Geography of the Land. 45 
sand settlers have taken up lands in the Yazos basin alone, and it 
was estimated that in the fall of 1889 twenty thousand more 
would seek homes in the same district. These settlers have been 
mostly negroes from the worn out high lands to the eastward. If 
the change in their environment proves beneficial to the individ- 
ual we may expect an increased migration, that may in turn be an 
aid in solving the political problem involved in the citizenship of 
the negro. 
The settlement of these bottom lands will also influence the 
prosperity of many commercial centers, as trade statistics indi- 
cate the general abandonment of the plantations that followed 
the great floods of 1882, caused a marked diminution in the ship- 
ments by the lower river, as well as in the receipts from that sec- 
tion ; and that the partial reclamation of the lands and restora- 
tion of agricultural pursuits has already influenced the receipt and 
distribution of commercial products. 
The project to reclaim by irrigation large districts of the arid 
region of the west, if successfully accomplished, may also exert an 
influence in the political and commercial relations of the future 
that cannot now be foretold. T'wo-fifths of the territory of the 
United States has been classed as arid; not in the sense that 
there is no water, for the greatest rivers on the continent have 
their sources almost in the midst of the region ; but rather that 
the water is not available for enriching the ground. The rainfall 
is generally not in the season when the crops would require it, or 
is too small and uncertain for the husbandman to depend upon it. 
The whole region is not of this character ; many districts are sus- 
ceptible of the highest cultivation as nature has left them, and 
others have been redeemed by the application of the water supply 
through the simpler devices customary in irrigated countries ; 
until now nearly all the districts have been occupied that are suscep- 
tible of agricultural pursuits, either in the natural state or by irri- 
gation, unless water is secured by means generally beyond the 
_reach of the individual or combination of individuals who may 
use it. And yet, it is believed there are millions of acres of rich 
land that may be redeemed and converted to the support of a 
large population, by the application of capital in the construction 
of works of irrigation. The progress of the surveys of the region, 
therefore, that have been instituted by the general government, 
are watched with absorbing interest. The districts susceptible of 
such extensive improvement are only approximately known, and 
