THE IRRIGATION AGE 



23 



been no construction work going on and 

 what is just as important, there has been 

 no organized movement with irrigation 

 as its watchword. Of course there are 

 reasons for this stagnation. The unpar- 

 alleled industrial and financial depression 

 has prohibited capital from seeking out- 

 let in new enterprises, especially as 

 many of those already in existence have 

 proved unprofitable. Again an almost 

 inconceivable lack of public spirit among 

 western business men regarding this 

 most important question, is responsible 

 in a measure for the failure of public 

 work, although this could largely have 

 been overcome if some broad-minded 

 friend of irrigation had been willing to 

 devote a little time to arousing public 

 sentiment. Organization and active 

 work are needed and some one must be 

 unselfish enough to sacrifice minor per- 

 sonal interests that the work may be 

 adequately carried on. The opportunity 

 is here and the time is now. 



Activity in Cattle There seem to be 

 Industry. indications of a re- 



vival in the cattle industry that if of a 

 genuine lasting character will prove of 

 the greatest benefit to western interests 

 in general. Cattle are now being pur- 

 chased in large quantities to be fattened 

 during the spring and summer and sold 

 in the fall. A prominent financial man 

 in one of the western states estimates 

 that over 50,000 head of cattle will be 

 feeding in his county inside of the next 

 few months. This activity means higher 

 prices for hay and corn and other feed 

 and increased business in other lines. 



Arrested The one serious 



Development. trouble with the 

 United States is that its development 

 was arrested at a critical moment, at a 

 time when it should have assumed a form 

 of greater and more intense activity. 

 The pilgrim fathers of Massachusetts, 

 the pioneers of the South and the 

 middle West, went forth into the wilder- 

 ness and conquered new empires. The 

 wave of civilization starting at the At- 

 lantic seacoast and sweeping back to the 

 Alleghanies and through the valleys of 

 the Ohio and the Mississippi marked, in 

 its various stages of progress, epochs in 

 the history of the country, and the 

 nation prospered as no nation on the 

 face of the globe had ever done before. 



Reaching the Missouri river it paused 

 and it is still pausing. ' The tide of 

 settlement overlapped in spots. It 

 subdued Kansas, Nebraska and South 

 Dakota until the drouth drove it back. 

 It broke through the mighty Rockies 

 here and there. It went around to the 

 Pacific coast, but the grand total of area 

 subjugated to the use of man was but as 

 handful. Today the East, thickly pop- 

 ulated and developed, is groaning under 

 its weight of idle labor and capital; the 

 West, practically a virgin country, is 

 groaning because of the lack of labor 

 and capital to open and develop its al- 

 most unlimited resources. Let the 

 march of progress and conquest be re- 

 sumed. 



Irrigation Agriculture is the 



Opens the basis of all human 



Gateway. industry, and irri- 



gation is the mainstay of agriculture. 

 Upon the arid lands of the West can be 

 supported a population equaling that of 

 the entire country at present. This can 

 be accomplished by intensive and diver- 

 sified agriculture by irrigation. Fewer 

 acres better cultivated will yield larger 

 returns than a vast area thinly scratched 

 over. The full significance of this can 

 be appreciated when it is considered that 

 forty-acre irrigated farms means four 

 times the population that 160-acre farms 

 will allow. Again, the farmer who has 

 the water of the irrigation ditch at his 

 command is one of the most independent 

 of men. His crops are assured. He 

 diversifies his operations and produces 

 all himself and family consume, with a 

 surplus which can be exchanged for 

 clothing or other necessary articles, or 

 money to be reserved for old age. He is 

 practically free from outside influences. 



The Age The eleventh volume 



Vol. XI. of THE IRRIGATION 



AGE began with the last issue, and this 

 is an opportune time to again outline 

 the work which this publication has un- 

 dertaken. Believing firmly in irriga- 

 tion as the only method of farming by 

 which plentiful crops can be assured 

 every season, we still further believe 

 that irrigation presents the one broad firm 

 foundation upon which Western pros- 

 perity can be erected, and that it will act as 

 a safety valve through which can escape 

 the discontent now prevailing. The 



