THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



295 



egg plant with the product of the live hen. Some time 

 ago a metropolitan paper told how the Royal cattle 

 show would soon receive the addition of a swine ex- 

 hibit, and the reporter dwelt lovingly upon the prospect 

 of a magnificent display of "Hereford" hogs. Had the 

 young man been able to have enjoyed the privileges of 

 an agricultural education in conjunction with his stock 

 of city learning and excess of algebra, geometry and 

 Greek, this egregious error would not have been seen in 

 print. It is safe to say that not one city-raised child ill 

 ten could tell a field of oats from one of wheat or rye, 

 or knows the difference between the way corn is cut and 

 gathered in, and wheat is harvested and threshed. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



The Pacific 

 Cable and 

 Western 

 Commerce. 



Among the great forces which are ma- 

 terially assisting to uplift the far West 

 the Pacific cable must be given prominent 

 place. Already we can see foreshadowed 

 the vast development of Pacific commerce 

 which is now a certainty, and in promoting that devel- 

 opment the cable will play a part scarcely secondary to 

 that of the proposed isthmian canal. The world is now 

 completely girdled by a fairly direct line of telegraphic 

 communication, and of the 25,835 miles of telegraph 

 wire or cable strand more than 14,000, or over half the 

 total line of communication, is owned by Americans and 

 is under American control. From the Azores in the 

 eastern Atlantic to the Philippines the line is Amer- 

 ican property, and in the Pacific the cable comes to 

 land only at the American stations of Honolulu, Mid- 

 way Island, Guam and Manila. How closely this mar- 

 velous ring of wire binds the world together may be 

 seen from the fact that the total time required for the 

 transmission of a message around the world is only 

 nine and one-half minutes. 



So far as concerns facilities of communication, 

 Hongkong and San Francisco are now practically in 

 as close touch as New York and London. The world's 

 traders and merchants are benefiting enormously from 

 this quickening of the means of conveying intelligence 

 from port to port, and for none should it be of greater 

 benefit than for the merchants of the West. Aided by 

 the most direct line of communication from the new 

 world to the Orient, and also by control of an isthmian 

 canal through i\bich commerce from the Atlantic States 

 can be sent direct to the far East, American supremacy 

 in the Pacific should be assured. For sentimental as 

 well as practical reasons, also, the cable promises to 

 he of no little political importance as regards our re- 

 lations with the island colonies in the Pacific. Wash- 

 ington has been brought into much closer touch with 

 Manila. The "unplumbed, salt, estranging sea" will 

 lose some of its estranging power, now that Uncle Sam 

 can communicate across it directly and without depend- 

 ing on foreign telegraph systems in foreign lands. 



APPROACH of dates set for the National Irrigation 

 Congress and meeting of the American Irrigation Fed- 

 eration leads to intensified interest in reclamation work, 

 and what, if any, legislation is needed to repair the 

 National Irrigation Act. 



ALSO the purposes of the federation may be in- 

 quired into, and if, by declared principle or omission, 

 there is anything done or undone to affect or impair its 

 usefulness as a factor in Western development, it needs 

 the remedy now. If practical irrigation men, officials 

 of National and State governments, have suggestions 

 or criticisms, they will be welcome, and will aid in 

 shaping the policy of an institution which the builders 

 hope will have benign influence. 



BE it said with no uncertain emphasis that one of 

 the primary purposes of this organization was to main- 

 tain to its present high order the standard of character 

 of the molders of the West. 



IT was noted that some of the factors of National 

 Irrigation had, by reason of sudden accession to power, 

 forgotten that in the West were many thousand irri- 

 gators, who had carved homes and created myriad green 

 spots amid barren wastes. Had turned rivulet and river 

 from frequented channels over and upon thirsty soils, 

 and saw the magic rise of bower and grove, orchard and 

 vine. 



WHETHER by accident or purpose, men like these 

 have suffered by the advent of federal irrigation. If 

 necessity for larger usefulness compelled an occasional 

 absorption, little blame could attach, but when technical 

 interpretation or misconstruction of law is sufficient 

 basis to rob a pioneer of the fruits of his industry, the 

 incident gives rise to a resentment at the intrusion. 



Dowx in the Imperial (California) country is an 

 unfortunate condition brought about by similar intru- 

 siveness. A. H. Heber and others were associated in 

 reclaiming a large area about the Salton Sea. Ten 

 thousand people in only a short period were induced to 

 settle on the areas. The reclamation service enters, 

 and private enterprise stops compelled by claims of 

 federal engineers to both water and the lands to be re- 

 claimed. In order to retain privilege to water lands 

 already developed, Mr. Heber was compelled to go to a 

 foreign land to Mexico- and take out an appropria- 

 tion there, and convey it across the line to water 

 American lands. Fortunately for private interests here, 

 the topography and contiguous Mexico intervened to 

 save a strictly American enterprise from complete ob- 

 literation. The overflow of the Colorado and losses 



