THE IRRIGATION AGE 



VOL. XXIV 



CHICAGO, FEBRUARY, 1909. 



NO. 4 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



With which is Merged 



MODERN IRRIGATION THE DRAINAGE JOURNAL 



THE IRRIGATION ERA MID-WBST 



ARID AMERICA THE FARM HERALD 



IRRIGATION AGE COMPANY, 



PUBLISHERS. 



112 Dearborn Street, 



CHICAGO 



Entered u Kcond-cUn Better October 3, 1897, t the 

 Chicago, III., under Act of March 3, 1879. 



D. H. ANDERSON, Editor 



ANNOUNCEMENT. 



"The Primer of Irrigation" is now ready for delivery. Price, 

 J2-00. If ordered in connection with subscription, the price is $1.50. 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE. 



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To Canada and Mexico . l.M 



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In forwarding: remittances please do not send checks on local banki. 

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Official organ Federation of Tree Growing Clubs of 

 America. D. H. Anderson, Secretary. 



Official organ of the American Irrigation Federation. 

 Office of the Secretary, 212 Boyce Building, Chicago. 



Interesting to Advertisers. 



It may interest advertisers to know that The Irrigation Age it th 

 only publication in the world having an actual paid in advance 

 circulation among individual irrigators and large irrigation corpo- 

 rations. It a read regularly by all interested in this subject and n*i 

 readers in all parts of the world. The Irrigation Age is 24 yean 

 old and is the pioneer publication of its class in the world. 



Looking forward along the lines of the 

 Irrigation country's commercial activity for the year 

 Securities. 1909, there is no industry that promises 

 so much achievement, so great an advance- 

 ment and increase in values and so large a return on 

 the capital invested from the banker's and investor's 

 point of view, as well as that of the actual farmer, as 

 securities in irrigated land. 



This is by no means a new industry, yet compara- 

 tively little attention has been given it as a field for 

 investment for the banker and investor, and as great 

 an opportunity for the manufacturer to develop new 

 business. All of the people are awakening to the mar- 

 velous possibilities of irrigation in the Eocky Mountain 

 states and the immense amount of actual wealth that 

 will be added to the world's store by the cultivation 

 of this now arid and idle land. Hundreds of irrigation 

 projects all over the far west are being exploited, and 

 millions of capital are being invested in arid lands and 

 water rights. Stocks and bonds on these properties 

 that formerly could scarcely be sold at all are finding 

 an excellent market in the central west. 



We have long looked upon the Eocky "Mountain 

 states as mining territory, vast stretches of semi-arid 

 tableland with some fertile valleys where stock could 

 be grazed, territories which would always depend on 

 the agricultural states for foodstuffs, implements and 

 clothing. Today, we know that when the land that 

 can be irrigated has been brought under the ditch and 



the plow, we shall have an empire that acre for acre 

 will be far more valuable and productive than the fertile 

 fields of Iowa and Illinois. 



Irrigation is as old as civilization. As it is being 

 carried on in the west today, it has all the indications 

 and effects of a new industry. The work of reclaiming 

 the desert on so large and extensive a scale is costly. 

 It means the changing of the topography of parts of 

 the country. Immense masonry dams storing millions 

 of acre feet of water, canals that carry a river's flood 

 and the damming of rivers themselves, all require a 

 combination of vast energy, expensive machinery and 

 engineering ability of the highest type. The greatest 

 part of the work is being done by the government and 

 by large corporations. Many of these corporations are 

 expending millions of dollars to develop their projects, 

 while there are any number of private projects that 

 swell the total expenditure far into the millions, annu- 

 ally. 



The financing of the many irrigation projects now 

 under way has been carried on very quietly. It is 

 unusual that such enterprises as are now under con- 

 struction should have been promoted with so little dis- 

 play and such scant notice in the financial world. It 

 only serves to show how solid and safe these projects 

 are. Yet, what security equals that of land? The 

 failure of irrigation projects have been so few as to 

 be a negligible factor in the history of the industry 

 as a whole. It is not impossible to believe that there 



