MORE OF IRRIGATION. 279 



had formerly abounded where none now grows ; and 

 I presume that, as young trees are multiplied in the 

 wake of civilization, finally thickening into clumps 

 of timber and beginning a forest, more rain will fall, 

 and the extension of woodlands become compara- 

 tively easy. But, relatively to the country eastward 

 of the Missouri, the Plains will always be arid and 

 thirsty, with a pure, bracing atmosphere that will 

 form a chief attraction to thousands suffering from 

 or threatened with pulmonary afflictions. A mil- 

 lion of square miles, whereon is found no single 

 swamp or bog, and not one lake that withstands the 

 drouth of Summer, can never have a moist climate, 

 and never fail to realize the need of Irrigation. 



The Plains will in time give lessons, which even 

 the well-watered and verdurous East may read with 

 profit. Such level and thirsty clays as largely 

 border Lake Charnplain, for example, traversed by 

 streams from mountain ranges on either hand, will 

 not always be owned and cultivated by men insen- 

 sible to the profit of Irrigation. Nor will such rich 

 valleys as those of the Connecticut, the Kennebec, 

 the Susquehanna, be left to suffer year after year from 

 drouth, while the water which should refresh them 

 runs idly and uselessly by. Agriculture repels in- 

 novation, and loves the beaten track; but such 

 lessons as New-England has received in the great 

 drouth of 1870 will not always be given and endured 

 in vain. 



