256 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 



But the time is not yet. The falling off came first in the land that can 

 be worked upon the rainfall alone. The purchases of this lasted some 

 three years after the collapse of the great real estate boom of '86-7-8 

 which raged in many parts of the west but reached its greatest height 

 in Southern California. The irrigated land continued selling and in 

 California actually exceeded in many places the highest figures of the 

 : great boom. This continued until about three years ago. The first year 

 of the hard times affected it but slightly, the second a little more and then 

 the demand failed rapidly until now there is little more demand for it in any 

 part of the west at any price than there is for dry land. And this in 

 spite of the fact that the irrigators have stood the hard times better than 

 any other people in the country and infinitely better than the merchants 

 and professional men of .the cities. The man to be pitied through all 

 these times is the poor devil who has to ' 'rustle cash" to pay pay rent and 

 buy provisions while the man on the farm does not. 1 mean the farmer 

 who farms, not the man who farms by proxy or farms to get rich over 

 night on hired labor which he is intending to pay out of the prospective 

 wealth. 



I would not have believed it possible even three years ago that the 

 irrigated land would come to this pass although it was then plain enough 

 with the unirrigated land. But it is a fact and Mr. Mount is only one of 

 hundreds who happen to know it too well. 



There is no reason for the friends of irrigation to be discouraged. 

 But there is the best of reasons for looking plain facts squarely in the 

 face. All of a sudden irrigation will come to the front with a bound that 

 will surprise us all for there is too much in it to lie idle. The first real 

 dry season in the east may do it or there may be a sudden exodus from 

 the cities. It needs only a start to grow into a rush and there are 

 plenty of fine land and water propositions to be had cheap to make the 

 beginning with. From what I have learned of the plans of the Salva- 

 tion Army I believe they have the key of the situation. Those who think 

 them a lot of cranks know nothing of them or their purposes or methods. 

 Religious belief has nothing to do with the settler's qualifications but he 

 must work and work well or he will get no land and will get ' 'fired" 

 without pay for what he has done unless he works up to a certain stand- 

 ard. Nothing like that has ever been designed; for effectiveness it can- 

 not be surpassed; and if they will adhere to that plan the Army deserves 

 encouragement in every possible way. 



Mr. Mount says that farmers under some ditches in Utah have told 

 him that it was safer for them to trust to the little water they had or 

 even to dry farming than to pay for irrigation at the cost per acre asked 

 from the canal company. He says they are unwilling to pay the cost 

 per acre to farther improve their land if they have a ditch that covers 

 even a small portion of it. He does not mean to imply nor do the far- 

 mers necessarily mean to imply, that the charges of the company are 

 unreasonable. But this is what the reader would infer, especially in 



