TOPICS OF THE TIME. 



"llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllMIIW^ 



eating it. He complains of the long drought they 

 had in North Carolina the past season, and says 

 he was given to understand that there was no 

 droughts in the South. The Practical Farmer, in 

 its lengthy comments on the letter, repeatedly 

 says that "irrigation is not necessary," but the 

 real situation comes out in the concluding para- 

 graph of the editorial: 



What we do need worse than any artificial irri- 

 gation on our hills is the deep plowing of the red 

 clay, and the deeper subsoiling, in connection 

 with terrace banks on the contour lines of the hills, 

 with deep ditches along their upper sides filled with 

 the surface rocks that now cumber the upper soil, 

 so that the rainfall may not at once run away, but 

 be allowed to soak into the soil. And when we have 

 these we want more peas and more clover to fill 

 the soil with moisture-retaining humus, and to 

 increase its fertility. On bottom lands, cultivated 

 in market garden crops, irrigation would locally be 

 a very desirable thing." 



The italics are ours, but the words are those of 

 the editor of the Practical Farmer. By the beard 

 of the prophet, he is a pretty sound irrigationist 

 without knowing it himself ! 



But, taken all in all, the soil in that portion of 

 North Carolina does not seem to be what it might; 

 and, wonderful enough, it is conceded that there 

 are droughts that dry spells in the summer 

 months are not wholly confined to the East, North 

 and West. 



It takes time for any great innovation to become 

 universal, but that irrigation is making headway 

 is evident from the announcements of experiments 

 the past season in various Southern States, in the 

 East and through the central States. The agri- 

 cultural papers of the whole country are discussing 

 it, and the great dailies of New York City are just 

 now publishing detailed accounts of the wonderful 

 crops raised on small irrigated farms almost in 

 their midst, on Long Island. 



The droughts of the past season will go far, also, 

 toward making many more converts to irrigation. 

 In sections of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ken- 

 tucky and West Virginia the crops not only failed 

 but there was actual suffering among the people. 

 In some cases stock died for the want of water. In 

 sections of Missouri there were special services in 

 the churches and special days of prayer for rain. 

 Their bitter experience will point the way to these 

 farmers in the future. It was a dry season in the 

 far Western States and Territories, but the farm- 

 ers there had made provision by irrigation, and 

 their numerous crops came through in safety. 



The fact is that the people of all sections in the 



257 



Noiv for ^^ e ar ^ an< ^ semi-arid regions of 

 Farmers' Western America, as well as the 

 Legislation, agriculturists of the whole country, 

 are to be congratulated on the results of the recent 

 election. Congress is made up of farmers and 

 the friends of farmers and of progress and devel- 

 opment. The same is true of the State legislatures, 

 and now is the time for legislation in the interest 

 of development and improvement. Thorough 

 organization by county or district is the first step 

 necessary, and then needed legislation for relief 

 or aid should be debated and well considered, and 

 when presented for action it should be shown that 

 there is a unit of feeling on the subject. Strong 

 backing a compact organization of voters will 

 push any really meritorious and necessary measure 

 through. Legislation is absolutely needed im- 

 peratively demanded in the arid States and Ter- 

 ritories, and the legislatures and Congress will, 

 doubtless, come to the rescue if measures are 

 properly formulated and presented. A liberal 

 appropriation should be made by Congress to con- 

 tinue the irrigation survey, and the dividing of 

 arid America into natural irrigation districts 

 should be done by Federal and State law. The 

 question as to the control of the waters of irriga- 

 tion districts, which is most important of all, 

 must be settled once and forever. Irrigation is 

 becoming general and there must be some settled 

 law in all the States of the Union. The great 

 drought of the past season will prompt more or 

 less immediate irrigation in sections of many of 

 the Central, Eastern and Southern States. 



That Congress will have to listen to the wants 

 of the agricultural classes generally there can be 

 no doubt. The National Grange and the great 

 conference on money and tariff, at Worcester, 

 have put themselves on record, and the National 

 Wool- Growers' Association is now in session almost 

 next door to the Capitol in Washington. It is 

 stated as likely that Congress will attempt to make 

 the Inter-State Commerce Law of some utility at 

 the present session. The farmers of the country 

 also ask for free mail delivery and a postal cur- 

 rency, and they want a thorough system of storm 

 signals, by kites or colored balloons-, held captive 

 by light cables. The settlement of land titles in 

 the Western States and Territories is a matter that 

 demands immediate attention. 

 Irrigation " What the South needs is irriga- 

 Becoming tion," says H. A. Temple, and he 



General, writes a long letter to the Practical 

 Farmer, of Philadelphia, from Bostic, N. C., advo- 



