THE EDITOR'S DRAWER. 



103 



M. Greene, of Chamberlain; A. J. Lock- 

 hart, of Clear Lake; J. H. Baldwin. F. 

 W. Morris was elected president, S. W. 

 Narregang secretary, T. H. Brown treas- 

 urer. 



PRAIRIE FARMERS in the central Western 

 States are all preparing to have irrigation 

 reservoirs, and for more reasons than one. 

 They want food fish, and they also want a 

 supply of pure ice for the hot months of 

 summer. 



THE fruit growers of California, New 

 Mexico, Colorado, Washington, Idado, 

 and Oregon, have thoroughly organized 

 and they ask justice from the railroads 

 and from the Chicago commission men. 

 They have not been fairly treated by some 

 of the Chicago dealers. 



NEW mining legislation will likely come 

 from Washington which will greatly sim- 

 plify matters. An attempt will be made to 

 pass a law requiring that there shall be no 

 workings beyond the width and length of 

 each claim, doing away with the present 

 method of following leads. 



To AN interested observer it would seem 

 very much as if those exhibition trains 

 through the central West and East did 

 jnst the opposite to what was desired. In- 

 stead of prompting farmers to change 

 their locations, the splendid crops exhibited 

 suggested to them that they could remain 

 at home and irrigate their present hold- 

 ings. 



CONGRESS must throw safeguards . about 

 those 1,000,000 acre land grants to the 

 Western States and Territories. The 

 cattle interests should be considered, of 

 course, but it is openly charged that Chi- 

 cago and Eastern so-called cattle kings 

 are laying plans to gobble up these lands 

 under long leases from the States and 

 Territories. 



THE fifteenth annual meeting of the 

 American Forestry association was held at 

 Washington recently. The main object of 

 the gathering was to secure the enactment 

 of a law for the proper administration of 

 the forest reserves in the United States, 

 which aggregate 17,564,800 acres, and to 

 secure the protection of the forests on public 

 ands. 



A "POPULAR LOAN" is somewhat better 

 than a deal in which a syndicate gathers 

 in millions, but the necessity for a "popu- 

 lar loan" and the loan itself are to be 

 deplored. Of course numerous banks will 

 suspend payment rather than let the 

 people withdraw their deposits to invtes 

 them in bonds. Money in the banks is 

 really money in circulation in business en- 

 terprises. 



BI-METALLISM seems still to be going to 

 the front. In his speech at Columbus, 

 Mr. Foraker, the new Republican Ohio 

 senator, outlined his policy as favoring 

 protection to home industry and also bi- 

 metallism. He believed the world made 

 a mistake when it demonetized silver, and 

 ' ' sincerely hopes that some safe way may 

 be found for the restoration of silver to its 

 rightful place alongside of gold as a 

 money of ultimate redemption." 



AT the annual meeting of the Western 

 Society of Engineers, in Chicago, officers 

 were elected as follows: President, John 

 F. Wallace, chief engineer of the Illinois 

 Central; first vice-president, Thomas T. 

 Johnson of the drainage board; second 

 vice-president, Alfred Noble of the Nica- 

 ragua Canal board; secretary, Charles J. 

 Roney treasurer, E. Gerber of Morrison 

 & Gerber, engineers; trustee, Horace E. 

 Horton, president of the Chicago Bridge 

 Company. 



IF Western and Northwestern farmers 

 see fit to risk themselves and their families 

 south of Mason and Dixon's line, well 

 and good. It may be truthfully stated, 

 however, that the survivors of colonies 

 which went South from the Northwest two 

 and three years ago, and who have just 

 managed to get back, tell most dismal 

 tales. They insist that only negroes can 

 work in that climate. They say also that 

 in many cases it was impossible to perfect 

 the titles to land. 



THE comparative small cost of irrigation 

 in Illinois and the other central Western 

 States, as shown in the January number of 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE, seems to have aston- 

 ished the farmers. Further information 

 on the subject is given in this number. 

 The irrigation fever is an epidemic that 

 is sweeping in every direction, especially 

 in this State, Indiana, Michigan, and Wis- 

 consin. Experiments are also being made 

 in Missouri. 



