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A.D. Foote praise the Boise Valley, 1887
Mining engineer Arthur De Wint Foote was among the first to appreciate the fertility of Boise Valley. Reporting to New York investors in 1887, he imagined a green Eden of ranches and farms feed by a diversion dam above Boise City. The Boise Publc Library reprints the Foote Report and other Idaho documents in its FARRIT archive.
The greater portion of the lands which form the subject of the following paper are situated in the southern part of Ada County, Idaho Territory, between the Snake and Boise rivers. ... I believe that without exception they are considered extremely fertile when water is applied to them. But the lava soil of these Boise lands is, I think, far above average, more especially for growing grasses and cereals. These, I anticipate, will be the principal crops, because of the peculiar location of the lands in close proximity to an enormous extent of mountain pasture. ... Lands capable of irrigation along the Boise River are worth now from ten to one hundred dollars per acre. There are none, I am sure, worth less than ten—if any are so cheap as that. Some of the land near Boise City is rented to Chinese gardeners at twenty-five dollars per acre, annually.
Report on the Irrigating and Reclaiming of Certain Desert Lands