Agricultural Development 

 "For the beginnings of Anglo-Saxon irrigation in 

 this country we must go to the Salt Lake valley of 

 Utah, where, in July, 1847, the Mormon pioneers 

 first turned the clear waters of City Greek upon the 

 sun-baked and alkaline soil. Utah is interesting not 

 only because it is the cradle of our modern irriga- 

 tion industry but even more so as showing how 

 important are organization and public control in the 

 diversion and use of rivers."* 



Thus are suggested the conditions and agencies 

 which are fundamental in the development of agri- 

 culture upon the Pacific Slope. To specifically 

 enumerate them and even briefly outline their opera- 

 tion would pass the limitations of this writing. A 

 few only can be emphasized, namely: 



First : the Climatic Adaptations of the Area.-^ 

 These will be mentioned only in terms of economic 

 plants which produce commercial crops. The list 

 comprises all that are grown in the United States in 

 the classes of grains and forage plants and field 

 crops, while in some of the latter, and especially in 

 the categories of commercial vegetables and fruits, 

 large values are secured from some plants which 

 thrive in the semi-tropical parts of California and 

 Arizona and not elsewhere in the United States. 



Second: the Superiority of the Soils of the 

 Arid Region. — This matter has been technically dem- 

 onstrated by analyses made by Professor Hilgard 

 and those associated with him during his forty 

 years of activity at the California Experiment Sta- 

 tion, and by other investigators in the several States 

 of the Pacific Slope, as well as by the practical dem- 

 onstrations which the crops themselves have made 

 by their acre-averages so freely published. The 

 superiority of soils formed under arid conditions 

 when compared with those formed elsewhere, even 

 in tropical regions, is, however, more broadly dem- 

 onstrated in the ancient and modern history of man- 

 kind, as stated by Professor Hilgard in these words: 

 " * * * On both sides of the Mediterranean 

 Sea, we find that, instead of the humid forest- 

 country, it was in the arid but irrigable coast coun- 

 tries * * * that noted centers of civilization 

 were developed and maintained * * *. In humid 

 countries, as is well known, cultivation can only in 

 exceptional cases be continued profitably for many 

 years without fertilization. * * * No such need 

 was felt by the inhabitants of the arid regions for 

 centuries, for the native fertility of their soils, 

 coupled with the fertilizing eff'ects of irrigation 

 water bringing plant-food from afar, relieved them 



* Elwood Mead, loc. cit., p. 42. 



219 



