THE IRRIGATION A GL 



145 



question is a coming one and a question 

 considered to be of great and pressing in- 

 terest to a large number of people, includ- 

 ing the commercial sections of the East 

 with their vast manufactories looking for 

 a market for their products. 



The desultory agitation of this session 

 on the irrigation subject is serving its 

 purpose well. 



New What would be the result of 



Markets, opening any one of the thous- 

 and valleys of the West which only await 

 the building of great storage reservoirs 

 and the utilization of the water saved to 

 convert them into thriving communities 

 of small rural homes? A thousand farms 



would be quickly created. A thousand 

 houses would go up, a thousand families 

 would move into them, and a thousand 

 farms would want plows and wagons and 

 machines and harnesses, while a thousand 

 housewives would want kitchen and house- 

 hold utensils, and several thousand people 

 would want clothes and boots and shoes 

 and hats and books and papers and fifty 

 other articles. This demand instead of 

 being supplied once only, would increase 

 and go on perpetually. And the demand 

 for these things would go to the producing 

 East. This is why the reclamation of the 

 West would help Massachusetts. 



