THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



39 



consequent advance in the administration of systems. 

 3. By supplanting cobble, gravel, sand and brush 

 dams by substantial works built of non-decaying 

 materials, and thus saving water now wasted. 4. By 

 supplying distribution ditches generally throughout 

 the State with impervious coatings, and by accurately 

 measuring and dividing waters. 5. By the further 

 development of artesian wnters and a very great in- 

 crease in pumping plants, aided by cheap mechani- 

 cal energy, transmitted by electricity. It is impossible 

 to do justice to Colonel Hall's argument in this brief 

 catalogue of its points, for the article itself occupies 

 twenty columns and every line of it is worth reading. 

 We advise all who are specially interested in the 

 subject to obtain copies of the Chronicle. 



Very closely related to the subject of 

 Col. Hall's ... 

 winged irrigation development is the question or 



Fancy. c h e ap transportation. Colonel Hall con- 

 siders this factor of such importance that he devotes 

 equal space to it, and it is when he enters upon this 

 part of his subject that his imagination rises to dizzy 

 heights. Much of his predictions as to what is to be 

 accomplished by pumping rests upon his confidence 

 in what electrical technologists will accomplish in ob- 

 taining energy direct from coal. He believes that 

 this element is to play a great part in the future 

 of transportation, not only with the railroads, but 

 also with canals. He says the problem of freight 

 transportation in the San Joaquin Valley will be 

 solved by a system of level canals on which boats of 

 500 tons burden, at least, will be moved in trains by 

 electrical power, operated on schedule time. These 

 trains will pass each other only at locks and no time 

 will be lost in this way, as the delay will be utilized 

 to replenish the supply of electricity. The boats will 

 move at the rate of at least six miles per hour, and 

 freight charges be extremely low. As for passengers, 

 they will skim through the valleys at the rate of 150 

 miles 'per hour in a "train " consisting of a single 

 long vehicle, shaped like a cigar. There will be no 

 locomotive. Electricity will drive the car, and we 

 presume it is this same fluid which propelled the 

 Colonel's brain so rapidly through space. He pre- 

 sents us with interviews with the managers and 

 superintendents of the canals and railway systems, 

 so there is no reason to doubt the authenticity of 

 his statements! But while everyone who reads these 

 buoyant prophecies will have his little chuckle about 

 them, they are really not very daring, after all. A 

 Pilgrim Father who should come back from the past 

 and telegraph from Boston to London, then tele- 

 phone from Boston to Chicago, then cross the con- 

 tinent to San Francisco in six days and stand under 

 the blaze of the electric lights in the grand court of 

 the Palace Hotel, would not be at all surprised if 

 Colonel Hall invited him to sit down and run over 



the points of his article. The Pilgrim Father would 

 tell the Colonel that his predictions seemed tame 

 when compared with the last century's record of 

 achievement. The fact is, that we live in big and 

 fateful days, and that the human race delights in 

 performing " the impossible." All that Colonel Hall 

 predicted as likely to come to pass in California dur- 

 ing the next half century is reasonable. And we 

 shall realize all this, and more, in making the civiliza- 

 tion of Arid America. 



Other features of the Chronicle's sym- 

 Other . _^ .. , 



California posium are entitled Outlook or the 

 Hopes. Truck Farm> .> . Our Fields of Grain ;> 



" Future of our Orchards," " Trade and Commerce,'* 

 "Wines and Vines of To morrow.'' We regret that 

 we cannot go fully over the many good points in 

 these articles, which take up for careful review the 

 things already accomplished in these several lines 

 and proceed to erect on this foundation extensive 

 prophecies of what may be done in the future. It is 

 predicted that the business of raising vegetables will 

 assume large proportions when aided by cheaper 

 transportation and better methods of distribution. 

 Practically the same argument is used in dealing 

 with the fruit industry. The writers on both these 

 topics take a hopeful view of the situation and, while 

 they do not predict a return of the old profits of the 

 early day, they expect these lines of business to be 

 permanently prosperous when general business shall 

 have finally been readjusted. Of course Californians 

 have the highest hopes of a wide extension of their 

 ocean commerce, and this is a most reasonable ex- 

 pectation. Mr. George F. Weeks deals with the sub- 

 ject of "Our Fklds of Grain," and predicts an enorm- 

 ous expansion of this business, resulting from the 

 reclamation of lands, both from the swamp and the 

 desert, and cheaper methods of production and trans- 

 portation. He believes California must ultimately 

 prove the world's greatest grain field and be practic- 

 ally secure against competition. In fact, he thinks 

 the demand for this product will be so great that the 

 farmers will sit up nights and plow by electric light. 

 The main value of all these articles is the hopeful 

 tone of the people which they reflect. We are living 

 in a time of general depression and discouragement- 

 It is therefore very reassuring to behold these high 

 hopes of a brilliant future for the Pacific Slope. It is 

 the hopeful, rather than the hopeless, who bear the 

 world forward on strong shoulders, with tireless feet. 

 We hope every thoughtful man inter- 

 Census ested in irrigation will immediately write 

 Report. n j s congressman for the volume of the 

 census, entitled "Report on Agriculture by Irrigation 

 in the Western Part of the United States.'' It is the 

 work of Frederick Haynes Newell, the well known 

 hydrographtr of the Geological Survey, who was 



