THE IRRIGATION AGE 



VOL. XXIV 



CHICAGO, JULY, 1909. 



NO. 9 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



MODERN IRRIGATION 

 THE IRRIGATION ERA 

 ARID AMERICA 



With which is Merged 



THE DRAINAGE JOURNAL 

 MID-WEST 



THE FARM HERALD 



IRRIGATION AGE COMPANY, 

 PUBLISHERS, 



112 Dearborn Street, 



CHICAGO 



Entered u Kcond-claM matter October I, 1697, at the Potoce *t 

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



D. H. ANDERSON, Editor 



ANNOUNCEMEN T. 



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

 $2.00. If ordered in connection with subscription, the price is $1 .50. 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE. 



To United States Subscribers, Postage Paid 1.00 



To Canada and Mexico . l.M 



All Other Foreign Countries, 1.50 



In forwarding remittances please do not send checks on local banka. 

 Send either postoffice or express money order or Chicago or New York 

 draft. 



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 is t h 

 only publication in the world having an actual paid in advance 

 circulation among individual irrigators and large irrigation corpo- 

 rations. It is read regularly by all interested in this subject and W 

 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. 



In no period of American history has 

 Back to there been such a reversion to the farm, as 



the Farm. now. This is particularly true of the ir- 

 rigated farm. The loneliness of farm life 

 has departed forever. The neighborhood telephone, the 

 rural mail carrier, the trolley car, the automobile, the 

 good roads movement have all combined to make farm 

 life more and more attractive. Added to these are the 

 countless improvements in farm machinery, greatly re- 

 ducing the amount of human labor necessary to per- 

 form the work of the farm. Even the housekeeper has 

 her labors lightened with the introduction of hot and 

 cold water systems in the house and a complete sani- 

 tary installation by which the premises may be kept 

 sweet and healthful. 



The agricultural schools and experiment stations 

 have long since begun to be effective in changing for 

 the better the methods of farm management. The won- 

 derful results from irrigation have been widely dem- 

 onstrated. Through the agricultural press the results 

 of experiments by scientific men have been carried to the 

 remote corners, and if the farmer has not profited, it is 

 because he does not read or think. 



There is a wholesomeness in farm life that is not 

 found elsewhere. There is fascination in a life among 

 the domestic animals and the living and growing things 

 with which the rural dweller is surrounded. The farmer 

 of today, if fairly educated and endowed with a mod- 

 icum of energy and alertness, may have more luxuries 



by far than the denizen of the town, and need suffer no 

 loss of culture unless habitually he avoids contact with 

 the many cultured people who are taking up farm life 

 or who dwell in the towns near at hand, which depend 

 upon the farms for their existence. The village library 

 is for the farmer. It is one of the magnets intended to 

 attract him to the social center. The village schools 

 are for his children and more than ever is the tendency 

 growing to combine farm life with village life for the 

 benefit and pleasure of all. 



The American villages are generally cleaner than 

 they were. The disreputable elements are being elim- 

 inated and there is more and more pride in municipal 

 decency. The family established on the farm is free 

 from the influences that so often lead to a frivolous 

 and purposeless life. Ordinarily the farmer knows 

 much more of the city and town than the urban dweller 

 does of the farm, and it is usually the farmer who has 

 the time and money to take an occasional vacation ex- 

 cursion to some distant point, to gather in new ideas that 

 lead to a larger life. 



There is no occupation concerning which instruc- 

 tion and knowledge may be had more freely. Every 

 neighbor is ready to help. Instruction at experimental 

 farms and agricultural schools is without cost. More 

 than that, the states send their lecturers into the agri- 

 cultural communities to teach the people, to answer their 

 questions and to help clear up doubtful points in farm 

 practice and crop control. The Agricultural Department 



