AFTER THE CONGRESS. 



THE natural resources of the wonderful 

 State of California and its unrivalled 

 climate have been written about innumer- 

 able times, nevertheless, it will not be out 

 of place to refer to them again at this time, 

 as the delegates and visitors at the Fifth 

 National Irrigation Congress at Phoenix, 

 Arizona, December 15 to 17, will have an 

 opportunity of personally inspecting some 

 of the more renowned points, especially in 

 southern California. After the close of 

 the congress excursions will be made to 

 Los Angeles, Riverside 4 , Redlands and sev- 

 eral other towns for the purpose of show- 

 ing what can be accomplished with a com- 

 bination of California climate, fertile soil 

 and water. 



The model colonies will undoubtedly 

 attract the most attention from those who 

 are in any way interested in the movement 

 of population from cities to country homes 

 and its relation to irrigation, and also its 

 relation to the welfare of the nation at 

 large. The community settlements in Cal- 

 ifornia have been a success, though possi- 

 bly not as great a success as their founders 

 hoped for, but they clearly demonstrate 

 that the associative principle will underlie 

 all future development in reclaiming the 

 arid lands of the West. 



Colonization and irrigation go hand in 

 hand. Nearly, or indeed, every effort to 

 establish a dry-land colony in California 

 has ended in failure. Probably the earli- 

 est notable experiment in the colony line 

 was in 1857, at the time the first grape 

 craze swept over the state. Some German 

 mechanics in San Francisco were infected 

 with the vineyard fever, and not one of 

 them could bear the expense or had the 

 necessary experience to plant and bring to 

 maturity a twenty-acre vineyard. After 

 considerable discussion they decided upon 

 what was then an original plan, and which 

 may be said to be the pattern for modern 

 colonies. One of their members was dele- 

 gated to visit southern California, investi- 

 gate and report. A tract of 1,200 acres 



152 



was contracted for at about $1.50 an acre, 

 a superintendent chosen, and under his 

 directions the tract was laid out, a town 

 site surveyed and the whole area planted 

 with trees and vines in such manner that 

 when the colonists took possession of their 

 property, each twenty acres should have 

 the same area of the different varieties of 

 fruit. The members of the colony re- 

 mained at work in San Francisco until the 

 vines began to bear fruit, and then moved 

 on their little farms, which were now self- 

 sustaining. 



Such in brief is the history of the Ana- 

 heim colony, which will probably be one 

 of the points visited by the irrigation con- 

 gress delegates. 



The success of Anaheim was followed 

 by the founding of other colonies, some of 

 which have become known the world over. 



The casual visitor or tourist who is un- 

 acquainted with the miracles irrigation has 

 wrought will be inclined to think that he is 

 being given a modern version of Andersen's 

 fairy tales instead of every day truth. It 

 may stretch his belief in the veracity of 

 the narrator beyond the limit when he is 

 told that this superb state produces annu- 

 ally 70,000.000 pounds of raisins, 30,000,- 

 000 pounds of prunes, 8,000 carloads of 

 oranges, 20,000,000 gallons of wine, 26,- 

 000,000 pounds of beet sugar, not to men- 

 tion the other fruit, vegetable and cereal 

 crops. And all of these products depend- 

 ent, in a large measure, upon artificial 

 watering to bring them to maturity. 



But if the visitor is not interested in such 

 practical matters he will be amply repaid for 

 the trip by the sights and scenes along the 

 way, or he can join one of the excursions 

 which which will visit the Grand Canon of 

 the Colorado, where he will find some of 

 the grandest and most imposing scenery in 

 the world. 



For further particulars regarding the 

 congress and the excursions to follow it, 

 see the announcements elsewhere in this 

 issue. 



