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Imperial Valley Press. VOL. IX. WATER WORKS PLANS WANTED BY BOARDS Advisory Committee Suggests Modifications of Proposed City System. Detail Data Required of City Engi neer as Basis For Definite Discus sion in Conferences — Test Well Not to Delay Construction of Plant to Use Canal Water. Conferences of the City Trustees and the Advisory Committee on the matter of an improved water system for El Centro have advanced the project at least half an inch. It is several months since the board de clared its intention to call a bond election, and it is still waiting for plans and estimates in detail. The city engineer's estimate in lump of . the cost of a new system was about $80,000, but the advisory committee thinks a satisfactory system could be installed more economically. The committee approves the plan of bor ing a test well for artesian water, but is not in favor of delaying work to await the result of that experi ment. It will be three or four monthu at least before work can begiu on a water system If the city votes to issue bonds] The trustees have called for esti mates in detail and the engineer agrees to have the data ready In three weeks. When the figures are Submitted, the committee wiiL.be able kto make a report to the citizens. Following are the minutes of two meetings of the trustees in which the water question was considered: » First Conference El Centro, Oct. 25. Board of City Trustees met in spe cial session, on call of the president, for the purpose of conference with the Advisory Water Board regarding the proposed water works improve ments for the city of El Centro. All members present The meetinng was attended by all the members of the Advisory Water Board: Messrs. Car ter, Perry, Whitescarver, Griswold and Smith. President Pearson called the meet ing to order and requested Chair man Carter of the Water Board to present any matter the board hat! considered: Mr. Carter called on Mr. Perrj to present the suggestions so far discussed by the Water Board. This Mr. Perry proceeded to do, stat ing that what he presented was in no sense a report, but merely sugges tions to be considered jointly with the city trustees. The matters pre sented were discussed and consensus of opinion favored the purchase of land south of the city for the lo cation of settling basins, the con struction of a distributing system to cover that, part of the city west of Fourth street and north of State Street, the purchase of the water stock and present water system and the installation of a pumping plant with a tower 100 feet high. Further discussion brought out the agreement that if a contract can be made for a test well 2000 feet deep for $3000, such well should be un dertaken. Other recommendations related to changes in the line of economy in the proposed system by cutting out some parts of It for the present. The memoranda presented by Mr. Perry were received and the Advisory Board was requested to meet with the Board of Trustees at all its meetings until the water works matter Is disposed of. Mr. Griswold was requested to take up the matter of land for set tling basins with the owners of land south of the city and ascertain what land suitably located can be purchas ed for, and report to the board at his earliest convenience. The Board adjourned to the next regular session. F. O. HAVENS, City Clerk. Joint Meeting. El Centro, Oct. 26, 1909 Board of Trustees met in regular session; all members present. Min utes of regular meeting of October 13 and of called meeting of October 25 were read and were approved after the inlnuUiH of October 25 were so corrected to read: "Ami the construction of a dls trtbuttng system to cover that portion Official F»e»per" of Imperial County ana City of El Contro. of the city as outlined by the city engineer, excepting that portion east of Fourth street and south of State i.treet. Attorney for the city Conkllug ad vised the board that before the board /hould take any action on the water jgjrstem; the city engineer should be Instructed to prepare plans and esti mates as outlined by the Advisory Hoard. After discussion regarding the pro posed water system and after hear ing from Mr. Strange, of Holtville, relative to a test well, the board vot ed unanimously to instruct the .city engineer to furnish detail plans and estimates of system as revised. Messrs. Carter, Smith and Whtte scarver of the Advisory Board met with the trustees and the water sit uation was thoroughly discussed. It seemed to be the ruling opinion that a better service and more water are needed at orice and that the ques tion should not be allowed to Inter fere with the installation of a sys tem using canal waber. Adjourned to next regular meeting. H. B. PEARSON, Jr. Deputy Clerk. SIMPLY A COTTON BOLL Made The Bankers and Business Men Sit Up and Take Notice In a letter to the Peoples Abstract and Trust Company Mr. E. P. Teas dale, of Los Angeles, says: "Today the writer chanced to go into one of the leading banks of the city, having in his hand three well developed, fully opened specimens of cotton bolls, and you would have been surprised to have seen what happen ed in that bank. Business stopped for a minute or two, and offlcers, one and all, gathered around) and examined the samples. All had seen the arti cle in last evening's Express and 'were anxious- to learn more about what it meant. You can depend upon it that the writer took me opportun ity to explain fully. These are things which count in the development of your country, and the thing which we are most anxious to boost along, here. I am confident that the prices of land are going to advance mater ially very shortly in the valley." TECHNICAL RESTORATION TO ENTRY. Six townships in the eastern part of the valley, withdrawn from entry ponding resurvey. will be restored to entry on February 5. This does not mean that any vacant land will be opened to settlers. Restoration only gives to occupants the opportunity to file their claims or prove up their holdings. The Los Angeles papers are misleading people unwittingly by announcing these restorations as op ening opportunities for obtaining des ert land by entry. There is no va cant land under the Imperial Valley cunal system, aud desert land can not be obtained without water and reclamation. WILL HEAR OF COTTON Pete W. Ross, principal of the Mid dletown Grammar School, at San Die go, has written to F. B. Fuller of this city, stating that he has sent the newspaper accounts of the ginning of the first bales of Imperial Valley cot ton at El Centro to the publication known as "Current Events," which Is published weekly in Chicago for use in school rooms all over the Unit ed States to give the teachers and pupils a digest of current happenings. More detailed accounts have been forwarded to the Educational Press Company, at Chicago, at its request. HIGH BCHOOL CIRCUS One of the most successful local entertainments ever given in El Cen tro was tho Central Union High School clrcuß, given on the high school campus on Friday and Satur day nights of last week. Every stu dent In the high school has a part In the affairs, and each member of a school faculty assisted by giving some amusing "stunt." Each night large crowds were In attendance. The net proceeds will be about $125, which will be used in securing athletic equipment. The El Centro Orchestra, under the leadership of Prof. DeLegro, has been engaged by the management of the Hotel Oregon to play during the ev ening dinner. j EL CENTRO, CALIFORNIA, SATURDAY. OCTOBER 30, 1909. King Cotton 's Reign Begins In Great Imperial Valley Reclaimed Desert Gives to Southern California Oppor tunity For Industrial and Commercial Expansion -—First Year's Cotton Crop Establishes a New Industry and Justifies Enthusiasm Hotter than a bale to the acre Is the proven cotton product of the Im perial Valley. One thousand acres are being picked this season and many fields are yielding an even bale to the first picking, with two more pickings to come. Half a bale in the two later pickings is a low estimate. And this result has been achieved in many cases by farmers who never saw a cotton field before; in others by plant erns who had to learn how to irri gate and control the growth of the plant under conditions wholly new to them. It is not probable that the best possible results have been ob tained this year and therefore it is not extravagant to expect a yield of two bales to the acre when the farmers learn" how to grow cotton. The soil and the climate of the des ert of the Colorado, which includes Imperial Valley, the delta below the Mexican line and parts of Arizona, are belter. suited to the cotton plant than are the conditions In any other re gion except the valley of the Nile. In no other part of the United States has the Egyptian variety of cotton been grown with any success, but it grows here even better than in its .. home. Only small areas of Egyptian cotton were planted this year by way of ex periment and none has 'been gin ned yet, but the remarkable growth of the plants and the great number of bolls to the stock are assurances of satisfactory results of Jhe experi ment. It is probable that larger areas will be planted next year and that eventually the more valuable Egyptian variety will be grown almost exclusively In the desert region. It if difficult to induce a Texan to con sider Egyptian cotton now because of the failure of experiments In the South, where the bolls do not retain the locks well. The southerners knew what they cduld do with upland cot ton and tttey would not take chances with any other variety for their first crop. ' It is now conceded by the most sceptical that a new Industry of vast importance to Southern California has been established and that the econo mic problem of Imperial Valley has been solved. The last doubter has been convinced and the worst and most cantankerous knocker is now the most extravagant of cotton "boom ers." There are 500,000 acres in Imperial Valley and at least 250.000 acres in the delta below the boundary line that can be irrigated and cultivated. Any considerable portion of this area de voted to growing cotton would sup ply raw material for many large mills, employiny thousands of persons and adding enormously to the wealth and commercial importance of Southern California. The cotton mill at Oak land works up about 15,000 bales of cotton In a year and offers to take 10,000 bales of the valley product. The Oakland mill makes only special fabrics and does not use as much lint as does a cloth mill. Cotton means to Los Angeles and San Diego opportunity to become great manufacturing cities and commercial ports. They have all the advantages claimed for St. Louis by the Star of that city In a recent editorial urging the establishment of a cotton mill, and In one important particular they are more advantageously located. The Star says: "No place Is better located for marketing the product of cotton mills In this country, and certainly none will be better located for sup plying foreign markets when St. Louis Khali have been made a seaport by the opening of tho Panama canal and the construction of a deepwater channel to the gulf. Apparently no city not located In the very midst of cotton fields has any advantage over St. Louis in securing the raw material at low transportation cost. None has any advantage, and few equal advan tages, In the matter of marketing gooda. As to the cost of manufacture, there should be no place better lo cated. Coal, oil, gas and waterpower for electricity exist in exhaustless quantities on all sides. There seems to be no reason why St. Louis could not become a great cotton manufac turing center." All of which is even more applica ble to San Diego and Los Angeles than to St. Louis. The coast ports need not wait for canals and river improvements to place them in touch with the markets of Central and South America and the Orient. They may obtain raw material from Im perial valley at low transportation cost. No region has cheaper fuel oil than has Southern California and Los Angeles has in Owens river the great est water power for electricity avail able to any large city on the coast. It has been known ever since the first settlement of the valle.y that the cotton plant grows thriftily in irri gated soil, but the first definite dem onstration of the suitability of soil and climate to cotton production was made by Ira Aten on his ranch near El Centro in 1906-7. Mr. Aten plant ed about half an acre of southern cot ton and allowed the locks to remain in the opened bolls through the win ter. No serious injury was done by wind or rain. The crop of 1907 was allowed to remain on. the stocks like wise, and its condition in the winter convinced visiting Texans that this valley was the best cotton country in the world. Aten \and his Texas friends talked cotton so convincingly that they in spired the editor of the Press with some of their enthusiasm and the pa per also began talking cotton. In February. 1908, a Los Angeles Cham ber of Commerce excursion was en tertained in El Centro. and Ira Aten and Allen Kelly covered the opera house stage with cotton stocks load ed with opened bolls, to show not only the visitors but the people of the valley that the desert was the ideal, cotton-growing country. A placard told the Angelenos that they were in "California Dixie. A month later an other excursion was entertained, and Mr. Kelly, as local program commit teeman, converted the stage into a cotton" field with Mr. Aten's crop and raised the curtain on a plantation scene showing four darkies picking cotton and singing "California Dixie" to the old air. The pickers were Frank Damsel, Lawrence Hazeltine, A. M. Johnson and F. M. Walte in black face. That was Waite's first view of a cotton field. This year he has 50 acres of the best cotton in the valley in partnership with Mr. Wilkinson. The Ten Thousand Club took up the cotton question and called a meet ing of farmers to start a concerted movement toward extensive planting of the weed. Texans talked to the farmers and convinced them that the crop would pay better than canta loupes or other perishable products, but those who had not 1 lived In a cot ton country hesitated (o agree to plant cotton until assured that a gin would be provided to prepare the crop for market. At the suggestion of the president of the Ten Thousand Club— the editor of the Press — the American Nile Cotton Company was incorpor ated to import seed and put up a gin, and the announcement . that W. F. Holt, George Carter and other re sponsible citizens had taken that step gave confidence to the farmers and Induced them to undertake the ex periment of cotton growing on a com mercial scale. As manager of the American Nile Company, J. U. Loftus visited the cot. ton states, learned all he could of the Industry, bought and shipped home a carload of seed and contracted for a gin and compress to be put up at El Centro,* and when he returned he planted 250 acres of his Meloland ranch with cotton seed. Seed for 1500 acres was distributed to farmers in the valley and from 1000 to 1200 acres were planted successfully. Planting was begun In April and con tinued up to July. Thai; la the brlof history of the establishment of the cotton-growing industry in Imperial Valley. The re sults of the first year's experiment justify the faith of the Texans who talked cotton so convincingly. Pick ing from the April planting haa been In progress for a month and the gin Is turning out. bales of high grade lint. The first picking from a measured acre on the Wilsle ranch, April plant ing, yielded a bale of 535 pounds of Hl4 and a half a ton or seed. At least half a bale more will be picked from the same stocks later. The May, June and early 'July fields promise as good if not better crops. The first bale picked and ginned was grown by W. A. McClanahan on the Wllsie ranch and was bought by the El Centro Na tional Bank and placed on exhibition. The bale will be kept as a permanent historical exhibit In El Centro. The early planting on the Melo land ranch has yielded 1750 pounds of seed cotton to the * acre for the (Continued on page 4) COUNTY OFFICERS' DEPUTIES Salary Act Declared Valid By Appel- late Court. The County Salary act, passed by '.lie last legislature, has been declared valid by the Appellate court in a test case sent up from Orange County. This decision will give the Imperial County officials deputies In several in stances. Under the new law the county re corder wll lbe allowed as many copy ists as is necessary to do the work, to be paid by the county; the county clerk is allowed a deputy at a sal ary of $900 per year and the Dis trict Attorney a deputy aOsl2oo per year. The County Superintendent of Schools is allowed a deputy for ten months instead of five. Heretofore the district attorney, re corder and clerk have had to pay Mieir deputies out of their own funds. The law which provides these dep uties 'also increases the salaries of various county officials but this does not go into effect until the expira tion of the terms of office of the pres ent, incumbents. COTTON SEED INTERESTS J E. Labatt. manager of the linter department of the Hefloy-Coleman Company, manufacturers of cotton seed products at Fort Worth, Texas, has written to F. B. Fuller, of this city, asking for detailed information about the Imperial Valley cotton crop and cotton prospects for next sea son. He asks whether a contract could be made for the purchase of all the cotton seed raised here, and asks for samples of seed so that the amount of oil they contain may be tested. Mr. Fuller has sent three pounds of seed and an encouraging report of the prospects for a large acreage next DISTRICT TEN'S DEVELOPMENT President Thomas O'Brien, of water company No. 10, has issued a call for a special meeting Nov. 10 at the office of Stevens & Stevens in Los Ange les, says the Brawley News. Among the questions to be\ settled by the stockholders are those of moving the oilice from Los Angeles to Brawley nnl a proposed contract with the Cal ifornia Development Company. The district of No. 10 includes several t housand acres of land east and north east of Brawley on the east side of the No. 5 main canal. PRECAUTION AGAINST PESTS Horticultural Commissioner VV. E. Wilsio, watching for the best Interest of fanners of the valley, is taking measures to prevent the introduction into the valley of what is known as alfalfa leaf weevil. Investigation .-.hows that this alfalfa pest is very vigorous In the State of Utah and extra precaution Is being taken to fumigate seed from that state. BCIENTIBTB VISIT EL CENTRO Dr. D. T. McDougal and Prof. Q. Sykes, of the Carnegie Laboratory at Tucson, Arizona, were El Centro vls- Uorß Tuesday. They went from the valley to the Salton Sea to make a series of observations. NO. 30. DESERT LEAGUE'S PLAYERS ARRIVE Teams Getting Ready for the Season's Opening Next j Week— Latest News Harkins, McClelland and Burness Will Play In Exhibition Game Against Holtville Sunday — Yuma Has Strong Lineup and Expects to Push the Valley Teams Hard For First Place. Some of the league players have re. ported for duty and most of the re mainder will be here within a day or two. On account of the post season series between San Francisco and the All-Star aggregation, four or five of tae men will be unable to play in the desert league until after the 15th. Holtville and Brawley will be handi capped in this way more than the other teams. Holtville, in fact,' will be unable to present anywhere near its full strength in the opening game at Yuma and the Brawley manage ment does not expect to win the first game from El Centro. The season will open on Saturday of next week with Imperial at Yuma. A few exhibition or practice games have been played already this season, but they indicate nothing at all as to the relative strength of the teams. Last Sunday Holtville ' defeated El Centro in a very one-sided contest, but only one or two regular El Centro play ers were in the game. Next Sun day a return game will be played in El Centro and this should be a more nearly equal contest as El Cen tro will have Harkins, McClelland, Burness and possibly one or two more of the regular players. Easterly will probably not report for duty until early next week. Even with the opening game of the season only a week away, none of.. the teams have yet been definitely made up. Manager Breedlove of Im perial has been delayed In selecting his battery by the hope that Scott might be Induced to return, buc it is understood that the Imperial line up will be made public early next week. Brawley has Grindle and Ga^es for a battery. A hard-hitting fhst baseman from the Seattle team has been engaged, and either he or Gates will act as captain. Stoerkle, who played this summer in Montana, will " play second base. El Centro has hired no new players since last week and the line-up will be practically as announced. According to reports from Yuma there is great enthusiasm among the A'risM ;ia fans and a feeliu; of confl (knee that they will ha^o a little something on any of the Imperial county teams. The Yuma Examiner 1-as this to say of the situation: "Yuma will have the first gams here on November 7, and the last game on February 20. The management is working hard to get all things in readiness and a 7-foot fence 2500 feet long will circle the grounds and Yuma will have a baseball park ready for use at all times and a box office mak ing baseball in Yuma a paying In vestment. The grandstand has recently beon covered and will add to the comfort of the baseball fans. Local ball play ers are practicing daily and at Sunday games, and with the addition of sev eral new players from the Coast League, Yuma expects to have a hust ling team and one that will make the other fellows hard to catch. The other five teams of the league have the cream of the players of the last sea son's league; such players as Ber ry, Scott, Easterly, Jones, Nagle Browning, well known big leaguers, who played in the Imperial Valley last year and liked It well enought to re-^ turn. Many Yuma people have seen < all these players on the diamond and/ all agree that players like Berry are! worth going miles to see. , r MAKING RANCH LOANS Through an error, the announce ment has been made In 11. C. Gris wold's advertisement In The" -Press that he loans money on unimproved property. The reading should , have been "Improved property." During the past week Mr. Orlswold has cou- Bummated two loans of $5000 each on ranch property located near El Cen tro. He Is also making private loans of limited amounts on contracts of from three to five years.