Newspaper Page Text
VOL. I.
THE IMPERIAL COUNTRY
EDITOR F. T. WAITE of the San
Diegan-Sun, who wan here the
other day, devoted considerable space
in hi* paper to a write-up of the trip,
which wbi made "cross-country" in
stage*. Hi* article is very interesting
from start to finish, ami contain* much
information of the county* undevel
oped back country. Lack of space
prevent* uh from reprinting it in full.
Following' in that portion of the article
referring to Imperial and the Imperial
country:
It is not easy to describe Imperial,
because, after saying it is a flat coun
try there ii* nothing concerning its to
pography left to say. It i* absolutely
and unqualifiedly flat. For mile* in
all direction* there are no deviations
from the flat of greater size or altitude
than a hay cock. Away in the distance
arc the mountain ranges, while on the
horizon line in the almost ever-present
mirages, which hhow lapping water
with shrubs and bushes growing from
shallow depth*.
The soil varies some, from very stiff
dol>e to a stiff combination of dobe and
Hand, the sand predominating on top.
An innj>ection of these conditions at
♦>nee lead* to the conclusion that thin
great plain is the delta of a new di
verted river. The hoil has been car
ried there and deposited by water, but
the water has only brought almost sol
uble soil. All the sand and heavier
substance* sunk to the bottom hun
dred* and perhaps thousands of miles
up that ancient stream. The result is
that the soil is soil pure and simple;
nothing but soil and as rich as rich can
be.
On such noil, with water added, crop
failures will be unknown. It i* prob
able that acre after acre will produce
15 to 18 tons of alfalfa, but the calcula
tions I heard made were based ujwm a
product of live tons to the acre.
Thin year the rainfall there was 3
inches, which was considered unusual
ly heavy for that section. This light
rainfall, of course, accounts for the
lack of natural vegetation. In the
near-by New Kiver basin, which re
ceives moisture from the overflow of
the Colorado, the vegetation is wonder
fully rank. Arrow weed has been
known to attain a height of 18 feet in
three months, and corn stalk* have
grown 12 feet in three months. So the
quality of the noil will not be question
ed:
WE ARIA
The precise area of the irrigable ter
ritory is not now known, as portions
of the possible area have never even
been explored. It is known, however,
that the total area, in the United States
and Mexico will exceed a million acres,
and that is a big enough basis for all
reasonable calculations. Of course all
territory will not be irrigated in a day.
It will take time to construct main and
lateral canals over so vast a territory,
but the hardest work has Wen to de
Imperial Press.
IMPERIAL, CAL, SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1901.
BY EDITOR OF
SAN DIEGAN-SUN
liver the first pail full of water. The
rest will all be easier.
A* a source of supply the entire Col
orado river, with the largest water
shed of any stream in Western Amer
ica i* available.
All this laud i» now owned by the
government, and is subject to entry un
der the desert or homestead act. If
taken under the desert act the cost i*
§1.25 an acre, and water must be put
on the laud before the title becomes
perfect. Under the homestead act, the
cost in only that which pertains to the
filing of the papers, but five years of
actual residence is required.
CIUNCE fOR POOR MEN
The opportunities there for jK>or hut
willing workers, are, I believe, better
than anywhere else in the entire coun
try. lam confident that a man can
walk into Im|M.*rial tomorrow without
a penny, and in five years have an in
come of a thousand dollars a year. He
can find employment at once, can soon
acquire a homestead and water, and by
planting alfalfa insure his future in
come.
So far the company has Hold water
for the immediate irrigation of 100,000
acres, before water had reached the
country. It is now at the town of Im
perial, however, and the sales will un
questionably increase, because the
most skeptical will cease to doubt.
The canal to carry the water from
the Colorado river is now, at the "in
take," sixty feet wide and ten feet
deep, but by mere dredging the width
can be doubled. The ditch near Im
perial is seventy feet wide on the bot
tom, and its depth is a mere matter of
more dredging. Present plans con
template 70 miles of canal, but if re
quirements demanded another 70 miles
can be added. So it is seen that pre
cise and exact figures on the work un
der way are inconsequential. The big
and important fact is that the water
is there in ample supply and the land
is there in area and quality.
The vast area to be covered will re
quire three or four towns and each of
these towns will have a population of
from four to ten thousand in the next
five or ten years, while the population
of the surrounding country will be
equal to that of the towns.
RAILROAD NECESSARY
When the possibilities of traffic to
grow out of this great area dawned
upon the members of the San Diego
road party, it was seen that while a
stage might be put into operation as a
temporary convenience, not one-tenth
of one per cent of the business of the
community, as it will Ik*, can be han
dled by a stage. Nothing less than a
railway will do it. And a railway
must be had or the business will go
elsewhere. I believe Col. Fergussou
is not only sincere, but enthusiastic, in
his desires to get a railway from Im
perial to Ban Diego, and I further he*
"Water I* Nina- Gere l§ Us Nlngdom."
lievc that with his co-operation and
leadership the road can be built, and
will W built.
CIOSI TO COCOPAtiS
<>v Sunday the Sail Dicgan* boarded
the tally-hos for a trip to the construc
tion camp in charge of Engineer Rock
wood. Thin camp is on the boundary
line between the United States and
Mexico, and the mud and other volca
noes arc but 25 miles away, in the
Cocopah country. A number of Coco
pah Indians are employed by the com
pany in the excavation work and two
of the men brought their wives and one
cute little Cocopah kid with them.
The best of order prevails at the
camps because the company will not
allow liquor to be sold there to any-
At Imperial the town lot deeds will
contain a clause prohibiting the sale of
liquor and that kind of influence pre
vails generally in the management of
the big enterprise.
On the way to the camp the tally-hos
passed the home of one of the first set
tlers. It was thatched with arrow
wced, while some canvass has been
stretched for the sides. In that home
sat a mother who fondly danced' her
young baby into the full view of the
admiring visitors.
THE RFTURN TRIP
The return trip was as pleasant as
the outgoing one. We left Imperial at
8:30 Monday morning, at which time
the thermometer registered 82. Just
before our departure Supervisor Jasper
made a short speech on behalf of the
crowd for the courtesies shown by Col.
Fergussou and the people of Imperial
and Col. Fergussou made a short re
ply. Then another vote of thanks was
tendered to Chinese Charley, the cook,
for the really splendid meals he had
served.
THE DATE PALM
MR. H. E. Van Deman. United States
pomologist at Washington, in re
gard to distributing the date trees he
lately received from Africa, says the
valley of the Colorado is perhaps the
best place, climatically, in which to
grow the date on this continent, and
one colony of the trees will be placed
there. Another will be placed at Phoe
nix and another at Las Cruces, New
Mexico. There are only six male trees
in the whole lot and it is absolutely
necessary that there be only six col
onies of plants owing to this fact.
The scattering of the trees about, one
or two or more in a place, would en
tirely frustrate the experiment and
they would never produce fruit with
out the pollen from the male trees.
Mr. Van Deman' is to be congratu
lated upon the judgment he has exer
cised in distributing the small amount
of trees at his disposal. As to the
Colorado valley, this industry is past
the experimental stage. Mr. Haulon,
whose place is near the head gates of
Imperial canal, has a number of date
trees that bear a large amount of fruit
of a very superior quality each year.
This new species of trees will be
first planted on the Arizona side of
the river. On either side the soil and
climatic conditions are identical, a suc
cessful experiment on one side means
an equal amount of good to the neigh
boring side. In other words the ag
ricultural and horticultural interest on
the Colorado valley about Yuma and
Imperial are mutual.
GROWING ON DESERT
Melons and Grapes Now Being
Shipped
They are Proving Very Popular in the
San Francisco Market—Ear
lier Than Elsewhere
[MATURE has so favored the section
•™ of country so widely known as the
Colorado Desert that by uniting water
with the soil it i* possible to produce
all kinds of garden truck, melons, ber
ries, grapes, etc., and place them on the
market from two weeks to two months
in advance of any other part of the
country, and the capacity of the United
States to consume the early productions
of the country insures a market for
the products of this valley that
can never be over-supplied, thus in
suring fancy prices.
Indio, which place is coming into
considerable notice this year for its
capacity to produce, earlier than any
other section of California, Thomp
son's Seedless grapes, and the famous
Rocky Ford melons; is on the same
plain of the Colorado which surrounds
Imperial from every direction. The
only material difference in the two
places is that Indio has railroad ac
commodations, while Imperial has a
railroad coming; and that Imperial has
thousands of acres, while Indio has
hundreds, making it possible to re-,
claim its laud by the use of artisan
water, while an artificial river has been
dredged from the mighty Colorado and
run through the Imperial country for
the purpose of reclaiming its fertile
lands from the grasp of the desert.
For more than a mouth Thompson's
Seedless grapes have been shipped
from Indio to different markets, which
is two mouths earlier than they are
produced in any other section. The
people of that place have been suppling
the coast with melons for several
weeks. All this can be supplemented
several times over in the Imperial
country. We have precisely the same
climatic conditions, and the exact
quality of soil. The one thing which
was lacking — water — we now have,
and an abundance too.
Relative to Indio's melons the San
Francisco Chronicle of recent date
says: San Francisco is this season re
ceiving melons from a district hereto
fore unknown as a fruit growing sec
tion. The desert around Indio, River
side county, Cal., has been made ac
cessible to a water supply, and the re
sult is that the vicinity is now largely
engaged in the production of nutmeg
melons. The seed is said to be that of
the famous original Rocky Ford melons
of Colorado.
The melons from ludio are consider
ably earlier than the Rocky Ford crop,
and are now arriving on the San Fran
cisco market in ample supply, bring
ing fancy prices.
ludio has also been supplying San
Francisco with watermelons, the first
arrivals bringing upwards of 75 cents
each.
A cellar ha* been dug at Hotel Dia
deni nnd a cistern is now going down.
NO. 15.
