246 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



law will not subject the defaulting party to damages. Nor 

 are damages recoverable for the non-performance of a con- 

 tract, which, while legal in its terms may not, from the cir- 

 cumstances of the case, be performed without violating the 

 law. This would especially be true where the contract is 

 based upon a statute which, by its terms, provides for con- 

 tingencies that would make the performance of the contract 

 illegal. This would be true whether or not the violation of 

 the statute was penalized. It may be said with a degree of 

 accuracy that this would be true of contracts made by pub- 

 lic-service or quasi-public corporations in the absence of any 

 particular statute of inhibition, upon the general principle of 

 public policy, which demands like treatment at the hands of 

 such corporations toward all citizens and which places the 

 ban upon discrimination." 



We agree fully with this reasoning and will dwell for a 

 few moments upon the queer contract that the parties thereto 

 had entered into, namely the provision that sufficient water 

 be supplied to the Rice Company's land to produce a stipu- 

 lated minimum crop. 



It would seem that in this age of progress and enlighten- 

 ment such contracts would be a thing of the past as the re- 

 sulting crop would depend on many other factors that are not 

 under the control of the party furnishing the water, and 

 the case under consideration is teachine a lesson that people 

 when making contracts must steer clear of absurdities or in- 

 fraction of the laws. If the Rice Company, instead of in- 

 sisting on a certain number of sacks of rice per acre, would 

 have entered a clause into its contract with the Water Com- 

 pany that the latter was to receive a certain bonus if the 

 yield would exceed a certain minimum per annum, and an- 

 other clause that the Water Company should grant a certain 

 abatement of the charges per acre when the yield per acre 

 would drop below a certain minimum, due to an insufficient 

 supply of water, then the contract would have been based on 

 more equitable facts and would no doubt have affected the 

 rulings of the court. 



No contract should be drawn the terms of which would 

 interfere with the interests of other people or are contrary 

 to the laws of nation or against common sense. 



It seems that the Raymond Company should have some 

 relief for the reason that if the Water Company was unable 

 to furnish the water required by the defendant, then the 

 Water Company should not be entitled to the full amount of 

 charges per acre, as it seems equitable that if the patrons 

 of the Water Company must suffer on account of the short- 

 age of water then the Water Company should be made to 

 help bear that burden by remitting a just proportion of the 

 charges. 



But all these points should be made part of a contract 

 in the beginning as it would save expensive litigation later on. 



A Move 

 In the 

 Right 

 Direction 



There is a petition now before the legislature 

 of New Mexico to secure an appropriation for 

 the employment of experts in the various irri- 

 gation districts of the state to teach the 

 farmer the value of water and how to secure 

 the maximum benefits from its use. There is 

 now enough water wasted in the various states of the irri- 

 gated zone to double the acreage under cultivation with bet- 

 ter results. For this reason the engagement of a number of 

 experts who would travel back and forth along the various 

 irrigation projects and give lectures and practical illustra- 

 tions to resident settlers should be approved and the neces- 

 sary funds provided. This movement should be the more 

 supported for the reason that the United States Department 



of Agriculture will supplement such State Appropriation with 

 an equal amount from the federal treasury. 



We understand that the State of California spends now 

 $5,000 and the State of Idaho $7,000 per annum for this 

 purpose and that the results show tremendous benefits in a 

 practical way. Yet, a state as large as California and de- 

 pendent on irrigation as much as that state is, should do a 

 great deal more in this direction, and we trust it will be 

 done in the near future. 



There are, however, a large number of other states that 

 should take notice and do likewise, namely, Oregon, Wash- 

 ington, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, the Dakotas, 

 Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. With the co-op- 

 eration of the government the great problem of modern times 

 to make two blades of grass grow where now grows but 

 one, may thus be solved successfully and the states interested 

 will be enormously benefitted. 



Modern irrigation is a new art based upon scientific prin- 

 ciples and the only way to obtain best results is by educating 

 the practical irrigator on his home ground. He needs to be 

 shown how to do it and the reason why; then he will do the 

 rest and do it right. The Department of Agriculture of the 

 United States is working hard in this direction but it is the 

 duty of the various state governments to co-operate with it 

 and to bear its share of the expenses. 



Let as have by all means travelling experts on irriga- 

 tion, drainage and general farming, in order to bring the 

 standard of the American farmer to the highest level at- 

 tainable. 



Advertising as a business proposition has be- 

 Factors come an established fact, and is an institution 



Affecting which has come to stay; it is an indispensible 



Advertising auxiliary to almost every business and it is 

 Values therefore important that it be handled in the 



proper way. 



Most advertising is done through the medium of the 

 press and practically all papers carry advertisements, be 

 they daily, weekly or monthly publications. 



The purpose back of {he advertising is to reach through 

 the readers of these papers the parties who are interested in 

 the subject which is being advertised, or perhaps more con- 

 cisely to reach the parties who most likely will buy the ad- 

 vertised commodity. 



In this way the various business houses select naturally 

 such papers as are being read by their patrons regularly and 

 gauge the value of the advertising medium by the number of 

 readers which is presumably equal to the number of sub- 

 scribers. 



When it comes, however, to specialties in which only a 

 certain class of people is interested, then the selection of the 

 proper advertising medium must necessarily fall upon papers 

 representing that class of readers and the value of such ad- 

 vertising does not depend so much on the quantity of readers, 

 but on the quality, or, in other words, when a firm has a 

 specialty for sale, for instance a special machine for making 

 ditches, then the principal object of the advertisement is to 

 reach prospective buyers. 



Among the modern lines of business which are forging 

 to the front, irrigation is perhaps one of the most important; 

 i: is growing rapidly, not only in America but in foreign couti; 

 tries, and many of the projects require heavy and costly ma- 

 chinery for their development. In the manufacture of this, 

 machinery the United States are leading the world and, as a 

 consequence, the products of the American manufacturer are 

 bought and shipped all over the world. This is due to 



