage subject to reclamation by this project is estimated
at 80,000, including lands now in private ownership but with an uncertain water-supply
due to the variation in the river flow. The annual run-off of the East Fork is 154,000
acre feet and of the West Fork 222,000 acre feet, a total sufficient to reclaim 135,000
acres, aside from the lands which, under the topography of the valleys, are reclaimed
by seepage, aggregating probably 50,000 acres more. [Elevations: Smith Valley,
4,800 feet; Mason Valley, 4,350 feet. Climate mild.

The present acreage under cultivation in these two valleys, including East Fork
Valley which is a continuation of Mason, is about 75,000. In Smith Valley artesian
water is demonstrated at depths ranging from 100 to 300 feet, with strong flows, and
there is much activity at present in artesian reclamation. Electric power is available
for pumping in both valleys, and in many places surface-waters in abundance can be
obtained under twenty feet pumping lift. The Nevada & California Railway, a
branch of the Southern Pacific, beginning at Hazen and now being extended to connect
with Los Angeles, passes through Mason Valley at Wabuska, from which the Nevada
Copper Belt Railway extends through a portion of Mason Valley and into Smith
Valley, terminating at Hudson. At Wabuska is located a copper smelter to reduce
the great bodies of copper ores in the vicinity of Yerington.

The Carey Act project of the Walker River Power Company proposes to impound
the flcod waters of the East Fork and to carry the stream by a high-line canal to reclaim
50,000 acres of fine sagebrush lands in Mason Valley, as well to generate ultimately
about 30,000 hydro-electric horsepower. This project is well under way and will
probably be largely colonized by Mennonite farmers from Pennsylvania.

rom an agricultural standpoint Smith and Mason valleys are two of the most
fertile areas in Nevada and capable of supporting a very large farming population.
About the same variety of farm crops thrive here as at Fallon and in Carson Valley.
There are splendid local markets. The country is also tributary to the rich mining
districts of Tonopah, Goldfield, etc. For the intending settler these two valleys offer
special opportunities at the present time. ‘The principal towns are Mason, Yerington,

Wabuska, Nordyke, and Wellington.
SMALL STREAM SYSTEMS: NORTHERN NEVADA

Aside from the river systems mentioned there are in the State innumerable cultivated
tracts varying from a quarter-section to several thousand acres reclaimed from the flow
of springs and mountain creeks. ‘The total irrigated area of this character, owing to
the immensity of the State, is not likely less than 100,000 acres. Wherever there
is a brook or spring in nearly every case will be found some occupant of the land.

The White River, so-called in east-central Nevada, length about seventy-five miles,
flows about 28,000 acre feet of water per annum. It is fed from four great thermal springs
at Preston and Lund. The White River Valley contains a large acreage of arable
lands, only about 5,000 of which are cultivated. Owing to the limited water-supply,
about 9,000 acres would represent the maximum that is feasible of reclamation by
storage.

Steptoe Valley, in White Pine County, is about 100 miles in length and from
six to twelve miles in width, elevation 6,000 feet. It is traversed by Duck Creek flowing

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from the north and Steptoe Creek from the south. Along these creeks are extensive
tracts of natural meadows. Fruit, alfalfa and grain are profitable crops. Contiguous
to this valley are the great copper mines at Ely, rivaling those of Butte, Montana,
as the largest in the world, and which afford market for everything grown. ‘The water-
supply of both creeks has been purchased by the copper companies, which limits the
acreage subject to future reclamation. East of Ely is Spring Valley, and about Osceola
are several great ranches under a high state of cultivation. The annual precipitation
in this section is about twelve inches.

In Lincoln County are a series of valleys—Duck Valley, Desert Valley, Pahroc
Valley, Coal Valley and Pennoyer Valley—which may be said to be on the border line
between northern and southern Nevada. ‘There are many thousand acres of cultivated
lands in these valleys in isolated tracts, reclaimed from springs and mountain creeks. In
Coal Valley a private company has constructed an impounding dam to store the flood
waters of a number of small streams. ‘The run-off of the creeks would seem to limit
the area feasible of reclamation by the surface-water supply alone to about 5,000 acres.

In the northern part of the Meadow Valley Wash, about Caliente and Panaca,
on the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railway, elevation approximately 4,400
feet, is an extremely fertile farm country under a high state of cultivation. The
growing season is about seven months, and extraordinary yields are obtained on the
irrigated lands. There is room on small tracts in this section for a considerable number
of farmers.

About Hawthorne, in the Walker Lake Valley, west-central Nevada, are some
cultivated lands and with many thousands of acres additional of arable lands which
will probably ultimately be reclaimed by pumping. In Fish Lake Valley are several
thousand acres of highly productive cultivated lands.

Big Smoky Valley, one hundred miles in length by from five to fifteen miles in
width, with 250,000 acres of arable lands, only about 1,500 acres of which are under
cultivation from springs and mountain streams, is alluring of possibilities of reclamation
in part by artesian irrigation. Pumping wells have been encountered at reasonable depths
at Millers. Electric power for pumping is available, and 115,000 acres of the lands
are now covered by Carey Act projects proposing to ultilize the subterranean waters.
Ralston Valley, Hot Creek Valley, Fish Spring Valley, Little Smoky Valley, and
Paranagat Valley each contains an enormous acreage of arable desert lands, some little
of which is under cultivation and the remainder awaiting some feasible means of
reclamation, restricted, however, probably to artesian flows.

In the neighborhood of these valleys are the great mining districts of “Tonopah,
Goldfield and Manhattan, producing annually approximately $20,000,000 in precious
metals, affording markets for agricultural crops and, as well, the railroads and electric
power lines leading to them the means of transportation and power.

SOUTHERN SUB-TROPICAL NEVADA

We have now to consider a portion of Nevada lying between the thirty-fifth and
thirty-seventh parallels, elevation between 1,600 and 2,000 feet, with a maximum tem-
perature of 116 degrees, mean 61.7 degrees, and lowest recorded 10 degrees Fahrenheit,
where frosts are practically unknown between the first of May and the beginning of
November, and where the growing season is nine months long. ‘This section includes the
Muddy River Valley, Las Vegas Valley, Pahrump Valley, Indian Spring Valley, and
tracts in the Amargosa Desert, all of which are tributary to the San Pedro, Los Angeles
& Salt Lake Railway, the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railway and a part of the Tonopah &
Tidewater Railway.

THE MUDDY RIVER SYSTEM

The Muddy River rises in certain thermal springs near Arrow Canon, in the
Arrow Canon Mountains, flows southeasterly, enters the Meadow Valley Wash and
continues to Saint Thomas, a distance of forty miles, where it empties into the Virgin
River about twenty-five miles above its confluence with the Colorado. The normal

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THE FERTILE COUNTRY

annual flow of the river is about 28,000 acre feet. There are about 12,000 acres
of arakle lands along the Muddy, of which about 5,000 are under cultivation. This
valley is an agricultural pardise in respect to fertility. Six crops of alfalfa are harvested;
cotton grows luxuriantly; cantaloupes and watermelons return small fortunes from a few
acres; it is a natural home for the fig, olive, grape and apricot, and here is grown
perhaps the finest asparagus raised in America. The State of Nevada maintains an
experiment station here. Five hundred carloads of melons, lettuce, asparagus and fruit,
on the completion of the railroad from Moapa to Saint Thomas, it is estimated, will be
shipped to Eastern markets next season and thereafter. Two crops are ordinarily
harvested from the same land each year. In this valley are four prosperous towns,
Moapa, Logan, Overton and Saint Thomas. Considering the value of the crops, land
can yet be secured at reasonable prices. ‘The scarcity of the water-supply has hitherto
limited the cultivated acreage, but artesian irrigation to reclaim the remainder of the
arable lands is believed to be feasible. ‘This little valley is capable of supporting 500
families on twenty-acre tracts, with an adequate water-supply. For additional information,
address Moapa Valley Chamber cf Commerce, Logan, Nevada.

THE LAS VEGAS VALLEY

About sixty miles southwest of Moapa on the railroad is Las Vegas, situated in
what was once believed to be an inhospitable desert—aside from the Vegas spring in
the center of the valley and the spots made fertile by the flow of mountain creeks along
the base of the surrounding hills. Today this desert is being transformed into a
wonderfully fertile oasis; slowly perhaps, relative to its great extent, but the encroachment
of the farms upon the desert has now reached several thousand acres and is rapidly
increasing. In 1906 the first artesian well was drilled, developing a strong flow of
subterranean water under 300 feet depth. It was several years before the full importance
of the discovery began to attract the attention it deserved. About two years ago artesian
well drilling began in earnest, with the result that a large number of wells are now flowing
and drill machines are constantly at work developing new flows. Not all the soil of the
valley is arable, owing to the presence in places of hardpan or a stratum of gypsum
close to the surface and in other places alkali, but aside from these there are extensive
tracts of good soil made especially valuable by reason of the climatic conditions. Even
on much of this thin soil with suitable treatment crops of all the sha!low-rooted varieties
will produce abundant harvests. The range of crops is about the same as at Moapa,
and on the best lands enormous yields of grapes, cantaloupes, watermelons, lettuce, fruit,
large and small, are grown. ‘There is room about Las Vegas for a large farm population,
and here twenty to forty acres of average soil with a flowing well spells opulence.
The Carey Act project of the Las Vegas Irrigated Fruit Lands Company in drilling
wells to open up an 8,000-acre tract for colonization.

LAS VEGAS is a thriving town of 1,500 population, with attractive business
buildings and charming residences, oiled streets, schools, churches, banks, and an
atmosphere of enterprise and prosperity in keeping with its outlook as ultimately the
distributing center for one of the largest and richest agricultural sections of the State.
The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce will supply any information on request.

THE PAHRUMP VALLEY

West of Las Vegas, across the Charleston Range which is well timbered and
contains many beautiful mountain parks, lies Pahrump Valley with about 75,000 acres
of arable land. ‘The elevation at Manse is 2,775 feet. At Manse and at Pahrump,
about seven miles apart, are two great springs which supply water for the irrigation of
about 1,000 acres, transforming the desert into an oasis of subtropical vegetation.
The range of crops is about the same as at Las Vegas and Moapa. In this valley
is an empire of the most fertile character, provided that artesian water can be found
as abundantly as at Las Vegas. The Pahrump Valley Land & Water Company, a
Carey Act project, is actively engaged in drilling to determine if subterranean waters
exist to reclaim a tract of 15,740 acres. If this exploration proves successful, in a
few years will be opened up for entrymen a country second to none in the Southwest

61

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for subtropical fertility. While as yet the valley is without railroad communication,
both Pahrump and Manse are within thirty miles of the Tonopah & Las Vegas
Railway and a less distance to the Tonopah & Tidewater Railway. ‘The agricultural
development of the valley will in time insure a branch line from one or both.

CHAPTER VIII

Agricultural Development Stimulated by the Mining Industry

We have previously referred to the exceptional local markets for agricultural crops
in Nevada due to the excess proportion of the population engaged in mining and other
non-agricultural pursuits. [he mining industry in the State since the culmination of
the great mining boom, beginning in 1901 and ending in 1907, is not on the wane, as
many not familiar with the progress of the industry since the latter year may suppose.
Legitimate mining—the exploitation of the State’s wonderful deposits of mineral wealth—
has made greater strides during the years since the so-called “boom’’ collapsed than
ever before. A comparison of the mineral output at present with the preceding sensational
period will show that the annual production of gold, silver and copper has increased
from $21,500,000 in 1907 to approximately $40,000,000 for the year 1911. The
mines are being exploited and not the public, which accounts for the enormous increase
in mineral production. ‘The former great mining discoveries are now thoroughly equipped
with modern hoisting and reduction works. The older mining camps, such as the
Comstock Lode, Austin, Pioche, etc., due to advanced metallurgical processes and the
introduction of hydro-electric power, are taking on new leases of life. Also new
discoveries of great importance not widely heralded are becoming substantial producers.
The copper mines at Ely are now practically the first in importance in the world.
At Yerington are great copper mines which, after ten years of development, the latter
part of this year will begin turning out copper ingots from the new smelter at Wabuska.

The opening up of great ore bodies in new regions and at greater depths at Tonopah
have advanced the production of that district enormously and extended the probable life
of the camp indefinitely. Goldfield continues its unexampled production with no
indications of probable abatement for a decade at least.

To supply the hundreds of mining camps and discoveries, great and small, th
Nevada farmer finds a constant market for many kinds of crops and at a range of
prices higher than obtained elsewhere in America.

INFORMATION

For further or special information regarding the State of Nevada, address

Nevada Bureau of Industry, Agriculture and Irrigation, Carson City, Nevada.

Any representative of the Traffic Departments of the Southern Pacific, Western

Pacific, or San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake railroads throughout the country

will be pleased on application to answer inquiries about the State, including
railway rates and service.

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TONOPAH MINING SCENE

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

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