102 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



will be questionable projects as there are wild cat 

 mining companies, but it will prove far more difficult 

 to promote a gold brick irrigation scheme than other 

 swindles, as the nature and character of the project 

 makes it easy to determine the actual value of the 

 security. 



The future of the irrigation industry from a purely 

 investment point of view opens up truly wonderful possi- 

 bilities. As has been stated, the great money centers 

 of the east have not yet taken advantage of these 

 opportunities along investment lines. Eecently the 

 writer in conversation with one of the officials of the 

 largest engineering concern in the country, remarked 

 this tendency among the financiers of the east. This 

 gentleman replied that it was a fact that the New 

 York bankers do not, just now, look with favor upon 

 all irrigation securities. "But," he said, "it is only a 

 question of a little time until they will be reaching 

 out for this class of investments and stocks and bonds 

 of irrigation companies will find a ready market in 

 the east." 



What form of investment can be as safe as that 

 secured by productive land or the water right to irrigate 

 such land? Are the bonds of railroads, municipalities, 

 city lighting and water companies any better? It would 

 hardly seem so and it is only a question of time until 

 this will be a proven fact. 



There is no other industry the development of 

 which will increase the wealth of the country in so 

 great a degree as that of irrigation. Its development 

 directly affects practically every manufacturer. As there 

 is no other industry growing so rapidly with an equal 

 amount of money involved, this great field merits care- 

 ful consideration by the banker, the investor and the 

 manufacturer. 



It is surprising to note the growing interest in 

 irrigation which has been aroused among the people 

 of the cities, who are just learning of its possibilities 

 as a field for investment. As yet the opportunity to 

 buy irrigated farms has been generally confined to the 

 farmers of the central western states and no attempt 

 has been made to reach the residents of cities. During 

 the last year, however, hundreds of men in Chicago have 

 gone to the west and southwest and secured tracts of 

 land. These lands are sold on the easy payment plan 

 so that men of moderate means may easily secure a 

 valuable farm by a small cash payment. A feature of 

 these investments, too, is that they are not of a specu- 

 lative character. They are being made as an investment 

 with the desire of either a home or fair and safe return 

 on the capital. Most of these investors buy this land 

 with the intention of becoming citizens of the new coun- 

 try. It may be safely asserted that the irrigated lands 

 now being opened for settlement are drawing more men 

 from the city than the unirrigated land, and irrigation 



is helping more than anything else to solve the great 

 problem, "How Shall We Get the Landless Men to the 

 Menless Lands?" 



Irrigation farming is the most profitable because 

 it is the most intensified method of agriculture. Millions 

 of acres now arid and practically valueless will, in a 

 few years, be watered and produce untold wealth. Irri- 

 gation on an extensive scale is just getting well started 

 and with its development will come the opening of 

 mines of all kinds in which the Rocky Mountains are 

 so rich and as yet undeveloped for lack of capital, of 

 railroads and cheap material. Irrigation will bring 

 the railroads sooner than anything else. 



Much has been said of the "Last West," meaning 

 the last of the government homestead lands that were 

 practically a gift to the hardy pioneer who braved the 

 wilderness and waited ten, twenty, or thirty years for 

 civilization to come to him. True, these lands are 

 gone and in their place is irrigation, and instead of it 

 requiring a score of years to develop a new country, 

 where water is turned onto the arid lands, modern cities 

 and farming communities are developed in a single 

 season. 



Irrigation, is the latest chapter in the agricultural 

 development of the country. To those who follow it, 

 who read the signs of promise and consider the wonders 

 it has already accomplished, it marks an epoch an era 

 of growth and wealth making that is almost beyond 

 belief and is more like a dream than a reality. 



As yet the wonders and possibilities of irrigation 

 are more potential than actual, just as all of the water 

 flowing into the sea would furnish light, power and heat 

 for the world, with this difference, that all of the 

 power cannot be utilized while practically all of the 

 land can. 



Here then is the great open door for development 

 not alone for the farmer. It is the opportunity for the 

 banker to get the safest and best return on his idle 

 capital; it is the opportunity for the manufacturer to 

 develop a new field for his product and it is a splendid 

 opportunity for the salaried man and man of small 

 means to get for himself at a reasonable cost property 

 that in a few years will provide not only a home but 

 a competency. 



This year will see greater development in this 

 field than any previous one and those who grasp the 

 opportunity now will profit more than those who come 

 later. 



Send $2.50 for The Irrigation Age, one year, and 

 the Primer of Irrigation, a 260-page finely illustrated 

 work for new beginners in irrigation. 



