8 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



which includes California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas 

 and Texas, has a direct ocean connection with foreign points, and the 

 grains and fruits, with cattle, hogs and sheep, are in demand for 

 shipment to the consuming cities and isles of Oceanica. The land of 

 irrigation of the present day has no idle laborers in any honest 

 vocation or legitimate industry. If agriculturalists are wandering 

 about the country in quest of employment, they are of all men the 

 most miserable, for numerous opportunities are open on every hand, 

 for labor investments. The soil has yielded of abundant fertility, 

 and harvest fields await reapers. 



The entire people of our vast country must be interested in this 

 development of commercial interests. As irrigation is necessary to 



TACoMA HARBoR. 



successful soil culture in twenty states and territories, the general 

 government should exercise a paternal oversight in directing and 

 shaping the destinies of those engaged in reclaiming the land from 

 desert aridity. To properly lend assistance in this matter more 

 national forest reserves should be established and the native forests 

 protected. This can be done by Congressional enactment, and the 

 appointment of competent foresters who will forever prohibit the 

 destruction of those mountain reservoirs, by excluding sheep and 

 cattle from the limits and preventing the woodman's ax from making 

 merchandise of the timber. 



Individual efforts cannot conquer the western enemy of soil 

 husbandry the lack of rainfall but the general government, through 

 a union of Congressional and State legislative action, can construct 



