460 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Two Years and Six Months from Planting. 



to the Lewiston district for their models of fruit culture. 

 The last three years has demonstrated that it is possible to 

 creat a fruit district where every orchard is horticulturally 

 perfect. 



THE DECADE BEFORE US. 



Water Is Delivered Under Pressure to Each Five-Acre Tract. 



We are more given to contemplating the past and trying 

 to lift the veil that obscures the future than in actively solv- 

 ing the problems of the present hour. It is not strange that 

 we should look with confidence toward the morrow; the past 

 is gone forever, the present is measured by a heart beat, while 

 the future is unlimited, stretching forward to eternity. While, 

 as Dr. Johnson pointed out, it is not logical to "expect the 

 promises of tomorrow to atone for the failures of today," it Is 

 wise to take roseate, if reasonable, views of the future, else 

 present burdens and embarrassments might prove too heavy 

 to be borne. 



In its July circular, a prominent investment house, with 

 no end of statistics at its disposal, and controlled, it must be 

 admitted, by a decidedly optimistic spirit, undertakes to fore- 

 cast the financial and economic conditions that may well pre- 

 vail in this country in 1920. The following estimates, thus 

 made, are of interest, though we may have to wait ten years 

 to find out how far some of them are wrong. According to 

 this financial prophet, our population, in 1920, will amount to 

 a hundred million souls; our banking power will be thirty 

 billion dollars; our bank clearings 193 billion dollars; our cur- 

 rency circulation four and one-fourth billion dollars; coal 

 production 660 million tons; the pig iron output forty-six mil- 

 lion dollars; gold production, 100 million dollars; imports of 

 merchandise, one and one-half and exports of the same, two 

 and one-fifth billion dollars; agricultural products, fourteen 

 billion dollars; total wealth of the country, 175 billion dollars. 



While usually more pleasing, foresight is by no means so 

 reliable as "hindsight," as many have learned when balancing 

 their books at the close of a year's business; yet, without dis- 

 cussing the "guesses" in detail, they may well turn out not 

 exaggerations, considered as a whole. Conditions in this 

 country are not only more favorable to advancement than 

 ever before, but they are better than ever prevailed in any 

 country on earth in the long stretch of time covered by au- 

 thentic history. We possess a vast territory, rich In every 

 blessing within the power of nature to bestow; a free govern- 

 ment that places no restrictions on ambition and advance- 

 ment; an ability to perfect labor-saving machinery perhaps 

 unequaled in the world; isolation from other great nations, 

 thus largely insuring peace; and, most important, perhaps, 

 of all, the most ambitious, industrious and progressive people 

 on earth. The federal government has adopted, and Is fast 

 developing, a system of reclaiming arid plains that, within 

 the passing of the next decade, will enormously add to our 

 national wealth, while broadening and enriching the field of 

 human endeavor. This will, doubtlessly, be soon extended to 

 include the drainage of rich swamp lands, ot which we possess 

 a sufficient area to form a European empire. Private corpora- 

 tions are already in the reclamation field ana great states will 

 soon heartily Join in the movement destined to subdue and 

 render fruitful the entire of our broad land. We stand at the 

 threshold of prosperity and development. The past was but 

 the prologue, the curtain is rising for the commencement of 

 the real play. [From The Banking World, July-Aug., 1909.] 



They who live In the Empire of the West are, after all, 

 in the very advance guard of progress. Nowhere else, per- 

 haps, in this country, does the door of opportunity swing open 

 so wide. There are, along the lines of the Union Pacific Rail- 

 road, chances for joining in the greatest enterprises known in 

 the history of this country. Without disparaging other sec- 

 tions, it is safe to say that the west, todny. Is the land of 

 opportunity and fortune for rich and poor alike. 



