Irrigation in Horticulture. 109' 



or ditch for conducting the water from the stream near by. At sundown he 

 takes his hoe and proceeds to the iield, followed by all the members of his 

 household, and for several hours the work of irrigation goes on. The wheat 

 and corn fields are flooded, the water containing a rich sediment, which is 

 thus deposited at the roots of the growing grain. The yield is enormous,, 

 although the cultivated area is not great. For hundreds of years the farm- 

 ers of the Rio Grande have turned the water from that stream upon the ad- 

 jacent lands, producing fruit, grapes and garden vegetables of superior 

 quality. When the lamented Horace Greeley advised the young man to "go 

 west and grow up with the country," he had already traversed the upper 

 tributatries of the Platte river, and had seen with his own eyes the wonder- 

 ful crops grown at the foot of the mountains by half-civilized inhabitants;, 

 and when he embarked in the scheme to establish a colony on the " Cache 

 La Poudre," to forever bear his historic name, he had years before witnessed 

 the successful operation of farming by artificial water supply carried to a 

 considerable state of perfection in that far-off region. It is needless for us 

 to say here that one of the most prosperous farming communities in the 

 Avorld is to b3 found at Greeley, Col. Trees grow upon the sandy soil in 

 beauty and grandeur when fed and nourished from the waters of the streams, 

 while the products of the farm attain their highest degree of perfection. 

 The tiny acorn falling upon the leaves that thinly cover the barren rocks, 

 germinates and sends its rootlets into the very crevices, and will live and 

 flourish in spite of the rocky barrenness beneath, if only supplied with 

 water. The tops of the highest mountains in Arizona are covered with 

 timber, while the sides of these great peaks are as dry as the ashes from a 

 volcano and as barren of trees as the desert of Sahara; the clouds condense 

 and give forth the refreshing shower on the top of the mountain, while 

 the he ited air of the desert jDrevents the rain upon the mountain sides. The 

 low, sand}^ streams that flow from the mountain reservoirs across the great 

 arid plains of the West, on their course to the Gulf, are skirted on either 

 side by the Cottonwood and the willow, while back from the stream, upon 

 the broad plain, the buffalo grass and the sage brush only withstand the 

 climate where there is no rain. Three years ago farming was first attemi)ted 

 in Western Kansas by irrigation. Beyond the rain belt and far beyond the 

 timber line, in the very heart of the great desert, a few hardy pioneers 

 pitched their tents and made the beginning. The low banks of the Arkansas 

 river enabled them to turn the water upon the broad plains at little cost. A 

 ditch three miles long was constructed, and small patches of land on either 

 side broken up. Fruit and forest trees were set out, vegetable seeds were 

 planted, and the ground thus prepared was occasionally flooded, and the re- 

 sult was beyond expectation. Onions yielded GOO bushels to the acre, turnijis 

 1,000, sweet potatoes 600, Irish potatoes 400, while the fruit trees blossomed 

 the second year. Behold what a change. To-day hundreds of farmers are 

 engaged in tilling the. soil in that region. Miles and miles of ditches have 

 been constructed; capital has been drawn thither, so that a government 



