CHAPTER XXII 



PERMANENT AGRICULTURE UNDER 

 IRRIGATION 



"THE desert shall blossom as the rose," said the 

 ancient prophet; and a modern man, witnessing the ful- 

 fillment, by irrigation, of the ancient prediction, was so 

 wrought upon by the transformation of desert into garden 

 that he declared it a miracle. Later, another man, per- 

 ceiving clearly the permanency of the work, declared that 

 irrigation is a continuous miracle. That was nearer the 

 truth. Today, with our greater understanding, irrigation 

 is less of a miracle; it is more of an intelligent conquest 

 a continuous conquest of the untoward forces of the desert. 



269. The big irrigation problem. The word "con- 

 tinuous," whether it be of miracle or of conquest, lingers, 

 for it expresses the essence of the virtue of irrigation. 

 The mountain stream or the sluggish river, once brought 

 through reservoir and canal upon the desert land, will 

 make that land yield in plenty and in beauty, not for a 

 generation or two, but, if man so decrees, during the 

 coming ages of the earth at least while climatic con- 

 ditions remain unchanged. Therefore is the builder of 

 the irrigation canal a master-builder. 



The battle for recognition has been fought and won. 

 Arid and humid regions look to irrigation as one of the 

 chief weapons with which to conquer drought and to 

 make the land yield richly. Private capital and public 

 funds vie with each other for the privilege of fostering 



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