THE IRRIGATION AGE 



51 



but I would rather leave my name attach- 

 ed to some great reservoir like that on 

 the Gila or Salt River above Phrenix 

 which cannot now be built because 

 immediate returns on the outlay are not 

 certain, than leave it to be fought over 

 by nephews or cousins w r ho for years 

 have been praying for uiy translation to 

 a better or rather another world. In 

 time colleges, churches and hospitals 

 can be built and heirs also be made happy 

 out of the income. In the meantime let 

 our dear cousins earn a living from the 

 soil below it and gain a good stomach to 

 digest the good fare in which they will 

 riot when they finger the income from 

 our earned gold. 



RECENT FLOODS. 



In connection with the recent damag- 

 ing floods on the Mississippi, Missouri 

 and Ohio it is an encouraging sign to 

 note that the large daily papers have 

 begun to realize the importance of irriga- 

 tion. 



Philadelphia Record: If its surplus 

 waters could be diverted and stored for 

 irrigating purposes what a blessing it 

 would be to the millions who dwell upon 

 the plains and to the millions upon mil- 

 lions who will people them as time rolls 

 011 ! The Mississippi is big and so is the 

 future, and so is the mind of little man, 

 and there is no telling what may be 

 achieved in the matter of utilizing the 

 now destructive and terrifying flood. 



Chicago Times-Herald: The simplest 

 of all plans, which has already been out- 

 lined in the Times-Herald, is the adop- 

 tion of irrigation in northern farming, 

 or in those states whose waters are 

 tributary to the Ohio and Mississippi. 

 It would accomplish two great results. 

 It would make farming more profitable, 

 and it would prevent the disastrous 

 floods. Waters stored on northern 

 farms for use in midsummer cannot 

 devastate the low countries to the south- 

 ward while our farmers would never 

 suffer from a season of drouth. 



A LARGE CORPORATION. 



In a recent number of Current Liter- 

 ature an English wrier asserts that " the 

 greatest corporation on earth is the 

 London and Northwestern railway com- 

 pany of England, with its capital of 

 $595,000,000, a revenue of $6,500 an 

 hour, 2,300 engines and 60,000 employes 

 and repairs that cost $130,000 a month." 



" Everything is made by the company," 

 says this writer, " bridges, engines, rails, 

 carriages, w r agons and inumerable lot of 

 other things even the coal scuttles and 

 the wooden limbs for the injured of the 

 staff." 



The Northwestern railway company 

 is no doubt a gigantic corporation for a 

 little country like England and worth 

 bragging about, but we have got a big- 

 ger one here in the United States that 

 might absorb it very easily. The Penn- 

 sylvania railroad, for example, has a 

 capital of $857,075,600 and 15,430 miles 

 of track, which traverses thirteen states. 

 It has 3,756 locomotives, which consume 

 10,000 tons of coal a day and make runs 

 equal to the distance around the globe 

 every two hours. It has 3,935 passenger 

 cars, 154,000 freight cars, 350 Pullman 

 cars and 241 other cars for construction 

 and other purposes, making a total of 

 158,524 cars, which make a journey 

 equal to the circumference of the earth 

 in every eight minutes. These locomo- 

 tives and cars, if placed upon a single 

 track, would reach from New York to 

 Chicago, or ten times the distance 

 between Philadelphia and New York. 

 The rails of the Pennsylvania Railroad, if 

 laid end to end, would encircle the globe 

 and overlap about 4,000 miles. The 

 total annual revenue of the road is $135, 

 000,000 equal to $372,506 a day, and 

 $15,525 every hour of the day and night 

 -which is two and a half times as 

 much as that of the Northwestern of 

 England. 



