164 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



can be made to reach and interest a multi- 

 tude of people in the East. Many who 

 now rank as old settlers out here got their 

 first impulse to move West from some such 

 publication. 



Our church organizations are powerful 

 agencies in peopling the West. Their 

 work in its various lines goes on so quietly 

 that we come to think of it as a matter of 

 course and scarcely realize how potent a 

 force it is in this connection. 



One of the most impelling causes of im- 

 migration to the West hitherto has been 

 the vast body of public lands open to 

 homestead e"ntry and the considerable area 

 of railroad grant lands for sale at low 

 prices in the rain belt regions west of the 

 Mississippi river, but the situation is now 

 changed, these lands are now practically 

 all gone, and although Uncle Sam's public 

 domain still embraces, according to the 

 recent annual report of the Secretary of 

 the Interior, six hundred millions acres 

 outside of Alaska, the seeker for a free 

 home now must invade the arid or semi- 

 arid region to obtain the national heritage. 

 Secretary Francis urges upon Congress the 

 need of legislation for the reclamation and 

 disposal of lands within the arid regions 

 and suggests amendment of the Carey law, 

 or placing the lands under the direction of 

 the states, only so far as may be necessary 

 to secure their reclamation for the benefit 



of actual settlers. Hon. J. Sterling Mor- 

 ton, Secretary of Agriculture, in bis an- 

 nual report, states that the exported prod- 

 ucts of American farms during the last 

 fiscal year increased $17,000,000 over the 

 preceding year, and asks why a nation pos- 

 sessing, as does the United States, the 

 greatest power and facilities for producing 

 and manufacturing things which the world 

 demands, is not destined to monopolize 

 the markets of the globe. President Cleve- 

 land, in his message to Congress just ut- 

 tered, says that the number of foreign im- 

 migrants arriving at our ports during the 

 fiscal year shows an increase of 84,781, or 

 nearly 33 per cent, over the previous 

 year. 



So the necessities of the times touching 

 the disposal of public lands, the increase 

 in the market for American products, the 

 revival of foreign immigration to the 

 United States, the overcrowded condition 

 of the East, the absorption of the rainbelt 

 districts of the West, all render the pres- 

 ent a most favorable period for this body, 

 through its work and influence, to secure 

 now such legislation as will result in the 

 undertaking of irrigation enterprises that 

 will soon place under ditch a great area of 

 public land that is now worthless, and no 

 other action that could be taken would do 

 so much to stimulate immigation to the 

 arid region. 



AN IDAHO HOP YARD. 



