288 National Geographic Magazine. 



Adjacent lands were in a more or less swampy condition ; ground 

 waters stood within 10 or 20 feet of the surface, and there was no 

 hard-pan or impermeable stratum between such surface and these 

 waters. In other words, general swampy conditions prevailed, 

 and malarial influences followed by chills and fevers were the 

 result. Irrigation brought about the clearing out of many of 

 these old channel ways, and their use as irrigating canals. The 

 lands were cleared off and cultivated, fresh water was introduced 

 through these channels from the main river throughout the hot 

 months, and the swamp-like condition of the country was changed 

 to one of a well-tilled agricultural neighborhood with streams of 

 fresh water flowing through it ; and the result, as I have said, 

 was one happy in its effect of making the climate salubrious and 

 healthful. 



Considering now the case of the King's river or the Fresno 

 country, the lands there were a rich alluvial deposit, abounding 

 in vegetable matter which for long ages perhaps had been, except 

 as wetted by the rains of winter, dry and dessicated. Soil water 

 was deep below the surface. Then irrigation came. Owing to 

 the nature, of the soil, the whole country filled up with the water. 

 Its absorptive qualities being great and its natural drainage 

 defective, the vegetable matter in the soil, subjected to more 

 or less continued excessive moisture, has decayed. The fluctu- 

 ation of the surface of the ground waters at different seasons 

 of the year — such surface being at times very near to the ground 

 surface, and at other times 5 or 6 feet lower — has contributed to 

 the decaying influences which the presence of the waters engen- 

 dered. The result has been, when taken with the general over- 

 growth of the country with vegetation due to irrigation, a vitia- 

 tion of the atmosphere by raalarious outpourings from the soil. 

 The advantage of the pure atmosphere of a wide and dry plain 

 has been lost by the miasmatic poisonings arising from an over- 

 wet and ill-drained neighborhood, with the results, as affecting 

 human healthfulness, of which I have already spoken. The 

 remedy is of course to drain the country. The example is but a 

 repetition of experiences had in other countries. The energy and 

 pluck of Californians will soon correct the matter. 



George P. Marsh, in his " Man and Nature," laid it down as a 

 rule that an effect of irrigation was to concentrate land holdings 

 in a few hands, and he wrote an article, which was published in 

 "one of our Agricultural Department reports, in which he rather 



