94 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



ing States of the world and her agricul- 

 tural advancement has also been great. 



Nevada, for many years the leading 

 mining State of the Union, will push for- 

 ward again when transportation is cheap- 

 ened, and when labor is adjusted on the 

 scale of other States. During the past 

 year an immensely rich gold district was 

 opened up in the southeastern part of the 

 State. Nevada's wool interest, which is 

 \ very great, has been sadly crippled during 

 the past three years of tariff insanity, and 

 another of her great industries, that of 

 horse raising, has been practically killed 

 by the fall of the price of all ordinary ani- 

 mals of that breed. But good times will 

 come again for Nevada. 



Of California, like Utah and Colorado, 

 and some of the others, there is hardly 

 need to speak. She is still taking out 

 gold, and her fruits and vegetables are 

 everywhere to be seen. Texas is going 

 into irrigation on a large scale and is 

 becoming a great agricultural as well as a 

 stockraising and mining country. 



With her enthusiasm for irrigation, 

 Kansas is going forward like a racehorse 

 in agriculture, and she has got another 

 new wrinkle. This time it is oil. 



MANUFACTURES IN THE WEST. 



IT is evident that the great woolen mills 

 of the future will be in the West and 

 Southwest, where the wool is grown, and 

 that the East will lose the cotton manu- 

 factures in favor of the South and South- 

 west, where the cotton is grown. Not- 

 withstanding the disastrous free trade of 

 the past three years, several immense 

 woolen mills have been completed in the 

 far Western wool States, and, with a res- 

 storation of protective duties, a great new 

 industry for this section will spring into 

 life. Beet sugar has also come to stay. 

 This industry will be given protection, 

 and the acreage in beets and the number 

 of sugar factories will increase in a more 

 astonishing way even than during 1895. 

 The quantity of sugar produced from beets 

 in the United States is already greater 

 than that produced from sugar cane, a 

 fact not generally known. Tanneries are 

 also increasing in number and these will 

 be protected by the duties on leather. In- 

 deed, the West and Southwest have come 

 to see that a high protective tariff is neces- 



sary along the whole line. Those Mexican 

 cattle will be shut out, and so will timber 

 and lumber from across the line. Liver- 

 pool salt will be taxed out, and the salt in- 

 dustries of Utah, Wyoming, etc. , will be 

 given a chance to revive by the demand 

 from the increasing number of packing- 

 houses, creameries, etc. 



Starch-making is now becoming a great 

 industry in the Western and Northwestern 

 States, great acres of land being sown to 

 potatoes for the sole purpose of starch- 

 making. Twenty new starch factories 

 were in operation in Minnesota, North 

 Dakota, South Dakota and other States 

 during 1895. The number of canneries 

 in the great fruit States was also largely 

 augmented. It is postively stated that 

 syrup can be manufactured from common 

 corncobs and this will also be a new in- 

 dustry. 



The Oscar Lake Syrup Association, near 

 Alexandria, Minn. , have a good outfit and 

 are making a first-class article of syrup 

 from sorghum and the yield goes about 

 170 gallons to the acre. 



The completion and successful operation 

 by the great flour-mill owners in Minne- 

 apolis of one of their mammoth mills at 

 Great Falls, Montana, is a signal that the 

 bread-producing region is moving west- 

 ward. Of course, before a great firm of 

 that kind would build a costly mill away 

 in the interior, they calculated all the 

 chances. To the amount of wheat which 

 Montana can raise there is hardly any 

 limit, and not many people realize how 

 great a State Montana is, or what its slum- 

 bering resources are capable of producing. 

 It is a better range State than Texas. It 

 is one of the foremost mining States. And, 

 if need be, it can be one of the first grain 

 States in the Republic that is for wheat, 

 oats, barley, etc. 



The contract recently made by the Ore 

 gon Railway & Navigation Company, mak- 

 ing its line of steamers to the Orient per- 

 manent, insures a great trade in Oregon's 

 flour with Asia. The manager of one of 

 the leading flour mills of the State says 

 their flour trade with Asia has doubled 

 twice within the past three years, and he 

 is confident it will be doubled again within 

 three years. The arrangements at present 

 are sufficient to handle 4,000 tons per 

 month, and in two or three years at far- 

 thest, two steamers per month will be 

 needed, instead of one, and the possibil- 



