that in the final analysis only those having to do specifically with the commercial productiveness could be charged against the success of the experiment. And by the end of this two years it could plainly be seen that the experiment was going to be a success. The point was proved beyond a doubt.
The possibilities that opened before Patrick Boyd's vision were tremendous. If twenty acres would in the future support a family as well or better than a thousand acres had in the past, there was no limit to the country's development. And if this powdery, sagebrush upland was valuable—why, there were millions of acres like that! All that was needed was the water. A few artesian wells would supply that; or, if artesian wells did not work out, there was plenty in the mountains. That would require big handling, a utilities company to construct the necessary works on a large enough scale, to pipe it down, distribute it. Boyd's constructive mind saw the chances to sell cheap land dear.
But the best chance, and the nearest at hand, was undoubtedly Corona del Monte. It lay at the borders of the town. Its rolling, oak-dotted slopes were admirably graded for the water. In its limits it had quantities of all types of land. At the present time it was worth on an average throughout about fifteen dollars an acre. Divided into proved small farms, with the water laid down, Boyd thought it should average two or three hundred. Thousands of acres! The strip nearest town would be a veritable gold mine when people discovered, as discover they must, that here they could live in beautiful flower-smothered homes, under the fairest sky in the world and make a living while doing it!
The only question was water. The needs of the cattle were filled by windmills and surface wells. The small amount of garden irrigation at the ranch came from similar sources. It sufficed for this purpose; but it no more than sufficed. In dry years it ran rather short. And the difficulty was that few individual twenty acres were self contained. That is to say, the ranch gardens themselves depended on wells scattered over five hundred acres or so.
There was plenty of water in the Sur to be had for the tunneling; but that would require a very considerable outlay of
