XLIV. 



WESTERN IBBIGATION. 



I HAVE already set forth my belief that Irrigation 

 is everywhere practicable, is destined to be generally 

 adopted, and to prove signally beneficent. I do not 

 mean that every acre of the States this side of the 

 Missouri will ever be thus supplied with water, but 

 that some acres of every township, and of nearly 

 every farm, should and will be. I propose herein to 

 speak with direct reference to that large portion of 

 our country which cannot be cultivated to any pur- 

 pose without Irrigation. This region, which is prac- 

 tically rainless in Summer, may be roughly indicated 

 as extending from the forks of the Platte westward, 

 and as including all our present Territories, a portion 

 of Western Texas, the entire State of Nevada, and 

 at least nine-tenths of California. On this vast area, 

 no rain of consequence falls between April and No- 

 vember, while its soil, parched by fervid, cloudless 

 suns, and swept by intensely dry winds, is utterly di- 

 vested of moisture to a depth of three or four feet ; 

 and I have seen the tree known as Buckeye growing 

 in it, at least six inches in diameter, whereon every 

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