lj 



VOL. VIII. 



CHICAGO, JANUARY, 1895. 



Bound 



Periodical 



No. I. 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



HERE we are at the threshold of another new 

 year. A year should mean very much to the 

 men and women in the western half of the United 

 States. For progress is the very essence of our large 

 western life, and each year should be made to count 

 for a great deal in the onward march. A year means 

 fifty-two weeks of opportunity. And no week should 

 close without some record of worthy achievement. 

 There is a vast deal to be done. It must be done 

 first for the benefit of each individual fireside. To 

 surround that fireside with new comforts and to kindle 

 there new aspirations, should be the first aim of the I 

 new year. But beyond the individual prosperity 

 inseparable alike from happiness and from useful- 

 ness are other considerations that appeal eloquently i 

 to western hearts. The men and women who are f 

 working out the destinies of the great half continent 

 between the Missouri river and the Western sea are 

 laying foundations on which great structures will be 

 built in the early future. The present readers of T HE 

 IRRIGATION AGE will not live to see the full fruition 

 of the forces they set in motion, but humanity will live 

 to see it and THE IRRIGATION AGE will live to record 

 it. To be able to build for the future is a noble op- 

 portunity for a man or a people. This opportunity is 

 the priceless possession of the citizens of Arid 

 America. How have they used it during the past 

 year? How will they use it during the next twelve 

 months? These are natural topics for discussion in 

 this department this month. The answer will be 

 divided into three parts. The first deals with what 

 has been accomplished in the way of extending irri- 

 gation works and settling lands. These matters re- 

 late directly to irrigation as an industry. The second 

 division will sketch the growth of irrigation thought 

 and organization. The third will attempt to fore- 

 shadow the developments of 1895. 



4 HON. NELSON STORY. 



A Prominent Candidate for the United States Senate from 

 Montana. 



Pioneer Irrlg.Uor of the Gallalin Valley. 



I. THE YEAR IN THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY". 



The history of the past year presents 



Stagnation ... 



and two striking contradictions. In the mat- 



Progress. ter o f new construction it has been a year 

 of stagnation. But the record of the year is luminous 

 in progress along intellectual lines and in the growth 

 of favorable public opinion. This should be a matter 

 of supreme satisfaction to the true friends of irriga- 

 tion. The year in which God made the North Ameri- 

 can continent is unimportant. The world dozes while 

 the theologian and the geologist engage each other 

 in bootless battles on this issue. But the year in which 

 Columbus discovered the North American continent 



