OF WIDE-SPREAD INTEREST. 



IRRIGATION COMING RAPIDLY TO THE FRONT. 



The wide spread interest that is being awakened in the irrigation 

 industry is evinced by the prominence given it in the different 

 periodicals. Hitherto it has received attention only through agricul- 

 tural publications and those of a kindred nature, and the fact that 

 quite a lengthy article bearing on this subject was given in the 

 Christian Science Sentinel is a flattering indication of how general the 

 interest is in irrigation. The article in question was an editorial on 

 "The Power of the West,'' and the editor says "there is a necessity 

 for awakening the people of the East to the rapidly increasing mag- 

 nitude of ihe great West." Continuing the writer says: 



"It is high time such an awakening should take place. A more 

 thoughtful study, by the people of the East, of the almost limitless 

 possibilities of the vast region of country lying between the Mississ- 

 ippi River and the Pacific Ocean, will bring with it a revelation even 

 more wonderful than that which followed the discovery of the Ameri- 

 can continent by Columbus: especially that part west of the Missouri 

 River, which only of recent years has been, to any extent, developed. 



"This region of country is a vast empire, embracing within itself 

 every needed element of material prosperity. Its agricultural re- 

 sources, brought to their highest development, would furnish a net 

 product almost equal to the world's present demands. Its mineral 

 wealth of gold, silver, lead, copper, coal, petroleum, natural gas, iron, 

 etc., is only just becoming known. The discoveries and output thus 

 far are but suggestions of the vast treasure-vaults yet undiscovered. 

 Its horticultural possibilities are astonishing even the oldest experi- 

 menters. Its grazing cattle and sheep raising facilities are vast 

 beyond the conception of those unfamiliar therewith. A large part of 

 this great region is arid, and can only be reclaimed to cultivation by 

 means of irrigation, and this is being done, thereby adding, with an- 

 nually increasing rapidity, to the settlement and population of a 

 region which, in the past, has been believed to be uninhabitable." 



The editor then quotes as follows from the "Personal Recollec- 

 tions of Gen. Nelson A. Miles/' regarding a certain section of Cali- 

 fornia: 



" Within the memory of most readers it was a hopeless desert, 

 with an oasis here and there around which all there was of the Span- 

 ish civilization had clustered. American ingenuity, tempted by a cli- 

 mate which ha, perhaps, no parallel in the world, found new sources 

 of water. The highest resources of modern engineering science were 



