Discussion on Mr. Smithes Paper. 69 



pay for an expensive system of improvements. It has furnished a large 

 family with a nice living, and for a number of years past with a fair amount 

 of spending money. It enables us to go, at the bidding of our President, 

 either to New Orleans, Ohio or California to attend the conventions of the 

 American Horticultural Society. If he and our good Secretary Ragan 

 should decide to hold the next convention in Central Asia, I do not know 

 but it would furnish means for us to go there. At all events, it promises to 

 do much better in the future than it ever has done in the past. 



Gentlemen, I know of no reason why this system should not do as well 

 for you as it has done for wife and myself. I make no claim whatever to 

 having put my land to its best. I have simply done the best I knew, with 

 the light and knowledge that I was able to obtain. I hope to do much better 

 in the future than I have been able to do in the past. 



There is, in my opinion, no doubt but that we are upon the eve of a 

 much more rapid development in agricultural improvement than has ever 

 been known in the past; and it will he only those who keep themselves in 

 the front rank of this onward march that will reap its full benefits. Then, 

 let us be sure that we are not left behind in this forward march, but be ever 

 upon the watch for a step still in advance. We shall thus advance not only 

 our own interests and the interests of those around and dependent upon us, 

 but also the well-being of the entire community, as far as our influence or 

 interests extend. 



DISCUSSIOV ON MR. SMITH's PAPER. 



Dr. Ridpath, of Indiana — I can not agree with Mr Smith that 

 the valley of the Nile has received all its fertility from its sedi- 

 mentary deposits. The valley has only been raised four feet dur- 

 ing many centuries of its history, and this mainly by drifting sands 

 from the Libyan desert. It receives its great fertility from the 

 fecundating waters during its periodical overflows. 



Dr. Kimball, of California — In California almost any kind of 

 desert can be converted into a garden simply by the application of 

 water. A sand plain may be thus converted into a fertile valley 

 by the use of the snow-water from the natural reservoirs in the 

 Sierras. In Inyo county, near the base of Mt. Whitney, I was sur- 

 prised to find fine fields of alfalfa growing where naturally only 

 sage-brush grew. Such land, when once reclaimed by the applica- 

 tion of water, produces the finest of strawberries and other small 

 fruits. While I have the floor I wish also to speak of the forestry 

 question. After an absence of thirty years I recently returned to 

 my native state, New York. When I left there a tree was almost 



