^i'S-^xui^C 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 





VOL. VI. 



CHICAGO, JANUARY, 1894. 



No. i. 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



The new form in which THE IRRIGATION 



"The Age" ., . ,, 



in AGE greets its readers this month ex- 



1894. plains its own advantages, the chief of 

 which is convenience for handling, alike in the month- 

 ly part and the bound volume; it also furnishes bet- 

 ter opportunities for departmental division, and for 

 that gradual but steady expansion of size which the 

 constant growth of the magazine demands. The new 

 form is not strictly original. That distinguished suc- 

 cess, the .Review of Reviews, is the model to a consider- 

 able degree. Reference is made in the publisher's 

 announcements in the advertising pages to another 

 feature of the plans of THE AGE for 1894. The idea 

 is indicated in the title of this department, " The Prog- 

 ress of Western America." Western America is 

 plainly broader than the irrigation industry alone 

 though that industry must forever lie at the base of its 

 civilization. But there are correlative industries, so 

 intermingled and interwoven with the cultivation of 

 the soil that it is impossible to say that any community 

 or any class is interested in the progress of one line of 

 activity and in no other. Communities are not inde- 

 pendent, but interdependent. The essence of com- 

 merce is the exchange of products. The first concern 

 of the farmer is to produce something to sell, but the 

 second concern is for a market in which it may be 

 sold. The producer is happiest when the consumer 

 is nearest at hand. And the process by which the 

 producer and the consumer shall be developed, side 

 by side, must go on simultaneously and under a com- 

 mon impulse. This is true of all countries, but it is 

 more perfectly true of Western America than of any 

 other large division of the surface of the earth. 



Diversified Industry is most prosperous where it is 

 Ind ArT/ in most lar gely diversified. There are 

 America, localities where diversification has come 

 through the ingenuity of man. The arid region will 

 owe the variety and symmetry of its industrial life to 

 the extraordinary generosity of nature. The applica- 

 tion of man's ener- 

 gy and faith alone 

 is necessary to pro- 

 duce in the west- 

 ern half of the con- 

 tinent the most 

 perfect civilization 

 the world has ever 

 seen. In Arid 

 America the min- j 

 ing camp is gener- j 

 ally the near neigh- 

 bor of the agricul 

 tural valley. Water! 

 for power is usual- 1 

 ly found in connec- 

 tion with water for | 

 irrigation. Hence 



Copyrighted 1893, by "Harper's Weekly." 



MAJOR J. W. POWELL. 



Director of United States Geological 

 Survey. 



manufacturing and 

 agriculture are the 

 twin offspring of a 

 common parent- 

 age. It is worth 

 while to refer to a single example. Take the city of 

 Ogden, at the northern end of Utah. It stands at the 

 head of a fertile valley, closely cultivated by means 

 of hundreds of small irrigated farms. In the moun- 



[NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS. A volume of THE AGE usually consists of six numbers, but the November AGE was designated as 

 No. 7, Vol. V, thus constituting an extra number. This plan was adopted in order to start the new volume with the first month of 

 the new year. The December issue was omitted in order to enable the publishers to perfect arrangements for bringing out 

 the paper in its new form without getting hopelessly behind the date of publication. This issue is " January, 1894. Vol. VI, No. 1." 

 All subscriptions will be advanced on our books one month. For instance, if a subscription is paid up to March it will not expire 

 until April, so that the omission of the December issue will work no injustice. The same statement applies to advertisers. 

 PUBLISHERS.] 



