THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



n any part of the United States. All 

 the facilities for conducting a beet sugar 

 plant are excellent at this point, and if 

 the irrigation proposition could be taken 

 up by a company with a capital sufficient 

 to put up a factory, the outcome would be 

 much greater. A first class factory, with 

 the necessary working capital involves 

 about half a million dollars. Sugar beet 

 lands, accessible to factories, at any point 

 where this industry has been established, 

 are worth from one hundred and fifty to 

 two hundred and fifty dollars an acre. 

 This land would be worth as much as the 

 best now in use, but assuming that it 

 *ould be worth no more than the cheapest 

 land now in use for the purpose, the bonus 

 received by the company would represent 

 enough to cover the entire outlay for both 

 the irrigation plant and the factory. 



I am fully aware of the fact that these 

 propositions may look to a stranger very 

 much like the great schemes of Col. Mul- 

 berry Sellers, but if any cool headed bus- 

 iness man will come here and let me show 

 him the situation I think he will be con- 

 vinced that all the foregoing statements 

 ore under rather than over the truth." 



IN FAR-OFF INDIA. 



India has the largest and most extensive 

 irrigation system of any country and is 

 therefore best fitted to say whether gov- 

 ernment irrigation enterprises are profita- 

 ble or not. ^Indian Engineering," pub- 

 lished at Calcutta, contained in its Sep- 

 tember number an article on "Madras 

 Irrigation, 1896-97," in which a comparison 

 is made of the work done in these two 

 years. In closing this article states: 



"The three best irrigating systems, the 

 Cauvery, Godaveri, and Kistna, yielded 

 as dividend respectively 46, 16, and 10 

 per cent. These works have brought 

 when every charge is paid, a surplus pro- 

 fit of nearly seven and a quarter lakhs. 

 Unusually high floods caused much dam- 

 age throughout the province, and conse- 

 quent exceptional expenditure upon re- 

 dairs cut down returns from irrigation 



works to figures less than those of the two 

 previous years. But still the year's work 

 yielded on the whole an eminently satis- 

 factory result. Facts of this nature serve 

 to emphasize the now admitted truth that 

 irrigation works afford a safe perhaps 

 the safest investment for people's money." 



Under the heading "What Eddy, Eddy 

 County and the Lower Pecos Valley (N. 

 M.) Have:'' the Pecos Valley Argus sums 

 up many advantages. Among them : 



"Three hundred and forty days of sun- 

 shine in each year. 



"A nearness to the markets of the east 

 not enjoyed by any other irrigated dis- 

 trict. 



"The most extensive, complete and con- 

 venient irrigation system in the United 

 States, affording absolute protection 

 against drouth and crop failure. Twelve 

 hundred miles of irrigating canals delivers 

 the water to the farmer's door.'' 



And under the heading of what this 

 section "Wants" is given: 



"Hundreds of enterprising homeseekers 

 and tillers of the soil, for it is the inten- 

 tion of the managers of the great irrigation 

 enterprise to place the rich lands along 

 their canals within the reach of every in- 

 dustrious farmer. 



' 'Men who know that a forty acre irri- 

 gated farm will pay more net profit each 

 year than a 160-acre farm dependent on 

 rainfall. And that ten and twenty acre 

 tracts properly tilled are ample for the 

 support of an ordinary family." 



A correspondent to the Boston Herald 

 makes a plea for a representative of our 

 country in Mexico. He says: "I, in com- 

 mon with other countrymen, would like to 

 see an American ambassador in the capi- 

 tal of Mexico. We send an ambassador to 

 republican France: why not to republican 

 Mexico? * * * Let us show the Mexi- 

 ican people that we desire to treat them 

 with the highest consideration, that we 

 desire their good will and their practical 

 alliance: let us show them that we esteem 

 them as our equals." 



