362 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



For each year the value of water in this western country 

 is heing better appreciated and the enterprise which 

 constructs a system where there is no loss by seepage or^ 

 evaporation will be able to draw larger prices for its 

 land. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE is undertaking a 

 This campaign this fall to increase the number 



Paper. of its readers. We have now a circulation 



of a little over 33,000. To your mind, 

 does that properly represent the great irrigated districts 

 of the West ? Hardly. We should have nearer another 

 cypher to that figure 330,000. 



This interests you if you are interested in the West. 

 This paper is the only distinctive irrigation journal in 

 the country. It not only goes to western folks, but to 

 people all over the eastern States. It keeps these eastern 

 readers in touch with what is going on in the West 

 with the wonderful opportunities that are constantly 

 open there. In that capacity it is constantly adding 

 new citizens to your community, and in this manner 

 should interest you. 



Heretofore little effort has been put forth toward 

 circulation increase. It has grown naturally. But we 

 realize that in future, as in the past, THE IRRIGATION 

 AGE will be great and influential in exact proportion to 

 the size and character of its circulation. It is our ambi- 

 tion to make it one of the foremost magazines of the 

 nation. Why? Because, first, that is quite a natural 

 aspiration for a publisher; second, is not the country 

 and the enormous interests represented worthy of 

 such a journal ? Does it require great imagination for 

 a live westerner to see a wonderful future for the West, 

 when even a small proportion of the present irrigation 

 projects have been completed and the lands have been 

 made to blossom as the rose? And we are not only in- 

 terested in the fruitful reclaimed regions, but in the 

 whole West as well. 



So as a reader of this journal we solicit your contin- 

 ued good will. If the liberal clubbing and premium sub- 

 scription offers in this issue catch your attention, kindly 

 mention them to several neighbors. Let them also sub- 

 scribe. If one neighbor of each of our present 33,000 

 readers should order the paper, our circulation would 

 immediately jump to 66,000 ! 



We hope to enlarge each issue, and give you a more 

 valuable, mo-re interesting magazine each month from 

 now on. We want to develop along the line of a high 

 class magazine, containing complete irrigation news, 

 splendid articles on various western sections, Horticul- 

 tural and Agricultural departments, and articles and 

 stories of human interest. 



We are publishing in this issue an article 

 How to by Prof. Samuel Fortier, Office of Exper- 



Colonize. iment Station, Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Washington, D. C., delivered before 

 the National Irrigation Congress at Sacramento, Cali- 

 fornia, September 4, 1907. This article will be found 

 highly interesting to those who are giving any thought 

 to colonization of the large areas now being reclaimed 

 under the National Reclamation Act. 



The last Congress dealt with a large variety of sub- 

 jects, but few were closely related to the subject of irri- 

 gation, and in the article Professor Fortier suggests 

 that we had better go back as rapidly as possible to a 

 consideration of the vital issues pertaining to irrigation. 



Prom a perusal of the article it would seem that for 

 some time to come our greatest problem will be the suc- 

 cessful settlement of the land, for which water has been 

 provided. It will be seen also that about 5,000,000 

 acres will soon be ready for settlement. The magnitude 

 of this task is only realized when one recalls the fact 

 that it has taken 60 years to reclaim 11,000,000 acres. 

 The problem would not be so serious if the large systems 

 that are nearing completion cost no money to maintain 

 and operate. This large expenditure called for each 

 year will force settlement, but Professor Fortier inti- 

 mates in his article that he is inclined to think that the 

 number of desirable settlers that the West can obtain in 

 the next few years will fall short of the number required 

 to place all our systems on a paying b*i- 



In a way, Professor Fortier is in line with sugges- 

 tions that have been made from time to time in the edi- 

 torial columns of THE IRRIGATION AGE concerning the 

 advisability of some arrangement or law, whereby a 

 given sum could be used to assist in the colonization of 

 the large areas now being reclaimed. As suggested in a 

 recent issue, it may be found necessary by Congress to 

 pass a law which will allow from $3.00 to $5.00 per acre 

 to be applied to the colonization of these lands by desir- 

 able citizens from farther East. It is well known 

 that the land holders throughout the western country 

 gladly pay $5.00 per acre to colonization agents, and it 

 is reasonable to suppose that the men who receive the 

 $5.00 per acre for colonizing a given tract will be more 

 likely to secure desirable settlers than will the Gov- 

 ernment under its makeshift system of advertising the 

 opening of new projects. Perhaps the head of the 

 Reclamation Service and his numerous assistants have 

 given thought to this subject and have prepared some 

 remedy. If so, it is time that action was taken and the 

 public let into their confidence. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE will be glad to publish sug- 

 gestions which may be sent in by any of its readers 

 along the lines indicated. 



R CATION AGE $1.00 PER. YEAR IRRIGATION AGE $1.00 PER. YEAR. 



