142 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



ize their need of instruction, will take kindly to it 

 and will enter intelligently upon a kind of farming 

 that offers wide scope for intelligence. The labor 

 of country life in a region of small farms, framed by 

 noble and various scenery, will be found very differ- 

 ent from the drudgery of country life on the dreary 

 stretches of eastern plains. 



Not the least factor in the present vig- 

 Cheap , . . . . Jf 



Fares a orous movement of colonization is the 



Factor, reduction in through fares from Chicago 

 to California. Rates like the present would stimulate 

 emigration to the Golden State at any time, but 

 they are especially effective at a time when the 

 desire to find a place where a small investment 

 will earn a living for its owner is so nearly 

 universal. Fortunately California is ready for the 

 invasion. There are thousands of acres under com- 

 pleted works awaiting the settler's coming, and 

 these lands cover a wide range in prices. Land 

 can be had in several localities for the govern- 

 ment prices, in others for $40 to $75 per acre, and 

 from that all the way up to $400, the latter where the 

 "bay and climate ''are particularly seductive. The 

 future of California appears very secure. The 

 glittering fame of the State seems never to cease 

 growing. The bread cast upon the waters at the 

 World's Fair is bearing fruit thus early. And yet Cali- 

 fornia has serious problems to confront in connection 

 with her enormous agricultural and horticultural ex- 

 pansion. It cannot be denied that her wheat farmers 

 and fruit growers are doing business to-day on a 

 slender margin of profit. At least, their prosperity is 

 not sufficiently marked to tempt new men into the 

 field unless they have faith in an early change for the 

 better. And yet there is one great truth that cannot 

 be gainsaid there is not a piece of tillable ground 

 twenty acres large anywhere in California that will 

 not support a family in luxury, provided that family 

 is content to produce what it consumes first of all, 

 and its speculative crop afterwards. The man who 

 goes to California with that idea under his hat will 

 encounter no disappointment. He will live in the 

 most genial climate, arnid the most charming scenery 

 and his prosperity will be just as certain as if he had 

 bought $30,000 of Secretary Carlisle's new bonds 

 at 117. 



Will California be the only State bene- 

 Prospects _ 



in other nted by the present currents of coloniza- 

 States. tion? No; bu) . it hag three i inportant 



advantages: (1) It is far and away the best adver- 

 tised State in the Union ; (2) it has the largest area 

 and the largest variety of land ready for colonists; 

 (3) it has the chief benefit of the low fares. These 

 advantages are of sufficient importance to guarantee 

 to California the lion's share of the new immigration 



M. A. DOWNING, 



Of Las Cruces, New Mexico. 



of the present spring. And yet other Sta f es and 

 Territories must be 

 benefited, in a degree j 

 immediately, and, in 

 the long run, very 

 largely. Idaho, Wash- 

 ington and Colorado 

 are enjoying a very 

 fair growth to-day, 

 and are certain to gain 

 more recruits as time 

 goes on. These States 

 have large areas under 

 fine systems of canals. 

 New Mexico is also in 

 a position to get con- 

 siderable benefit from 

 the new growth in the 

 West. It is next year, 

 and for the next ten 

 years, that the arid West as a whole will re- 

 ceive its substantial benefits, however. All localities 

 will * learn from the events now occurring that the 

 time has come at last when money and men can be 

 attracted to irrigated lands. And energies will be 

 directed to this line of development in earnest. The 

 tide which will cover the West with prosperous 

 homes will be started in this direction, and, once 

 started, it will continue without serious interruption 

 for years to come. 



New One of the most attractive books issued 

 Attractive m tne mterest f tne new West in a long 

 Book. time is the new work just from the press 

 of the New Mexican, of Santa Fe. It is entitled 

 " New Mexico," and is published by the Bureau of 

 Immigration of that promising Territory and coming 

 State. The veteran editor, Max Frost, is credited on 

 the title page with the authorship of the book, but in 

 a prefatory note he gives the credit for an important 

 part of it to Mr. Mortimer A. Downing, and it is no 

 secret that the latter gentleman performed the major 

 portion of the hard work involved in the preparation 

 of the book. Mr. Downing is one of the bright young 

 men of Arid America, and a person who may be 

 counted upon as certain to be heard from hereafter. 

 He served for several years in the Bureau of Irriga- 

 tion Inquiry at Washington, D. C., and upon severing 

 his connection with that department took up his resi- 

 dence in New Mexico. Few men in the United 

 States have studied the irrigation problem more 

 thoroughly or practically. The New Mexico book 

 has been prepared with fine literary skill and careful 

 regard for the requirements of settlers and invest- 

 ors. The illustrations are profuse and attractive. 

 The resources, industries and climate of the Terri- 

 tory are covered in their general aspects. 



