NATIONAL IRRIGATION CON- 

 GRESS. 



The indications are that the coming ninth annual session of the- 

 National Irrigation Congress, which will meet in Chicago Nov. 21 to 

 24 inclusive, will mark a turning point in the history of the national 

 irrigation question in the United States. 



For a nnmber of years the national irrigation movement has been 

 steadily growing and advancing its lines from the western country, 

 where irrigation means life, into the East, where the problem of land 

 reclamation through the application of water is but little under- 

 stood. The crest of the wave which marks a new era for national ir- 

 rigation is seen in the interest which is being evinced in the move- 

 ment by eastern manufacturers and commercial houses, who see in 

 the general western reclamation of the desert a greatly increased 

 home market for their various lines of goods and manufactures. The 

 co-operation and support of the eastern business man in the direction 

 of water storage means a distinct and tremendous gain to the national 

 irrigation movement. 



The ninth annual session of the Congress, it is evident, will be a 

 business men's Congress. Instead of discussing abstract theories of 

 irrigation and water conservation with long scientific articles and well 

 rounded speeches generalizing on the stupendous possibilities, enor- 

 mous wealth and inconceivably great future of the West through the 

 reclamation of vast areas of now uninhabitable aridity, this Congress 

 proposes to get down to business and simply work oul, endorse and 

 push a plan of action by which something definite can be accom- 

 plished. 



"Save the Forests and Store the Floods," has been adopted as a 

 motto for the Convention and the discussion will probably be in the 

 lines of how to get at this work and do it. 



An excellent program has been arranged which includes addresses 

 by some eminent men in political, official and business circles. Some 

 of the sessions will be at the Auditorium Theatre which has a capacity 

 of four thousand, and the indication of attendance point to no empty 

 seats. 



The following paragraps are taken from the Call, which has just 

 been issued by the Congress: 



" The ninth annual session of the National Irrigation Congress 

 will be held at Chicago, Ills., on Nov. 21, 22, 23 and 24, 1900. The 



