THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



249 



dozen electrical enterprises deriving power pri- 

 marily from running streams with these and 

 many other indications, greater and smaller, the 

 reasons for faith in California are not obscure. 

 But it is the same all along the line of the coast 

 States. California is only forty-five years old as a 

 State and is officially valued at $1,132,712,674. This 

 is $840 for every man, woman and child in the 

 State, or $4,200 for every family. 



Several California towns and cities have made 

 progress since last mention in the matter of ac- 

 quiring city water works. San Diego, through its 

 Council, has decided to offer $500,000 to the San 

 Diego Water Company for its distributing system. 

 Alfred Billing has filed in the Kecorder's office at 

 Bakersfleld a claim for 35,000 inches of water of 

 Kern river to be used in developing power for the 

 generation of electricity. A claim has been filed 

 to divert water from the Mokelumne river. An 

 ordinance has been adopted by the Board of 

 Trustees of Pomona providing for the construction 

 of waterworks and the acquisition of certain 

 water rights to supply the city of Pomona with 

 water. San Jose is busy with the proposition of 

 the Citizens' Water Company to take water for ir- 

 rigating and other purposes from the vicinity of 

 the headwaters of the Coyote creek. The munic- 

 ipal ownership of waterworks in Santa Rosa 

 seems to be assured by the purchase of the bonds 

 by Robert Eft'ey, mayor of Santa Cruz. 



Creamery companies have been organized at 

 several places. The Western Oil and Gas Com- 

 pany has been incorporated at Salt Lake to carry 

 on the business of boring and sinking wells for 

 petroleum and natural gas, with a capital stock of 

 $1,000,000. The Seattle Power Company has be- 

 gun work on the plant by which the power of 

 Cedar river is to be transmitted to Seattle and 

 Tacoma at a cost of $1,000,000. The Northwest 

 continues to move in a direction to secure Eastern 

 factories. A wooden spout factory, which will 

 give employment to about 100 men, is now being 

 moved from Minneapolis, where the company has 

 been in business. 



UNPROFITABLE FEUIT RAISING. 



A VER 5f thoughtful article by Edward T. Adams 

 j\ on " Co-operation Among Farmers " appears 

 in the November Forum. The paper deals 

 almost exclusively with the difficulties which past 

 experience has proved to lie in the way of effective 

 co-operation. 



The greatest of these difficulties, according to 

 Mr. Adams, seems to be that in the direction of 

 large affairs, a man of large abilities is required ; 

 and such men are not easily found, and when found 

 must always be well paid. 



Hitherto, according to Mr. Adams, the farmer 

 and fruit-raiser could not be made to understand 

 the economy in paying the price which such a 

 competent man must always cost ; and in the em- 

 ployment of less competent men the result has 

 nearly always been loss and dissatisfaction. 



It is quite certain, however, that fruit raising is 

 now a well established industry ; and it is also 

 certain that year by year it will assume greater 

 and greater proportions and importance ; and it 

 will not for any considerable period be carried on 

 at a loss. 



The fruit-raisers have already learned a great 



many lessons in this expensive school of experi- 

 ence, and it may be that they have still a few 

 lessons to learn, but we have sufficient faith in the 

 average intelligence, and in the force of circum- 

 stances to believe that out of it all must soon come 

 some good, solid, working plan of effective co- 

 operation. 



There must always be a very considerable mar- 

 gin between the selling price of fruit on a Cali- 

 fornia ranch and the retail price of this same fruit 

 in the big cities of the East ; but this difference 

 does not all of it mean loot by the transportation 

 companies and by the commission men. 



Without co-operation, the fruit-raiser would be 

 quite at the mercy of these monopolistic birds of 

 prey, who would pick his bones clean. Co-opera- 

 tion is the order of the day and it must be made 

 effective. 



NEBRASKA IRRIGATION LAW. 



THERE has been much unnecessary alarm as to 

 what will be the effect of the decision re- 

 cently rendered by the Nebraska State Su- 

 preme Court in a suit between a mill owner and an 

 irrigation company, all because the decision has 

 not been generally understood. Instead of being 

 adverse to irrigation interests in the State, it is 

 the very reverse. The ditch in question is referred 

 to in the decision as "a public work." The lean- 

 ing of the court, though not called upon, or at- 

 tempting to decide whether or not an irrigation 

 undertaking is "a public undertaking," is most 

 strongly in that direction. It was on this very 

 ground that the Supreme Court sent the plaintiff^ 



E. G. HUDSON, OF LINCOLN, ILL. 



TREASURER NATIONAL IRRIGATION EXECUTIVE COM- 

 MITTEE. 



