THE IRRIGATION AGE.' 



297 



THE UPLIFT OF THE IRRIGATED WEST 



THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITIES 



BY JOHN EDWARD BUCK 



SPOKANE, WASH., July 17, 1906. The journey 

 from St. Paul to Spokane is always an interesting one, 

 but especially so at this time of the year. 



The West is already a wonderful country a coun- 

 try of marvelous resources and irrigation is giving an 

 impetus to the uplift of the Western States that will 

 carry them well to the forefront in commercial impor- 

 tance. Between St. Paul and Portland the Northern 

 Pacific Railway passes through Fargo, Jamestown, Bill- 

 ings, Livingston, Bozeman, Helena, Missoula, Spokane 

 and the great Palouse country, Seattle, and terminates 

 at Portland. Many other important points are reached 

 by spurs running out from the main line. Yellowstone 

 National Park, Butte, Anaconda, Stiles, Lewiston, 

 Walla Walla and Pendleton are among the other inter- 

 esting points that can be reached by the Northern Pa- 

 cific route, one of the world's greatest transcontinental 

 arteries of commerce. The first two towns mentioned 

 are in North Dakota, while the others are in Montana 

 and Washington. 



The irrigated belt proper may be said to begin at 

 Billings, Mont., and all the region round about gives 

 tangible evidence of how the benign influence of water 

 will transform parched and seemingly barren waste 

 lands into a veritable garden ; and what is true of Bill- 

 ings in this respect is also true of every other point 

 along the route where irrigation is practiced. Luxuriant 

 crops of cereals and fruits are grown and how beauti- 

 ful are the flowers and grass ! Ingalls must have been 

 in an irrigated region when he wrote his beautiful 

 tribute to grass: 



"Grass is the forgiveness of nature her constant 

 benediction. Fields trampled with battle, saturated 

 with blood, torn with the ruts of cannon, grow green 

 again with grass, and carnage is forgotten. Streets 

 abandoned by traffic become grass-grown like rural 

 lanes, and are obliterated. 



"Forests decay, harvests perish, flowers vanish, but 

 grass is immortal. Beleaguered by the sullen hosts of 

 winter, it withdraws into the impregnable fortress of 

 its subterranean vitality, and emerges upon the first 

 solicitation of spring. 



"Sown by the winds, by wandering birds, propa- 

 gated by the subtle horticulture of the elements which 

 are its ministers and servants, it softens the rude out- 

 line of the world. Its tenacious fibers hold the earth 

 in its place, and prevent its soluble components from 

 washing into the wasting sea. 



"It invades the solitude of deserts, climbs the in- 

 accessible slopes and forbidding pinnacles of mountains, 

 modifies climates and determines the destiny of na- 

 tions. Unobtrusive and patient, it has immortal vigor 

 and aggression. 



"Banished from the thoroughfare and the field, it 

 bides its time to return, and when vigilance is relaxed, 

 or the dynasty has perished, it silently resumes the 

 throne from which it has been expelled, but which it 

 never abdicates. 



"It bears no blazonry of bloom to charm the senses 

 with fragrance or splendor, but its homely hue is more 

 enchanting than the lily or the rose. 



"It yields no fruit in earth or air and yet, should 

 its harvest fail for a single year, famine would depopu- 

 late the world." 



Just to give the reader some idea of what a town 

 like Billings can do in the irrigated belt, I will mention 

 the fact that 600,000 pounds of wool were marketed 



Entrance to the Cascade Mountains. Northern Pacific Railway. 



there in a single day July 16, 1906 the value of the 

 wool being in the neighborhood of $135,000. 



Inasmuch as our space is limited, I will pass to 

 Missoula, and what is to be said of Missoula may be 

 taken as being representative of all other towns in the 

 irrigated region. Missoula is situated at the ' ase of 



