2 fruit-Growing in Arid Regions 



"It was in 1838. A measure was before Congress to 

 establish a post-route from Independence, Mo., to the 

 mouth of the Columbia River. During the discussion, 

 Daniel Webster, on the floor of the Senate, opposed it and 

 closed his speech as follows: 'What do we want with this 

 vast worthless area? this region of savages and wild beasts, 

 of deserts, shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus 

 and prairie dogs? To what use could we ever hope to put 

 these great deserts, or those endless mountain ranges, 

 impregnable, and covered to their very base with eternal 

 snow? What can we ever hope to do with the western 

 coast, a coast of 3000 miles, rockbound, cheerless, unin- 

 viting, and not a harbor on it? What use have we for 

 such a country? Mr. President, I will never vote one 

 cent from the public treasury to place the Pacific Coast 

 one inch nearer to Boston than it now is ! ' To stand here 

 in this city of 150,000 people, to see these grand structures 

 for business, these palatial homes, and think of the countless 

 interests of trade and far-reaching enterprises; when we 

 survey the state at large with its cities and towns, its 

 growth and energy; and we take a still broader view and 

 think of five great railways crossing the continent to this 

 same rockbound coast, 'cheerless and uninviting,' and 

 when we see these ' impregnable ' mountains traversed with 

 railways and yielding their ready millions of gold and 

 silver, and find them also stored with coal and iron and 

 marble, we wonder how Daniel Webster could have 

 uttered such words as the above. Ten years later there 

 was a change the treaty of Hidalgo ; and ten years after 

 that the discovery of gold in the 'shifting sands' of this 

 'worthless' region. Had all possessed the same wisdom 

 of foresight as Webster, this country had never reached 

 'Beyond the Mississippi,' and the Indian, the buffalo, 

 the cactus and prairie dog would be in full and undisputed 

 possession of it, and the Hudson Bay Company would be 

 buying skins at Vancouver. Had every one been Web- 

 sterian in his range of adventure, 'Pike's Peak,' the Union 



