THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. XII. 



CHICAGO, JANUARY, 1898. 



NO. 4, 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN BMERICA. 



OtR NEW 

 AUUK1CSS 



Owing to tlie fa ft that much 

 of tlie Irrigation Age mall 

 goes to tlie oltlce of tlie former 

 management, thus causing an iiifoiiveiii- 

 < in delay,all commuiiic utioiis to the jour- 

 nal should be addressed to J.E.Forrest, 

 Publisher of Age, 916 \V. Harrison Street, 

 as in this way only will they receive 

 prompt attention. 



Good-bye 



Old 



Year 



The year 1897 with all of its 

 "good days, its bad days," lies 

 behind us; one more rosary-bead has slipped 

 through Time's fingers and as the royalists 

 cried "The king is dead, long live the 

 king'' so do we say "the old year is gone- 

 A Happy New Year. " The infant hand 

 of 1898 has a firm grip on the scepter, but 

 ere we forget entirely the monarch of 1897, 

 let us glance ^vcr our shoulder and see 

 what kind of a reign it was. Despite the 

 pessimist's lament, 1897 wasn't half such 

 a bad fellow. He was born in poverty and 

 so had a hard struggle from the start, for 

 "hard times" had been the cry for two 

 years preceding New Year's day of 1897. 

 AY hat an eventful life he lived in one short 

 twelve month! He sung "God save the 

 Queen" at Victoria's golden jubilee, he 

 dropped his tears at the grave of many a 

 noted man, who passed to his last sleep 

 after years of usefulness; poets, philoso- 

 phers, statesmen, many-of them stepped 

 out of the race in 1897. He saw a new 

 president take his scat in the chief execu- 

 tive's chair, he saw the miners start for 

 the newly discovered gold fields of Alaska, 

 and saw therevivalof California's "golden 



days." He has looked witli sorrow upon 

 the bloody scenes in Cuba, his heart has 

 ached at the cries of hunger that have 

 come from India and Ireland, and he has 

 rejoiced with us in our prosperity. For 

 Nature gave to us with generous hand, and 

 the past year has been one of renewed 

 prosperity. Despite the long drouth of 

 last summer, the corn crop was unusually 

 large and we exported more corn the past 

 year, as well as rye, oats and provisions, 

 than we have in the last six years. The 

 export of wheat was also the largest it has 

 been since 1891 and owing to the famines 

 in other countries and the comparative 

 shortness of the crops, it brought an ex- 

 tremely high price so high as to be far 

 beyond the expectations of the most san- 

 guine. The hay crop was rather short, as 

 was also the fruit yield, particularly in the 

 East, apples, cherries, and peaches being 

 somewhat scarce, but the Pacific coast had 

 a good fruit year. Small fruits were very 

 plentiful, with the exception of cranberries; 

 the vegetable supply was not quite as large 

 as the preceding year and prices were 

 therefore higher. This is particularly 

 true of potatoes. Owing to the blight the 

 potato crop was poor, and as in Ireland 

 they had almost no crop at all from the 

 same disease, potatoes are now bringing 

 from 50 to 75 cents per bushel, when last 

 year they brought from 10 to 25. 



The record in hogs was second only to 

 that of 1891, which was a record-breake 



