THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



97 



ELWOOD MEAD, OF WYOMING, 



State Engineer, Chairman Wyoming Irrigation Commission, 

 Member of National Committee. 



a corner of their garden patch. Perhaps these 

 Yankees did not know it, but they were irri- 

 gating, though by a very primitive mode. They 

 were resorting- to the great law of self-preser- 

 vation. In this instance they were seeking to pre- 

 serve only a garden patch, which meant a por- 

 tion of their living through the coming winter. But 

 irrigation will be resorted to for self-preservation in a 

 much larger sense. The division of land and the in- 

 tensification of crops will yet become a prime factor 

 in the preservation of our institutions. It must be 

 instantly resorted to in order to preserve the indus- 

 trial life and safeguard the prosperity of the corn-belt 

 States. While the arid western half of the continent 

 will be the theatre of action, we shall witness the 

 .gradual extension of ditches and canals over eastern 

 and southern, farms, and the time will come when the 

 blessings of independence and equality, of neighbor- 

 hood association, with all its valuable social concomi- 

 tants, and of the other advantages inseparable from 

 irrigation, will be generally distributed throughout 

 the United States. For Arid America it is the golden 

 moment of opportunity, but for the whole country on 

 the side of irrigation hopes it is the hour of dawn. 



A study of western newspapers con- 

 King Corn vinces us that at this moment the livest 

 Surrenders. irrigation field is the se mi-arid State of 

 Nebraska. Nebraska is hard hit by the drouth 

 and the scorching winds from the South. Corn is 

 king in Nebraska, but this year he totters on his 



throne. We hope the time is near when he will be 

 relegated to his proper place in a more republican 

 form of agricultural development, which will admit a 

 number of equal factors and forever banish the mis- 

 taken philosophy of the single crop. The best forms 

 of prosperity can never be realized by the one-crop 

 country. The rule is that when there is plenty of corn 

 the price is too low, and that when the price is high 

 there is little corn. There is only one thing worse for 

 a community than a period of bad times, and that is a 

 period of riotously good times. Both are evils. 

 Communities, like individuals, thrive best when pros- 

 perity is moderate, but even and secure. If bad 

 times bring despair, too good times bring that qual- 

 ity of mental intoxication which destroys thrift and 

 fosters extravagance. The eastern third of Nebraska 

 has a fairly reliable rainfall and the western two- 

 thirds can raise good crops without irrigation every 

 few years. These conditions do not permit of divers- 

 ified agriculture in the highest sense. Nebraska is 

 by nature a corn and cattle country. Nature must 

 be improved upon, or rather nature's resources must 

 be wisely manipulated by the genius of man, to give 

 to Nebraska the full benefits of' her rich soil and 

 climate and her favorable situation in relation to the 

 markets. 



Of all the semi-arid States, by which we 

 Nebraska . XT v i v 



Water mean the two Dakotas, Nebraska, Kan- 



Supplies. sag) Oklahoma and Texas, Nebraska is 

 most fortunately endowed with water supplies. The 

 amount of land that can ultimately be irrigated will 



T. D. BABBITT, OF IDAHO, 



: Member National Executive Committee Irrigation Congress. 



