THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



123 



particular localities through which they 

 pass, but it would benefit the state at large, 

 aud no one would derive more benefit from 

 this improvement than the farmer. As an 

 instance, it is estimated that in the state 

 of California alone the cost of transporting 

 products over roads, good, bad and indiffer- 

 ent, was $66,000,000 last year, whereas, if 

 the roads had all been in good condition, 

 it would have cost only $36,000,000. This 

 saving would have been placed to the 

 credit of the farmers. While it is true 

 that there has, in the past, been a feeling 

 of antagonism between the farmers and 

 the wheelmen, it is now time that both 

 sides should be willing to make conces- 

 sions, in order that both may benefit. The 

 movement in favor of good roads deserves 

 general and hearty support. 



Secretary Coburn, The object lesson 

 of Kansas. that Secretary Co- 



burn of the Kansas State Board of Agri- 

 culture offers as a means of making his 

 official position and labor therein of prac- 

 tical value to the farmers, is indeed a strik- 

 ing one. This indefatigable secretary, with 

 an amount of labor that is simply wonder- 

 ful, prepares bulletins and reports and 

 scatters them far and wide, and not the 

 least feature of this is that every bulletin 

 and every report is of the most intense 

 and practical interest to those for whom 

 they are intended the average farmer. 

 The work done by the state boards and 

 schools of agriculture and the governmen- 

 tal experiment stations cannot be overesti- 

 mated. No other single industry is so 

 well cared for as agriculture, and no other 

 industry so much needs it or so well repays 

 the time and money spent by the state and 

 federal governments. 



Steady In no department of journal- 

 Proyrcss. [ sm has there been a greater 

 advance, both as to the number of its rep- 

 resentatives and the chaiacter of its con- 

 tents, than in the agricultural and horti- 

 cultural press. Within the past thirty 

 years even those which were thought in 

 the earlier days to be the best possible, 

 have introduced improvements of great 

 importance, and have kept well abreast the 

 times in every respect. They have been, 

 and are a vast power for good. They dis- 

 seminate information which affects the 

 material and social welfare of the largest 

 single class of our population, and are 

 now commanding and liberally compensat- 

 ing a high order of talent. 



Significant The Northwestern Wholesale 

 Protest. Grocers' Association address- 

 ed a formal communication to the leading 

 dried fruit association of California, of 

 which the following paragraph was a part. 



"This Association, representing as it does all 

 the wholesale grocers doing business in the 

 Northwest, protests against the present demor- 

 alized condition of the dried-fruit market, grow- 

 ing out of the indiscriminate shipments of dried 

 fruits by the fruit-growers of your State to farm 

 produce and green-fruit dealers in this section 

 of the country. 



Important The United States Supreme 

 Decision. Court some time ago decided 

 that the desert land law did not apply to 

 lands within the limits of a railroad grant. 

 It naturally follows, although this partic- 

 ular point has not been officially deter- 

 mined, that all entries under the desert 

 land act were erroneously allowed, and that 

 where the final proof and payment was 

 not made, the entrymen were entitled to 

 the amount they had paid, under the act 

 of June 16, 1880. 



