260 



7 HE IRR1 CA TION A GE. 



Worthy 

 of Notice. 



complished. We are passing through an 

 industrial crisis in which labor is arrayed 

 against capital but the present evils of 

 this strife may result in an agreement 

 between the two factions, which will lead 

 to more amicable relations between them 

 it may be the storm which will clear 

 the atmosphere ; the fight after which 

 victor and vanquished shake hands. 



The Minneapolis Tribune, 

 of recent date, calls atten- 

 tion to the fact that one 

 feature of President McKinley's last 

 message to Congress which did not at- 

 tract much attention at the time but 

 which is worthy of notice, is the para- 

 graph directing attention to the subject 

 of good roads. He said: "There is a 

 widespread interest in the improvement 

 of our public highways at the present 

 time, and the department of agriculture 

 is co-operating Tsith the people in each 

 locality in making the best possible roads 

 from local material and experimenting 

 with steel tracks." This is the first time 

 in recent years, since the advent of the 

 railroads, that the subject of the common 

 roads has been deemed of sufficient 

 importance to be made one of the topics 

 of the president's message. 



In accordouce with the above declared 

 policy the department of agriculture has 

 just shown its interests in the subject by 

 issuing at the public expense in pamphlet 

 form an elaborate article by W. H. 

 Moore. 



Both Pood 

 and Drink. 



Irrigated farms never wear 

 out. It may occur to 

 farmers who are in the 

 habit of applying a large quantities of 

 manure and fertilizer to their lands and 

 raising only moderate crops, that Avhere 

 irrigation is practiced and immense crops 

 grown every season without intermission, 

 either increased manuring is necessary or 

 in its absence, the land, from the increased 

 drain put upon it, will gradually lose 

 fertility. This is not shown to be the 



case however. Where the irrigating 

 water is drawn from surface supplies, it 

 itself furnishes an everlasting source of 

 fertility. The lands irrigated by the 

 Nile floods, are of surpassing richness and 

 their tillers never heard of such things a& 

 crop rotation, plowing under clover, 

 manuring, or fertilizing. The ancient 

 irrigated rice fields of the Philippines, 

 which yield from four to six times the 

 crop of the dry-farmed sections, have 

 never known artificial fertilizing, and in 

 the United States we have evidence of 

 New Mexican farms which have been 

 under cultivation for 250 years and are 

 to-day as productive as virgin land. 

 Irrigation water is^both drink and food. 



The famine- in" India, oc- 



the monsoon^rains, is a 

 topic made familiar to the reading public 

 by the newspapers, but after all it is 

 doubtful we hare any adequate conception 

 of the awful want and^ suffering there. 

 This is said to be the worst famine ever 

 experienced by the country and to make 

 matters worse, England is so engaged in 

 the South African war as to be unable to- 

 give the help she otherwise would. 

 Three years ago England gave $3,000,000 

 for the relief of the famine sufferers but 

 now the sick and wounded soldiers claim 

 her attention. The viceroy of India gives 

 the number of persons affected by the 

 famine as 61,000,000 and the distress con- 

 stantly increasing, while there are 5,500- 

 0(10 people on the relief works established 

 by the government. An India corres- 

 pondent to a London paper claims that 

 much of the distress might have been 

 avoided if the government had pursued 

 the proper policy, there being plenty of 

 food in India but the high land taxes and 

 high rents had deprived large masses of 

 the people from the ability to pay for it. 

 If this statement be true, then the govern- 

 ment should send out foraging parties, 

 just as is done in time of war, to seize the 

 necessary food for distribution among the 



