28 TRANSACTIONS. 1906-7. 



wooden tank, and what with leakage of one kind or another and 

 overflow when the tank is full, the ground in its vicinity is kept 

 saturated. The result is the rankest growth of vegetation I 

 have ever seen, garden escapes and indigenous species being 

 hardly recognizable as a result of the unwonted combination of 

 heat and water, the whole teaching a lesson that the most un- 

 observant man might profit by. A little consideration will 

 explain the extraordinary growth that follows the irrigation of 

 these dry places of the west. To begin with, heat and water are 

 the chief requisites in plant growth, but these do not account for 

 the wonderful results which have followed the irrigation of the 

 dry soils of parts of British Columbia and the Northwest. In 

 regions where the rainfall is heavy a constant leaching process 

 is going on. The natural salts that reach the soil in rain, or 

 through the decomposition of vegetable matter, are being con- 

 stantly drained away; in a dry country this is not the case. 

 What falls upon the ground stays there, and many of the apparently 

 worthless soils are rich in all the constituents that go to make 

 plant food. Long periods of irrigation will doubtless wash these 

 away or enable the growing plants to assimilate them, and then 

 artificial fertilization will be necessary. In the meantime 

 water is the wonder-worker, and it seems to perform veritable 

 miracles. The greater part of the country around Osoyoos lake 

 and northward to lake Okanagan is owned by speculators who pur- 

 chased thousands of acres from the British Columbia government 

 at a nominal price. Cattle range over the hills, and here and there 

 in the valleys where water is available settlers are located. Until 

 last year there was little market for anything grown except cattle 

 which could be driven east or west over the Dewdney trail or south 

 into the United States. Construction work was begun on the 

 Vancouver and Eastern railway last summer, and of course all 

 kinds of produce sold at good prices. This is the railway owned 

 by Hill, the charter for which provides that it may cross and re- 

 cross the international boundary where it cannot be kept on our 

 side without too great expense. This means of course that the 

 new railway will follow the easiest route, which happens to be 

 almost on the international boundary, between Osoyoos lake and 

 Midway. The customs difficulties that it is feared this may give 

 rise to are altogether imaginary. There are none but farmers and 

 ranchers in that region on either side of the boundary, nor is 

 there Hkely to be any one else after the railway is built. At 



