Imperial County History

"When tillage begins other arts follow; the farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization," the truth of which is exemplified in no greater degree than in the Imperial Valley - that desert empire which by peaceful though ruthless conquest was wrested by the Colorado River from the mountain and valley soils of neighboring States now known as Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. For unknown periods of time that river has been busy in the process of erosion of rich earths, their transportation as silt, and finally depositing them on the bed of an inland sea, probably at one time a part of the Gulf of California. After carefully spreading this vast tableland over an area of approximately a million acres from coast mountains to Yuma sand hills and from Mexico northward half a hundred miles, the Colorado wandered away to other fields, leaving a parched, unfruitful waste.

Then came the pioneer farmers, tradesmen, laborers, merchants, professional and scientific men; railroads were built, villages grew to towns and cities; production of crops increased until at the end of the first decade of the organization of the county, over $40,000,000 had been produced, and the population had grown to over 40,000.

The cities organized commercial clubs and chambers of commerce to promote the civic, industrial and social welfare of the urban population and, later, in response to a general demand for an organization representing and furthering the interests of the rural and agricultural citizens of Imperial Valley, a mass meeting was called to take place at Brawley, on December 18, 1915, whither over a thousand people journeyed from all parts of the county to take part in the formation of the Imperial County Farm Bureau.

The Farm Bureau has a unique place in the life especially of an agricultural community, possessing the characteristics of a rural chamber of commerce, a society for educational and social purposes, and a clearing house for the invaluable agricultural experiments carried on by the U. S. Department of Agriculture throughout the nation; by the colleges of agriculture and experiment stations, not only in California, but in all the other States of Union, the results of which are available in bulletin form. (Hundreds of these bulletins are on file for free distribution at Farm Bureau Office, El Centro).

Farm Centers. Each farm center is a distinct and independent unit, with a president, vice-president and secretary, and with headquarters usually at the district schoolhouse, where one regular monthly meeting is held each month, with a program consisting of talks by the farm adviser or his assistant, the home demonstration agent, by experts and specialists from the University of California, the U. S. Department of Agriculture, experiment stations, and by educational and other public officials. To further enliven the meeting, music, motion pictures, or other entertainment features are given, often followed by a social time and refreshments. In fact the farm center contributes to the welfare of the rural community as no other single agency has been able to do. Besides the regular monthly meetings, special meetings are called for special purposes, notably Red Cross work, demonstrations in food conservation, good roads, and other matters of local interest.

Organization. The presidents of these fourteen farm centers also act in the capacity of director of the central organization, the County Farm Bureau. President, vice-president, secretary and treasurer are elected at the annual meeting and serve one year. Meetings are held once each month, or oftener on call of the president. Besides these officers, there is a staff of farm adviser, assistant farm adviser, and home demonstration agent.

Farm Adviser. The farm adviser is usually a graduate of an agricultural college with a practical experience in farming, and it is no exaggeration to say that he is one of the busiest men in the county, inasmuch as his hours run from early morning until past midnight fourteen days of each month. Night meetings are held in fourteen different centers, and to these the farm adviser travels to give talks on various subjects, ranging from disease control of dairy cattle, such as hog cholera, blackleg and tuberculosis, roup in poultry, etc., through subjects such as silage crops, silos, pig club work, home gardens, cotton culture and varieties, soils, drainage, grasshopper control, contagious abortion in cattle, lungworms, etc. Various specialists from the University accompany him on these trips and give lectures on many of the above-named subjects. During the day the farm adviser is busy with calls from all parts of the Valley for soil examinations, help in treating sick hogs, cattle, chickens, advice in planting various crops, in drainage, in construction of silos, etc. His Ford is seen shooting here and there like a comet with a long tail of dust to various parts of the Valley.

State Leader of Farm Advisers. The farm adviser movement is carried on under the leadership of State Leader of Farm Advisers B. H. Cocheron, and Assistant State Leader Professor W. E. Packard. Annually and sometimes oftener conferences are called of all advisers in the State, together with delegates from each of the farm bureaus in the State for a conference, which results in unifying the movement.

Cow-Testing Department. A cow-testing association, the largest in the world, was organized, with over 4000 cows, with four testers at work, to aid by scientific means the dairyman in ridding his herd of unprofitable cows. Testing is for butterfat and milk production, and the following will show the results aimed at: Cow No. 1 produced in one year 560.4 pounds of butterfat, with an income from butterfat, skim milk and calf, of $227.25, less a labor and feed cost of 63.60, showing a profit of $163.25; Cow No. 2, the poorest, produced in one year 70 pounds of butterfat, with an income from butterfat, skim milk and calf, of only $31.63, less a labor and feed cost of $54.50, showing a net loss of $22.87. Both were good looking cows, but adding the profit of Cow No. 1 and the loss of Cow No. 2, showed a difference of $186.52. The value of testing is readily apparent. In order to arouse interest in testing, cows producing over 45 pounds butterfat per month are listed in the Farm Bureau Monthly each month, with name of owner.

Farm Home Department and Home Demonstrator. This department was organized for the purpose of offering to farm women opportunities for successfully meeting war emergencies, and also to improve farm home conditions in the coming years by means of trained home demonstration agents. In each of the fourteen farm centers a farm home committee was organized among the women members, and a chairman elected. These fourteen chairmen also serve in the capacity of directors on the county-wide organization of the farm home department. While it is a department of the farm bureau, this organization of women is practically independent of the main organization, taking on the character of a rural women's club. Under the leadership of the home demonstrator the principal work is food conservation, demonstrations in canning, planning home gardens, kitchen efficiency, sanitation and kindred subjects. The home demonstrator also attends the night meetings at the fourteen different centers and gives lectures on the subjects above mentioned. The work promises to be one of the most important undertaken.

2. Agricultural Clubs for boys and girls have been organized in the Valley with excellent results. Besides agricultural contests, raising corn, etc., pig clubs for both boys and girls have been organized, there being five such organizations now in the Valley. These pig clubs are a contest in producing the greatest increase in weight at the least cost of labor and feed. The contestants are largely guided by scientific data on feeding as well as experience of hog growers. The data from the university on pig feeding cover experiments with feeding pigs on various rations to eight different lots of pigs, as follows: Barley; barley and alfalfa pasture; barley and pasture with self feeder; barley, tankage and pasture; barley and cut alfalfa; barley shorts and pasture; barley, cocoanut meal and pasture; milo, maize and tankage in self feeder and pasture. Results showed that greatest profits came from the lot fed on last-named rations, viz., milo, maize, tankage in self feeder and pasture, with a profit of $7.03, an average feed cost of 6 cents, with amount of 4.1 pounds feed per each pound gain. The poorest profit came from lot fed on barley alone, with a profit of only $1.42, an average feed cost of 8.1 cents, with amount of 6 pounds feed per each pound gain. At the end of the contest, which covers a period of 105 days, prizes are awarded to the winners, consisting of: First, trip to Eastern cities on tour with winners of agricultural clubs; second, trips to University Farm at Davis.

3. Disease Control. In conjunction with the University of California and the Federal Government, hog cholera is being successfully combated through vaccination with anti-hog-cholera serum and virus furnished by the university. The Federal Government also sends down here frequently an expert on cholera, who gives personal demonstrations in vaccination, and lectures on prevention by proper sanitary measures, etc., at farm center meetings. Bovine tuberculosis, contagious abortion in cattle, blackleg, are treated in the most approved manner.

4. Landscape Gardening. In no place in the world is the need of beautification by tree and shrub planting greater than in the Imperial Valley. The University of California, through its extension work, has sent experts to work with the farm bureau to work out plans of landscaping the school grounds, several of which are already under way.

5. Cost Records. In co-operation with the University, also, farmers are being encouraged to keep records of costs and profits, in order to eliminate unprofitable farming. An expert bookkeeping specialist is to visit the Valley soon, starting each farmer who has applied for the course in bookkeeping, and at the end of the year will help him close the books and take off a balance sheet of profit and loss and point out the "leaks" if any.

6. Publicity. A monthly publication, The Farm Bureau Monthly, is published each month and mailed to all farm bureau members. This contains many articles concerning the fundamental problems of the farmers in the Valley, notices of meetings, personal items, progress of contests in feeding pigs, progress of cow-testing, with butterfat scores of high cows, and special articles by experts on timely subjects.

7. Livestock Fair. A successful county fair, under the able management of A. M. Nelson, former secretary, was put on with the co-operation of the El Centro Chamber of Commerce. A fine showing of registered hogs, cattle, horses, poultry and turkeys, was made and prizes awarded to winners. The fair was an unqualified success and bids fair to become a permanent institution with permanent fair grounds.

8. Irrigation Problems. An uninterrupted supply of water for both irrigation and domestic use is absolutely necessary for the prosperity and even the life of the people of the Valley. The only source of supply is through diversion canals of over 80 miles in length from the Colorado River. For years the people of the Valley have unaided been attempting to solve the problem of an adequate water supply during low water periods in summer.

As early as October 2, 1916, the farm bureau passed a resolution to the effect that the magnitude of the irrigation works and flood protection was such that it became imperative to enlist government assistance, and further that the Secretary of the Interior and the University of California be requested to make an immediate co-operative investigation and an early report on the quickest and most effective means of securing these results of providing the Valley with an adequate and permanent water supply. A committee, consisting of Walter E. Packard, Phil Brooks, and A. M. Nelson, went to El Paso to meet members of the reclamation service, at their invitation, to confer on request for co-operative investigation of the irrigation situation. Director A. P. Davis, on the reclamation service, with other reclamation officials had visited the Valley on invitation, had made inspections, met with directors of the irrigation district, and that now the reclamation service was engaged in making preliminary investigations.

In the latter part of March, 1917, a report was received from the board of engineers, consisting of Dr. Elwood Mead, D. C. Henry and Joseph Jacobs, outlining their findings, and asking for recommendations of the directors of the farm bureau. The recommendations by the Farm Bureau were as follows: First, abandon Colorado River as navigable stream; second, to arrange treaty with Mexico so as to bring main canals and protective works wholly within United States; third, national control of works and provision for a fair division of cost of construction and maintenance of canals, protective works and storage dams between Mexican and Imperial lands, based on area served; fifth, government control of flood protection, assuming cost of same on same basis as work included in rivers and harbors appropriations; sixth, construction by government of storage works on basis of repayment of cost by lands benefited; seventh, construction of high-line canal to irrigate lands above present area on basis of repayment of costs by lands benefited; eighth, unified control of Colorado River and tributaries by commission composed of Federal and State government officials of States through which the Colorado and tributaries flow; ninth, the securing through government action of a water supply for the main canal from Laguna Dam; tenth, the appropriation of $50,000 for preliminary surveys and the study of plans above outlined.

9. Farm Loan Associations. The farm bureau was active in bringing about the formation of five farm loan associations, with more than 100 prospective borrowers. This means cheaper money for the farmer, probably five and a half per cent. Over half a million dollars has been applied for to be used in buying stock, making various improvements, purchase of land, as well as taking up old mortgages.

11. Better Silage Crops. Seeds of several new varieties of sorghums were brought in and distributed as demonstrations to the farmers, with the result that the amazing yield of over 46 tons to the acre was produced in one instance. This was Honey Sorghum. Other plots yielded 36.6 tons, 31 tons, 45 tons, 36.4 tons, with an average of 39 tons. This, compared with former yields, considered satisfactory, of from 9 to 15 tons of milo, Indian corn, or feterita, is significant of a greatly increased feed yield, and will result in thousands of dollars gain in the dairy industry.

13. Annual Assembly. Each year an annual agricultural convention is arranged by the farm bureau, to which are invited to speak on the program speakers from the University of California, experiment stations, State and county officials, and specialists in various lines of agriculture and commerce. Three such assemblies have been held during the past three years, at Brawley, at Imperial and at Holtville. The event is now looked upon as a regular county institution.

15. Associations. As a result of activities if the farm bureau, through publicity, assemblies and other meetings, several associations have resulted, notably The Milk Producers' Association, Cotton Men's Association, Hog Growers' Association, Bee Men's Association, marketing associations, cow-testing associations, and others still in process of formation.

17. Gopher Control. With the co-operation of the University of California, a campaign to exterminate the destructive gophers from the Valley started. An expert was sent here, who made a two-weeks' tour of farmers, and especially to the officials of the irrigation companies. The gophers caused thousands of dollars worth of damage each year, not only to crops, but in the way of starting road-flooding from irrigation ditches.

18. Miscellaneous. Many minor activities, such as the distribution of thousands of State, Federal and experiment station bulletins on every branch of agriculture, home economics, horticulture, live-stock industries, etc. Other work is undertaken, such as the aiding of the Red Cross, Liberty loans, etc., through the centers.

The Imperial County Farm Bureau had its inception at the first annual agricultural assembly at Brawley, on December 18, 1915, which was called together by W. E. Wills, of Brawley; Walter E. Packard, of the Meloland experiment station; and A. M. Nelson, of El Centro, all of whom were instrumental in making the first agricultural assembly the great success it achieved. Preliminary plans were laid at that time, the completion of which was accomplished at a later meeting at the Barbara Worth, El Centro, on March 4, 1916, where the duly elected president of ten different farm centers met with Mr. Wills, Mr. Packard Verde, James N. Cook; Mt. Signal, Grover Lofftus; Eastside, S. E. Robinson; Meloland, Phil Brooks; Eucalyptus, J. T. Pitts; Seeley, Wm. Moores; Magnolia, C. E. Phegley; Westmoreland, C. F. Boarts; Mesquite Lake, Jake Lorang; South Fern, W. R. Lienau; Heber, Geo. Meyers. After plans were outlined by B. H. Crocheron of the University of California, State leader of farm advisors, a temporary organization was effected, and on March 11, 1916, the following officers were elected:

President. The office of president was held by R. E. Wills for one year, when, at the annual elections, Walter E. Packard was elected, holding office until June 25, when he resigned to accept the position as assistant State leader of farm advisors at the University of California. Mr. Grover Lofftus was then elected president, and served until he resigned to take up his residence in Los Angeles. At the annual election in February, Mike Liebert, director-at-large, was elected president.

Farm Advisor. Paul I. Dougherty, of the University of California and University Agricultural College at Berkeley and Davis, was called in July, 1915, and served in that capacity with earnestness, zeal and eddectiveness until October, 1917, when he joined the Liberty boys at Camp Lewis. C. E. Sullivan, also of the University of California, was appointed, and later J. P. Hertel, of the University of Wisconsin, was appointed an assistant farm adviser.

Farm Home Department. Directors of the farm home department are as follows: Mrs. Frank M. Ballou, Acacia center; Mrs. A. H. Smithson, Verde; Mrs. W. H. Kirby, Mesquite Lake; Mrs. Walter Wilkinson, Meloland; Miss May Beattie, Calipatria; Mrs. L. O. Bannister, Westmoreland; Mrs. B. D. Irvine, Magnolia; Mrs. Wm. M. Moores, Seeley; Mrs. Frank M. Moore, McCabe; Mrs. Stuart Swink, Mt. Signal; Mrs. F. M. Wright, Eastside; Miss Mildred Boyd, South Fern; Miss Elsie Angel, La Verne.