278 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



apart from his fellow men, he learned independence, 

 nor ever developed much of the spirit of interde- 

 pendence that came with the man living where ir- 

 rigation was practiced. 



After .all, in the long run, the forest-dweller over- 

 threw the civilizations developed by irrigation, and 

 now in the marvelous shifting of peoples of these 

 frantic days we find Dane and Norwegian, Scot and 

 Yankee, all jostling each other in the arid West, 

 learning the ancient and honorable art of guiding- 

 water over a thirsty land, learning to redeem des- 

 erts, to replace sage brush with alfalfa, cactus flow- 

 ers with roses; to make grapes grow where thorns 

 were yesterday. 



Fertility of Irrigated Lands. Irrigated lands 

 have all the advantages after all, for they are so 

 fertile. Lands where rain falls have been leached 

 for centuries of their lime, of their potash, of their 

 phosphorus. Desert lands have all their mineral 

 wealth yet untouched. No matter if they look gray 

 and infertile, just moisten them, sow the seed, and 

 watch the miracle unfold. Soon overspreads the 

 arid dusty plain a tender green. Little shining 

 streams course between furrows, the hard clods melt, 

 the earth gives up of its treasures, the green deepens, 

 thickens. A meadow has come ; it blooms, bees hum, 

 butterflies play in the sunlight, humming birds seek 

 the nectar of the bloom, along the cool depths of the 

 placid canal trees spring up, a little house is soon 

 hidden with fruit trees, alfalfa stacks hide the corral, 

 the desert is forgotten. 



