18 1 HE IRRIGATION AGE. 



"There, where the soil under irrigation will grow the best quality 

 and greatest quantity of all the grains, except corn, .all the grasses 

 and fruits, the ground is seamed with deposits of gold, silver, copper, 

 lead, iron and coal. There the largest supply of standing timber, 

 and petroleum and natural gas abound. Under the influence of the 

 dry atmosphere and constant sunshine, good health prevails, and the 

 melted snow in falling to the sea level creates a water power avail- 

 able for electric heat, light, and motor service, equivalent in energy 

 to the combustion of 300,000,000 tons of coal per annum. 



"People regard with amazement the present rapid growth of 

 wealth in the United States, but this will be comparative poverty 

 when with twenty million people on the Pacific slope engaged in rais- 

 ing grain and manufacturing flour for the orient, we can dispatch 

 large freighters daily from each of the Pacific ports loaded with the 

 manufactured goods of the Eastern factories, the cotton of the South, 

 and the food products of the mountain valleys. Then a river of 

 wealth will be turned into the United States, which will put to shame 

 the visions of the wildest dreamers. 



"If Congress at its next session will appropriate $100,000,000 in 2 

 per cent bonds to be used in canal and reservoir construction, the 

 money will be returned directly many times in the increased value of 

 the public land. Indirectly, in trade results, the benefits will be per- 

 manent and incalcuable. As a matter of political policy, the party 

 which will take up and boldly advocate an immediate and liberal ap- 

 propriation will receive the support of millions of people now home- 

 less and discontented who desire homes and the opportunity to make 

 a living by honest labor. 



"The agricultural products of the Pacific slope cannot come into 

 competion with the farmers of the middle West. On the contrary, 

 the section will open a large market for corn and hog products not 

 producable here. The storage of the water in mountain reservoirs 

 will reduce the flood level of the lower rivers and measurably relieve 

 the cotton and sugar estates from the dangers of overflow. . 



"A policy of arid land reclamation to be effective must be con- 

 ducted on a large scale. An entire appropriation of only 161,000,000 

 would be childish. Two hundred and fifty million dollars was voted 

 without discussion for the Spanish war. This was for waste. In 

 these days of large undertakings an expenditure of $'00,000,000 for a 

 permanent improvement which will benefit millions of people should 

 not cause hesitation. Such an amount, properly used, would add 

 three billion dollars to the national wealth. Wnile it would make 

 homes for a multitude of settlers, the greatest benefits would come to 

 the manufacturers of the Eastern and middle Western states and their 

 employes, and to the cotton raisers and spinnzrs of the South. ''- 

 California Cultivator. 



