THE POSSIBILITIES OF IRRIGATION 83 



nually on the outlay, with a steady increase in the 

 value of the property. If my eye did not deceive 

 me, there is one point on the Carson where a dam 

 that need not cost $50,000 would irrigate one hundred 

 square miles of rich plain which, when I saw it eleven 

 years ago, grew nought but the worthless shrubs of the 

 desert, simply because nothing else could endure the 

 intense, abiding drouth of each Nevada Summer. 

 Such palpable invitations to thrift cannot remain for- 

 ever unimproved. 



In regions like this, where Summer rains are the 

 rule rather than the exception, the need of irrigation 

 is not so palpable, since we do or may secure decent 

 average crops in its absence. Yet there is no farm 

 in our country that would not yield considerably 

 more grain and more grass, more fruit and more veg- 

 etables, if its owner had water at command which 

 he could apply at pleasure and to any extent he should 

 deem requisite. Most men, thus empowered, would 

 at first irrigate too often and too copiously ; but ex- 

 perience would soon temper their zeal, and teach 

 them 



" The precious art of Not too much ; " 



and they would thenceforth be careful to give their 

 soil drink yet, not drown it. 



Whoever lives beyond the close of this century, 

 and shall then traverse our prairie States, will see 

 them whitened at intervals by the broad sails of 

 windmills erected over wells, whence every gale or 



