of $37,943.77. It considered its loss a cheap price for the experience
gained, but thought that it had erred in giving the colonists too
liberal terms.[69] By this time the loss to the Army is considerably
greater, owing to the increased expense of drainage.[70]

At the present time (January, 1908), the population of this Colony is
about 200. Nearly all the land is occupied in one way or another, either
by colonists who own, or partially own, their land, or by renters, who
are also called colonists. Several homes are vacant, but it is expected
that they will be filled by renters before the Spring season opens. The
little village consists of several stores, a blacksmith shop, a
substantial railroad depot, a post office, a small hotel and a school
house. A good many of the homes are built of stone, quarried on the
Colony, and present a good appearance. Up on the higher land is situated
a large stone structure, built by the colonists at an expense to the
Army of $18,000.00, and first used as an orphanage, then as a
sanitorium, and now abandoned. Irrigation ditches with a good flow of
water are in evidence, and preparations for draining the land are under
way. That this is necessary is forced upon us by the many white patches
scattered here and there where the water, having evaporated, has left
the destructive alkali salt on the surface of the ground.

When we come to consider the other Farm Colony, Ft. Romie, situated at
Soledad, Cal., in the beautiful Salinas Valley, we receive a more
favorable impression, although we find that the Colony here has had many
difficulties with which to contend. The Colony is smaller than that at
Ft. Amity, but the land is better. The original 500 acres has been
increased by the addition of a lease of 150 acres with the option of
buying. In the year 1898, eighteen families were taken from the poor of
San Francisco and placed upon the Colony, but unforeseen conditions
prevailed, and, as a result, but one of these families remains
to-day.[71] The great mistake was made of settling colonists upon land
which needed irrigation, before that irrigation was provided. This
mistake was brought out the more vividly, in that the three first years
of the Colony's existence were years of drought, bringing evil to most
parts of the State, and especially to that land which, like the Colony
land, only received a slight rain-fall at best. The result of the first
years of this experiment, then, was an abandoni