THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



farmers of America for the next one hundred years. 

 They would all have land enough to support their 

 families and grow rich. Modern science in agriculture 

 has taught men how to reclaim the worn-out lands of 

 the South and the East and there are millions of acres 

 that are now supposed to be unproductive that can be 

 made to blossom as the rose by the application of proper 

 methods of farming and fertilization." 



In making this statement Professor Whitney was 

 not discussing the possibilities of the irrigation law, but 

 was simply pointing out the tremendous possibilities of 

 the older portions of the United States, which many 

 people think have been exhausted by fifty to one hun- 

 dred years of continual cropping. If Professor Whit- 

 ney's statement is based on a foundation of fact, and 

 we think even the repealers will not dispute that, these 

 gentlemen are wasting a great deal of sympathy on the 

 unborn generations in their efforts to take from public 

 settlement the hundreds of thousands of acres that are 

 now opened to them under the Government laws and 

 force them to buy their homes from the syndicate land 

 combinations. 



The Honorable Frank W. Mondell, Representative 

 from Wyoming, in his speech in Congress on the bill 

 for the relief of certain homestead settlers in Alabama, 

 discussed this question at length and presented figures 

 to show that the increase in the number of original 

 homestead entries during the past two years is more 

 apparent than real. The increase in 1902 was due al- 

 most entirely to the vast area of former Indian lands 

 entered in Oklahoma, amounting to nearly four and a 

 half millions, and land in North Dakota of two and a 

 half millions, and in Washington of about one million 



acres. 



The undisputed facts are that these lands have 

 been taken almost entirely by bona fide settlers and no 

 considerable portion of them have found their way into 

 the hands of the speculators or land combinations. The 

 frauds in this respect arc confined almost entirely to the 

 valuable timber lands of the Rocky Mountain regions. 

 The records show that during 1902 only one acre in 

 five was commuted; at the same rate of commutation, 

 if all the remaining public lands were so disposed of, 

 it would take over five hundred years to absorb what is 

 left of the public domain. However deplorable the 

 frauds in timber lands, they can not be set up as a good 

 reason why the honest settler should be deprived of the 

 right to make his home in the West under present laws. 

 Proper amendments to the laws will prevent fraud in 

 settlement in the future, but that they should be en- 

 tirely repealed is another question. Speaking of the 

 desert land act Senator Warren, of Wyoming, whose 

 long years of residence in the West and whose close 

 study of the actual conditions existing there makes him 

 a competent authority, says : 



"Under this act more arid lands have been re- 

 claimed, more barren wastes have been converted into 



growing fields of hay and grain, and more unproductive 

 land has been made permanently productive than under 

 any other law applicable to the Western country. No 

 other law properly administered reduces to so much of 

 minimum the opportunity for abuse and prevarication. 

 Everywhere over the Western country the arid wastes 

 are spotted by beautiful fields of growing grain and al- 

 falfa, which testify beyond the possibilities of contra- 

 diction to the splendid and material results legitimately 

 accomplished under the law." 



With this clear statement of actual facts can any 

 sane man doubt that the repeal of the desert land act 

 would do more to delay the settlement and development 

 of the West than any other thing that Congress has 

 ever been asked to do ? 



PRIMER OF IRRIGATION. 



[Conclusion Chapter VIH. From December Issue.~\ 



Three-pound onions, eighty-pound watermelons, 

 and five-hundred-pound squash are not rarities, 

 and I have been told of a field of corn, of the 

 white Mexican variety, that grew fourteen feet with 

 four perfect ears of corn to the stalk with only twelve 

 inches of rain. As for sweet potatoes, or yams, thirty 

 pounds weight do not occasion surprise, and beets after 

 two years' growth are often as large as nail kegs, all 

 woody fiber, of course, and unfit for food. 



It is true that such examples are mere experiments, 

 indeed they may be called specimens of "freak" vegeta- 

 tion, and rarely mean perfection of quality, but they 

 indicate the ability of the plant to rapidly assimilate 

 from the soil and air large, even excessive, quantities 

 of the elements it needs, or fancies, provided they exist 

 in abundance, and they demonstrate that the farmer has 

 it within his power to convert this enormous productive 

 energy into "quality" of product by regulating it 

 through adequacy of moisture and cultivation without 

 excess. 



In the foregoing chapters nothing but the mere 

 outlines of the chemistry of agriculture have been 

 given. Even to do that it was necessary to concentrate 

 a mass of matter from a multitude of books, lectures, 

 personal experiences of successful farmers, and from 

 other sources, to reach simplicity and clearness. The 

 books are full of never-ending disputes over theories, 

 doctrines and scientific experiments, relating to plants 

 and the soil, and it was thought best to eliminate all 

 those disputes and present the operations of nature with 

 regard to the soil and plants in as simple a manner 

 as possible. 



There are many things mysterious in nature which 

 science has not yet been able to explain, and which 

 practical experience accepts without inquiring into rea- 

 sons or causes. Why do early potatoes often reach ma- 

 turity and the vines die down before the latter have a 

 chance to blossom ? What is the answer to the problem 

 of seedless fruits, such as oranges, lemons, grapes, etc. ? 

 Why do certain plants revert to originals which have 

 few traits in common, like the tomato, for instance? 

 Why do not the seeds of plants always produce the 

 same variety? We know that the laws of chemistry 

 are practically immutable, though their manifestations 

 may be irregular. What has been written, it is hoped, 

 will be of some benefit toward preparing for the prac- 

 tical part of this book, which will occupy the subsequent 

 chapters. 



