32 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



than a quarter section of land, or one hundred and sixty acres." 



When discoursing on artesian wells, we asked Mr. Greeley if he 

 felt confident that water would be reached in a majority of in- 

 stances, if the experiment of sinking such wells was made in the arid 

 portions of our country. His answer, given in the affirmative, was 

 coupled with hesitation, and he concluded by saying, that while he 

 was quite confident, he was so doubtful at times about it, as to experi- 

 ence a feeling of despondency, since the resources of the richest 

 portion of our country could only be developed by ample water 

 supplies. 



With his usual clearness of vision, he made frequent mention of 

 a faith within him, that the time would come when those seas 

 and oceans of water, descending in rivers of ceaseless flow from the 

 melting of snows and ices upon the summits of great ranges, would 

 in some way be arrested, held back and made use of for purposes 

 of irrigation. Solar evaporation, as he impressively declared, was 

 the great obstacle to success in this direction. 



" Dam up these waters as you may," he said, " and hold them 

 back as you will, or move them forward, that tongue of fire which 

 comes from a sky completely cloudless from April to November, 

 with the mercury ranging from eighty to one hundred and fifty 

 degrees between sunrise and sunset of each day, leaves little hope 

 for such a system of water preserve and supply as will gather them 

 in for mechanical, manufacturing and mining purposes, to say 

 nothing of domestic uses or those of irrigation." 



In one of these conversations, Mr. Greeley made mention of the 

 reported existence in Southern California, if our memory serves 

 us well, in the neighborhood of Los Angeles, where, in the midst 

 of a desert, was seen an oasis so remarkable as to occasion surprise. 

 This was a valley, as described to him, of perpetual green, along 

 which for several miles was found growing at all seasons of the 



