9 6 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



according to official figures; New Mexico about 500,- 

 000; Montana about 500,000; Utah, 250,000. There 

 are also very large areas in Nevada, Oregon, Texas, 

 Washington and Wyoming. In the aggregate these 

 lands, irrigated but not occupied, represent invest- 

 ments amounting to tens of millions of dollars. The 

 fact that they have not been occupied, that the water 

 appropriated has not been fully used and that the soil 

 reclaimed has not felt the electric thrill of human 

 labor, is the only reason that irrigation securities 

 are not to-day in eager demand, in spite of the 

 hard times. These unoccupied irrigated lands 

 are an unworked mine of western prosperity. If 

 within the next twelve months, as the result of com- 

 mon effort and well-directed energy, these lands 

 could be settled with industrious people, three great 

 results would quickly follow : First, every western 

 State and territory would realize instant prosperity 

 from the influx. Second, the congested population 

 in the East would be relieved by the withdrawal of 

 between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 people. Third, irri- 

 gation investment would be so handsomely vindicated 

 that millions of eastern and foreign capital would 

 speedily seek investment in new enterprises, for when 

 the tide is once turned in the direction of Arid Amer- 

 ica nothing can stop it until the last acre is occupied. 



The West ^ sucn opportunity to snatch victory 

 Enviably from the jaws of defeat to stampede 

 depression by sheer force of pluck and 

 brains is offered to any other part of this country. 

 The eastern and middle States, and all of the older 

 portions of the South, are sustaining as much popu- 

 lation as they can profitably employ. When they 

 adopt irrigation, as they surely will during the next 

 century, they will be on a par in some respects with 

 Western America. Under the present forms of indus- 

 try they cannot materially expand, and even such 

 expansion as they do make must be at the expense of 

 the people already there, coming through the form of 

 greater distribution, which means the taking of some- 

 thing from those who have in order to give to those 

 who shall come in. It is only in the arid and semi- 

 arid localities that the highest opportunities of the 

 average man can be realized in the immediate future. 

 This will be done by the development of communities 

 of small farms where the products will be diversified 

 and intensified by scientific methods. We should 

 hold steadfastly to the highest ideals. We should 

 bend our intelligence to the task of solving the prob- 

 lems which confront the settler in a new country. 

 Every State, and even every small community, should 

 have a colonization policy. It should have expert 

 irrigators and farmers employed in the development 

 of experimental farms, illustrating the highest possi- 

 bilities of the soil and climate. The story of Arid 

 America and its institutions should be carried to the 



uttermost parts of the earth. To realize benefits from 

 this policy of aggression we need not wait supinely 

 for more money to be invested in new enterprises. 

 If the new enterprises we contemplate will pay in the 

 future, then those already constructed will pay now. 

 Successful colonization will not only assure prosperity 

 for to-day, but guarantee ample financial backing for 

 to-morrow. 



The stars in their courses are fighting 

 The Very . . ,, , t 



Stars Fight tor irrigation. 1 he hot winds have 

 for Irrigation. rolled up from the gulf and devastated 



the corn fields. Large portions of the country north 

 of the Ohio river, from Minnesota to the Valley of 

 the Potomac, are covered with brown and stunted 

 crops. Even in New England an almost rainless- 

 summer has oppressed the farmer with fears of com- 

 ing hardships. The writer saw suggestive evidence 

 of this fact while riding through the Berkshire hills 

 of Massachusetts recently. He observed a grizzled 

 farmer, followed by his two stalwart sons, carrying 

 buckets of water in their hands from the hillside 

 spring to pour upon the parched earth and save 



PARIS GIBSON, OF MONTANA, 

 Member Irrigation Commission, and " Father of Great Falls.' 



