THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



petroleum it is frequently called the " Pennsylvania of 

 the West." Its deposits of both base and precious metals 

 are extensive and widely diffused, though the present 

 output is small, owing to the cost of transportation and 

 the fact that mining capital and enterprise have been at- 

 tracted elsewhere by the greater fame of other localities. 

 It is well endowed with forests and blessed with the no- 

 blest scenery, of which the far-famed grandeurs of the 

 Yellowstone Park furnish the best example. But its 

 greatest resources are those of water and of land. It is 

 estimated that not less than ten million acres of fertile 

 land may be reclaimed by irrigation. Distributed rather 

 evenly through different portions of the State, and sur- 

 rounded by the wealth of mine, forest, water-power, and 

 natural pastures, this irrigable land will furnish the solid 

 foundation of a great and manifold economic life in fut- 

 ure centuries. 



The great industry of Wyoming from the time of its 

 first settlement has been stock-raising. Its agriculture 

 has been mostly auxiliary to this. Herds of horses, 

 cattle, and sheep are grazed upon the enormous free 

 pasture or range from spring to autumn, and then fed 

 upon the native or alfalfa hay raised in the irrigated 

 valleys. This industry has been the source of local pros- 

 perity and enlisted great sums of eastern and foreign 

 capital. It is a pursuit which does not develop tho 

 higher possibilities of the country, either in a material 

 or social way, and so long as its influence strongly domi- 

 nated tho life of the community Wyoming did not fur- 

 nish an attractive field for settlers. There was a time 

 when prominent men actually deprecated the growth of 

 population, and boldly asserted that brute cattle were 



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