MOVEMENT OF WATER IN SEMI-ARID REGIONS 



599 



groups and pairs enjoyed the best 

 chance of survival who most generously 

 interchanged this priceless boon. So 

 arose that altruism which distinguishes 

 all the higher types of mankind from all 

 lower types ; and it was thus in accord- 

 ance with natural law that the world's 

 civilization naturally and necessarily 

 arose in the world's deserts. Thereby 

 is history's tale verified and justified; 

 for the world's greatest inspirations 

 have been born where the intensity of 

 life and of human motive is greatest — 

 and the desert germs have spread and 

 blossomed throughout the entire world 

 to the benefit of all mankind. 



During recent decades the examples 

 of other dwellers in arid lands have 

 been followed with advantage in our 

 country. The fig and the date and 

 durum wheat have been introduced, and 

 dry-farming has been adopted ; and 

 thereby the habitability and productive- 

 ness of our greater western territory 

 has been increased. Yet it is worth 

 while to inquire whether the most 

 promising line thus far opened is not 

 that of directly improving on na- 

 ture's devices in our southwestern dis- 

 tricts — of Burbanking cacti and other 

 plants, and by extending the field of in- 

 vention into vitality, progressively re- 

 creating the natural fauna and flora 

 along the lines started by nature but 

 at a more rapid rate. The work of our 

 desert laboratories has but begun ; yet 

 already they are pointing the way to- 

 ward almost unlimited improvement 

 among organisms adapted to arid envi- 

 ronments. The pre-Columbian natives 

 produced figs from thorns; now comes 

 MacDougal, getting grapes from thistly 

 cacti. And it is not too much to 

 hope that their methods, coupled with 

 extension of irrigation up to the full 

 capacity of the rainfall, will largely re- 

 construct the flora and fauna of the 

 arid lands and greatly enrich the same 

 arid regions. The ideal to be kept in 

 mind is that so clearly indicated by 



the natural movement of waters in arid 

 districts — the retention, conservation, 

 and full utilization of the entire rainfall. 

 The fly-ofif can hardly be reduced, 

 though with every increase in vegetal 

 covering it can be better utilized, 

 and may even be made to produce 

 more abundant dews if not increased 

 local rainfall; the storm run-off can be 

 and should be checked, leaving only 

 enough to carry away excess of earth- 

 salts; and the effective cut-off can and 

 should be increased somewhat in quan- 

 tity and greatly in efficiency. 



Nor is this the end; for when the 

 people of the arid and semi-arid terri- 

 tory make conquest of land and water 

 for their own benefit, they will bring 

 even greater good to the rest of the 

 Nation in clarified views of relations, 

 of the real bases of National prosperity. 

 It is in the nature of things that in- 

 habitants of arid lands first come to 

 realize the priceless value of water as 

 the prime necessary of life; and their 

 customs, and eventually their laws, 

 grow wise and beneficent. Had our 

 country been settled from the Southwest 

 instead of the Northeast, we should 

 have had a more judicious body of 

 statute and a more widely applicable 

 common-law than now ; and it is not 

 too much to hope that the most signifi- 

 cant chapters of human history will be 

 repeated, and that the inspirations and 

 beneficences begotten in arid lands will 

 again make their influence felt — and 

 that our National culture and statecraft 

 may be bettered through the intensified 

 vitality and exalted spirit of our deserts. 

 Some day the wisdom of Arizona and 

 New Mexico will be infused into our 

 Constitution, not by amendment, but by 

 interpretation and common judgment; 

 and with it will come a closer union of 

 States than that which first made our 

 colonies a Nation, a union based on 

 that fundamental resource that gives 

 value to all the rest. 



