THE MENTOR 1918.10.15, No. 165,
Reclaiming the Desert

To the great number of returning soldiers, land will offer the great and fundamentalopportunity. The experience of wars points out the lesson that ourservice men, because of army life, with its openness and activity, will largely seek out-of-doorvocations and occupations. This fact is accepted by the allied European nations.That is why their programs and policies of re-locating and readjustment emphasize theopportunities on the land for the returning soldier. The question then is, “What landcan be made available for farm homes for our soldiers?”

We have millions of acres of undeveloped lands that can be made available for ourhome-coming soldiers. We have arid lands in the West; cut-over lands in theNorthwest, the Lake States and the South; and also swamp lands in the Middle Westand South, which can be made available through proper development. Much of thisland can be made suitable for farm homes if properly handled. But it will require thateach type of land be dealt with in its own particular fashion. The arid land willrequire water; the cut-over land will require clearing, and the swamp land must bedrained. Without any of these aids, they remain largely “No Man’s Land.” Thesolution of these problems is no new thing. In the admirable achievement of the ReclamationService in reclamation and drainage, we have abundant proof of what can be done.

Our thought should now be given to the problem. We should know by the timethe war ends, not merely how much arid land can be irrigated, nor how muchswamp land reclaimed, nor where the grazing land is and how many cattle it will support,nor how much cut-over land can be cleared, but we should know with definitenesswhere it is practicable to begin new irrigation projects, what the character of the landis, what the nature of the improvements needed will be, and what the cost will be. Weshould know also, not in a general way, but with particularity, what definite areas ofswamp land can be reclaimed, how they can be drained, what the cost of drainage willbe, what crops they will raise. We should have in mind specific areas of grazing lands,with a knowledge of the cattle that are best adapted to them, and the practicability ofsupporting a family upon them. So, too, with our cut-over lands. We should knowwhat it would cost to pull or “blow-out” stumps and to put the lands into conditionfor farm homes. We should know what it will cost to buy these land

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