WESTEUlSr SUPIiEMACY. 37 



below, a system of powers will be developed unparalleled 

 in the history of the world. Here, then, factories can be 

 established, and the rivers be made to do the work of 

 fertilization, and the violence of mountain torrents can 

 be transformed into electricity to illumine the villages, 

 towns, and cities of all that land."^ 



It should be remarked that the rainfall seems to be 

 increasing with the cultivation of the soil. And it is 

 worthy of note that what rain there is usually falls in 

 those months when it is most needed, and that there is 

 little or none during harvest. 



4. The arable lands in the Rocky Mountains are 

 mainly in valleys, which, like basins, have gathered the 

 detritus of the mountains for ages. The soil is there- 

 fore very deep and strong, yielding much more than 

 the same area in the East; and in the Southwest two 

 crops a year from the same soil are very common, so 

 that this land is equal to twice or three times the same 

 area in the East. ' ' Experiments in California, Nevada, 

 Colorado, Utah, Arizona and other irrigating countries, 

 show that eighty acres of irrigated land properly culti- 

 vated far exceed in productive capacity IGO acres 

 watered by rainfall."'-^ 



5. The above estimate of arable lands in the West does 

 not include the timber lands, a large proportion of which 

 is of the finest quality. Of the 400,000 square miles of 

 timber, 45,000 are in Texas, 2(3,000 in x\rkansas, and 

 25,000 in Minnesota. A large proportion of the whole is 

 in the Mississippi valley, and a good deal of the remain- 

 der is on fine soil, so that it is reasonable to infer that 

 100,000 square miles or more of this timber land would 

 be arable, if cleared. Moreover, much of the 645,000 

 square miles of grazing land will prove to be arable. 

 We may, therefore, expect the arable lands of the West 

 ultimately to reach 900,000 square miles, and perhaps 

 1,000,000. 



1 iVIaj. J. W. Powell in The Century for April, 1890. 



2 Senator W. M. Stewart in Hie Forum for April, 1889. 



