THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



203 



of fertile land lying beneath the California sun, with a 

 growing season that is practically continuous, has a 

 water supply that is believed to be ample for the irriga- 

 gation of every care and plans for the development of 

 great impounding reservoirs, diverting dams and canal 

 systems are now being made by the engineers of the 

 National Reclamation Service. The carrying out of 

 such colossal plans as have been outlined for this valley 

 is an enterprise far beyond the capacity of the National 

 Reclamation fund as at present provided, especially in 

 view of the fact that justice must be done to other states 

 having an interest therein. A beginning has been made 

 in a small way, however, by the allotment of funds for 

 a small unit of this great project which will soon be 



an attendance of several thousand people and we are 

 making preparations to take care of them. 



We anticipate the fullest co-operation on the part 

 of the railway companies of the country. We have 

 asked for special rates, and assurances of interest in the 

 events from railway managers all over the United States 

 is our assurance that very favorable rates will be made. 



THE NORTHWESTERN EMPIRE. 



J. J. ALLISON. 



In a recent visit through the northwestern states 

 and northern California I was impressed with the 



Eight- year-old Almond Grove at Maywood Colony, California Well Cultivated, hut Never Irrigated. 



undertaken at Orland in Glenn County. 



Plans for the entertainment of delegates include a 

 low-rate thousand-mile excursion completely encircling 

 This Great Valley of California. 



The chief feature of entertainment, perhaps, will 

 be an Interstate Exposition of Irrigated-land Products 

 which will open simultaneously with the Irrigation Con- 

 gress and extending over the period of the California 

 State Fair which will be held one week later than the 

 Congress. The holding together of these three events, 

 the National Irrigation Congress, the Interstate Ex- 

 position of Irrigated-Land Products and the California 

 State Fair, offers an opoprtunity to study the irrigation 

 policies and irrigated agriculture such as has been of- 

 fered seldom if ever before. We confidently anticipate 



progress that has been made and thrilled with the im- 

 mense possibilities of future development. 



It may be well to state that I have lived in the 

 west, have made irrigation and agriculture a special 

 subject of investigation for years, and that during much 

 of the past two years I have traveled for the purpose of 

 becoming familiar with the great "Northwestern Em- 

 pire." 



In this the first number of a series of articles for 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE I shall give a general statement 

 of the advantages of living on the irrigated lands of the 

 west. 



To western people the processes and effects of irri- 

 gation are so simple and ordinary that writing about 

 them is superfluous. The majority of people who will 



