PUBLIC OPINION AND THE IRRIGATION CONGRESS. 



207 



THE NEXT CONVENTION. 



The Irrigation Convention called for November 12, 

 at San Antonio, together with the new laws we now 

 have bearing on the subject, ought to arouse the en- 

 thusiasm of the people and also attract the attention 

 of Eastern capitalists to the splendid opportunities 

 awaiting them here. Immense storage basins which 

 can be utilized to store the vast bodies of storm-water 

 which now with every rain goes to waste in the sea, can 

 be got on any of the following rivers : Nueces, Aransas, 

 Chiltipin and San Antonio. These rivers drain an 

 immense area of country and consequently vast quan- 

 tities of water are now lost which applied to the land 

 would make a veritable Garden of Eden out of this 

 section. 



A DEEP WATER HARBOR. 



One thing that will attract a great deal of attention 

 to this country is the fact that we have in Arausas Pass 

 Harbor the best natural harbor on the Texas coast. For 

 some years it has been impossible to use this harbor 

 to any extent, owing to the bar at the entrance to the 

 Pass. And the people here have diligently been try- 

 ing to get some one with capital enough behind him 

 to build jetties and remove the bar, which is at present 



keeping the shipping out. They have at last interested 

 Messrs. Alexander Brown & Sons of Baltimore in the 

 project, to the extent that they are furnishing the 

 money to do the work, but not before they had the 

 opinion of the best engineers in the United States, 

 foremost among them being Professor Haupt of Phila- 

 delphia. 



The work is being rapidly pushed forward, and 

 already the increase of water is considerable as far as 

 they have gone. The effect that the opening of this 

 harbor will have on irrigation will be apparent when 

 I tell you that the moment we get over twenty feet of 

 water over the bar, several railroads will build there, 

 and then from there to Mexico, passing through some 

 of the best localities for the establishing of irriga- 

 tion plants, and giving the gardener and fruit-grower 

 greater facilities for getting his vegetables and fruits 

 to the Northern markets. It would make this too 

 long an article to enter into a more detailed descrip- 

 tion of the work at Aransas Pass; it is enough to say 

 that heretofore legislation has been against the en- 

 trance of capital into Texas, but now the barriers are 

 being removed, and soon 1 hope to see Eastern capi- 

 talists fellowing the lead of Messrs. Brown & Sons, 

 and developing the vast resources of this great and 

 splendid State. 



PUBLIC OPINION AND THE IRRIGATION CONGRESS. 



VIEWS OF SOME OF THE PROMINENT DELEGATES ON THE OUTLOOK 



FOR THE COMING YEAR. 



THE Irrigation Congress just held at Albuquerque, 

 speaking in an all-round way, was the best gath- 

 ering the friends of irrigation ever held, always 

 saving the Los Angeles meeting. It was an earnest 

 body of earnest men. It was held in the land of sun- 

 shine where a scanty rainfall, even, is at a pre- 

 mium. The gathering was very pleasant and its local 

 management was in most excellent hands. I came 

 away thinking the hospitality of those people was cer- 

 tainly well nigh unbounded. Nothing was done by 

 the halves. All arid America save live States was 

 represented, besides a half-dozen of States east of the 

 Missouri River. Two points were urged by myself in 

 my annual address. First, a liberal appropriation to 

 continue the irrigation survey; and second, the parcel- 

 ing off of arid America into natural irrigation districts 

 to be done by State and Federal law, with the absolute 

 control of the waters of such districts put into the 

 hands of the farmers therein. It is also to be noted 

 that the Press generally, gave this Congress much wider 

 notice than has been the case in the past. Altogether I 

 may say that the cause of irrigation is well abroad in 

 the land after only two years of active work. 



JUDGE J. S. EMERY, of Kansas. 



THE International Irrigation Congress held at 

 Albuquerque, New Mexico, last month, has given 

 a new impetus to irrigation. As a result of this 

 great international gathering of experts, the science of 

 irrigation is much better understood. The poor and 

 half- discouraged farmer on the plains has learned 

 better methods, has received practical advice and en- 



couragement, and is going forth with quadrupled 

 energy and faith to retain the water that falls upon 

 his farm, store a portion of the flood waters, bring 

 some of the underflow to the surface, soak his ground 

 this fall and again next spring and build up a home 

 where he can live, independent and prosperous, on a 

 small, but productive and unmortgaged farm. Efforts 

 to farm in the old American desert, in a scientific man- 

 ner, have met with phenomenal success. Reports 

 show that 98 per cent, of all who have made a test of 

 rational methods of irrigation and cultivation have 

 been successful far beyond their most sanguine ex- 

 pectations. What other enterprise has made half as 

 good a showing? 



Until recently the great mass of people looked upon 

 irrigation as an iridescent dream, and many ridiculed 

 the'idea that human agency could change natural 

 conditions. The irrigation congresses however, have 

 directed the attention of our people to the fact that in 

 our country and in other countries, natural conditions 

 have been even reversed by human agency. Their atten- 

 tion has also been called to the fact that for centuries 

 millions of people have subsisted bountifully in regions 

 far more arid than ours. These great national gatherings 

 are arousing the people to realize the value of these 

 fertile plains and are developing a public sentiment 

 of sufficient force to induce Congress to promptly give 

 the subject of irrigation its share of attention. In 

 twenty years from now these now forsaken plains 

 will be the most productive, healthful, and beautiful 

 farming region on the globe, where the disadvantages 

 of both city and country life will be. eliminated, the 



