Millions for Moisture 



23 



An Orange Orchard at Riverside, California, the Product of Private Irrigation 



tion of 200,000,000 in 1950 and 300,000,- 

 000 at the close of the century. How 

 shall we take care of this vast increase ? 



There is a land hunger even now that 

 is hard to satisfy. Many thousands of 

 our best people are flocking to Canada 

 ever}' year, attracted by the cheap lands 

 of the Northwest Territory. Every acre 

 of our remaining public domain should 

 be reserved for the bona fide home- 

 seeker. 



WORK IN NgW MEXICO 



In the range of resources, in the charm 

 and healthfulness of her climate, and in 

 the fertility of her soil, New Mexico 

 typifies the arid region. It has been 

 found possible for the Reclamation Serv- 

 ice to undertake the construction of three 

 projects within her borders. 



The greatest of these, the Rio Grande 

 project, is especially interesting, as it in- 

 volves international and interstate feat- 



ures in unusual combination. The project 

 is today the subject of a treaty with Mex- 

 ico, and our Congress has just done tardy 

 justice to a friendly neighbor by appro- 

 priating $1,000,000 in recognition of a 

 debt long overdue. 



The Rio Grande Valley is rich in his- 

 torical incident. Long before the Puri- 

 tan fathers landed upon the bleak and 

 inhospitable shores of New England, 

 thrifty husbandmen irrigated the fertile 

 bottoms along the lower valley in New 

 Mexico, Texas, and Old Mexico. Primi- 

 tive as were their methods of agricul- 

 ture, they sufficed to sustain a dense pop- 

 ulation in peace and contentment. 

 Strangely, too, their communal system 

 of farn:ing, with homes in the pueblos 

 and small cultivated areas near by, is es- 

 sentially being adopted by our later civil- 

 ization as best adapted to desert condi- 

 tions. It removes the isolation of the 

 lonely ranch, makes possible social and 



