STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 73 



way, with all the ricli fertilizing ingredients collected from this vast 

 watershed, into the ocean. Here is space for gigantic plans or systems 

 of irrigation. Here is room for the application of engineering talent of 

 the highest order, and the building of works of sueli immense value 

 that the names of their projectors will go with them down the stream 

 of time, associated with the blessings they will convey to generations 

 far distant in the future. 



This work is of sufficient magnitude and will be of sufficient benefit, 

 in our opinion, to justify the General Government in donating her entire 

 interest in this land to the State for the purposes of its accomplishment. 

 "VVh}' should not these vast plains, Ij'ing back from our great I'ivers, 

 almost valueless without such improvements, be as justl}' and j^roperly 

 the subject of redemption by Government land aid as the lesser extent 

 of tule or swamp lands bordering immcdiatelj'' on their banks? If the 

 policy is good, and it certainl}' is, in the one ease, then why not in the 

 other? The object is to render valuable and productive, and a source 

 of income to the Government, that which is now of little or no value to 

 individuals, and yields no income. The policy of so managing these 

 lands as to render them valuable, and to induce their settlement and 

 cultivation is in direct harmony with the declaration of President John- 

 son in his late annual message, when, speaking of the wisdom of the 

 Homestead Act, he says : "Experience proves its wisdom The lands 

 in the hands of industrious settlers, whose labor creates wealth and con- 

 tributes to the public resourced, are worth more to the United States 

 than if they had been reserved as a solitude for future purchasers." By 

 such improvement of these uplands we shall use a good shai'e of the 

 water which now flows into the lowlands, and while it would improve 

 the former by flooding, it would also improve the latter b^^ preventing 

 the floods. In this connection we would congratulate the people, and 

 particularly the farmers of our State, that we have in our National Con- 

 gress and in the important position of Chairman of the Committee on 

 Agriculture, a representative farmer, who understands and fully appre- 

 ciates this great work, and who may be of great service in securing the 

 necessar}^ aid for its accomplishment. 



General Bidwell, in a letter written before leaving for Washington, 

 said: "The same encouragement should, in my judgment, be given to 

 bring water on land which is worthless without it, as to take water from 

 land which is useless with it. Tlie dry as well as the swamp lands require 

 reclamation — one will cost relatively as much as the other. Why, then, 

 should not the Government be as willing to donate the dry lands to the 

 State as the swamp lands?" 



Proper representation by the Legislature might assist our delegation 

 at Washington to procure such action. 



If we examine the statistics of countries where irrigation has been 

 practiced on an extensive scale, we shall find much valuable information 

 and many astounding results which can but be interesting and instruc- 

 tive to all whose interest and inclination it is to investigate this subject 

 with reference to our own State. We submit the following, collected 

 from authoritative sources, and hope that the facts stated as a matter of 

 history in countries not so well adapted by location, and not so much 

 I'equiring irrigation by climatic influences as our own, will have a ten- 

 dency to call the attention of those in authority to the importance of the 

 subject and lead to action in the right direction. 



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