1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



191 



In discussing opportunities in the 

 far west a writer is confronted with 

 a serious obstacle and that is the diffi- 

 culty of selecting a location and stick- 

 ing to it. After journeying over thir- 

 teen states and three territories the 

 tendency is to scatter your facts, and 

 the reader who wants details usually 

 fails to get them. 



The remarkable transformation 

 which has been wrought in the Great 



million acres are producing bountiful 

 harvests in the valleys where only a 

 short time ago desolation reigned su- 

 preme. Within five years the acreage 

 reclaimed has doubled and the popula- 

 tion of the cities and towns has in- 

 creased by leaps and bounds. The 

 end is not yet. While the day of the 

 pioneer with his small ditch leading 

 the waters of mountain streams upon 

 the thirsty land is over, the time is 







View showing five Coffin 8x12 regulating gates, Diversion Channel, Minidoka Dam, Idaho. 



American Desert in a period of less 

 than a quarter of a century, has served 

 to awaken a lively interest in this vast 

 region, so long regarded as the nation's 

 waste place. While progress has been 

 the watchword all over the arid region 

 no more emphatic demonstration of 

 the potential greatness of the rainless 

 country can be found than that which 

 is presented by the Snake River Val- 

 ley in Idaho. To-day more than a 



ripe and advantage is being taken of 

 the opportunities for initiating engi- 

 neering works on a large scale to ex- 

 tend irrgation to sections beyond the 

 reach of the individual farmer. Cor- 

 porations with large capital, tempted 

 by the great promise of returns from 

 irrigation systems, have constructed 

 and are extending large irrigation sys- 

 tems to cover hundreds of thousands 

 of acres of fertile sage brush plain. 



