THE IKKIGATION AGE. 



145 



Private interests, counties, boards of trade, and 

 chambers of commerce throughout the Sacramento Val- 

 ley are of one voice concerning this great project. It 

 provides at once for an irrigation system to cover the 

 entire valley, while it is the only plan thus far devised 

 to relieve the lower and central part of the valley from 

 the menace of annual overflow. The general and perma- 

 nent prosperity of this great valley is dependent very 

 largely upon its irrigation and drainage under a scheme 

 so extensive that the co-operation of the Federal Gov- 

 ment is regarded as imperative. The officials of the 



The situation in the great central valley of Cali- 

 fornia is unique. It is practically one valley, though 

 drained from opposite ends, and the slope is so gradual 

 for 200 miles each way, and from the foothills to the 

 axis of the valley, that the irrigation expert could not 

 wish a fairer field. It is every way desirable that there 

 should be for this magnificent region, one, or at most 

 two comprehensive systems providing at once for irri- 

 gation and drainage, but the outlook today is prom- 

 ising, and there will be here in a few years great wealth 

 and great beauty as there is now great opportunity. A 



Perrine's Coulee, near 



Eeclamation Service have commanded the entire confi- 

 dence of representative men in California for their ex- 

 pert knowledge and their thorough comprehension of the 

 practical bearings of the plans they have devised for 

 this great valley, and it is something for general felici- 

 tation that so great an undertaking should have been 

 entrusted not only to very able men, but to men under 

 the civil service, and unhampered by any partisan in- 

 terests or political pressure. When these men say that 

 "the Sacramento Valley presents one of the greatest, 

 if not the greatest, opportunities for irrigation develop- 

 ment to be found in the West," it must be regarded as 

 testimony of the very highest character. 



Twin Falls, Idaho. 



fertile soil and much of it, abundance of water easily 

 applied, and a climate which never interferes with the 

 irrigator, but allows him a free hand, and carries the 

 growing season through the whole year this puts the 

 great factors of production in the farmer's control, and 

 if he does not succeed he himself is at fault and not 

 the conditions. 



Kailways have contributed vastly to the growth of 

 the West, but a phenomenal development in the next 

 twenty-five years may be looked for as the result of irri- 

 gation, and perhaps of all the irrigable lands, Cali- 

 fornia promises most of beauty and bounty. 



