August S, iS88.] 



Garden and Forest. 



277 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY liV 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Buimung, New York. 

 Conducted by . . Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW VORK', N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1888. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



EoiToniAL Articles : — Irrigation Problems in tlie Arid West. — Tlie Forests of 



Maine. — Wild Flowers in City Markets 277 



The Exhibition of Wild Flowers (with illustration).. .C. L. Anderson, M.D. J78 



The Flora of the Florida Keys A. H. Cnrtiss. 279 



Foreign Corresi'Ondence : — London Letter V\'. Goldring. 280 



New or Little Known Plants : — Cypripedium Californicum (with illustration), 



Scrcno t^'citson. 281 



Plant Notes: — Two Rare Orchids Emily Louise Taplin. 281 



Cultural Department 1 — Strawberiics Win. FalLoncr. 282 



The Currant and its Cultivation E. IVilliams. 2S2 



The Vegetable Garden C. C 283 



Some Floral Novelties — Orchids in Eloom 283 



The Olive Tree (with illustration) 2S4 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum J. 285 



The Forest :— The White Pine in Great Britain 286 



CoRRESrONDENCE 2S6 



Periodical Liter.\ture .^ 2S7 



Notes 287 



Illustrations : — Wild Flowers for Exhibition 279 



Cvpripedium Californicum, Fig. 45 281 



Olive Tree in the Garden of Getnsemane 284 



Irrigation Problems in the x\ricl West. 



IN a recent issue we considered the potentiahties of 

 the arid regions of the far west under irrigation. How 

 best to develop these, how best to make fertile and popu- 

 lous this vast extent of country, is a question of national 

 importance. It deserves the attention of both national 

 and state or territorial governments. Much has already 

 been done by individual and corporate effort in the making 

 fertile of large tracts. Large as is the amount of land 

 that has been thus brought under cultivation, it is but a 

 sample of what may be done with comprehensive, syste- 

 matic undertakings. There must eventually be carried 

 out works of such magnitude that private means can hard- 

 ly be looked for to take them in hand until their assured 

 practicability has been demonstrated and the attention of 

 great capitalistic enterprises is turned towards the field, as 

 it has towards the construction of railways on a continen- 

 tal scale. The utilization of the waters of important 

 streams that come under the jurisdictions of more than one 

 state or territory involves considerations of equity, and 

 often the harmonizing of conflicting interests, in a way to 

 call for the participation of the national government, as 

 well as does the fact that_ the greater portion of the land 

 to be improved belongs to the national domain. The 

 splendid work accomplished in India by the British gov- 

 ernment in the construction of thousands of miles of great 

 irrigating-canals, with the result of making India a strong, 

 and possibly dangerous, rival of the United States in the 

 wheat-markets of the world, gives an idea of the field 

 open to our government. Not until the precipitation from 

 the mountains of the arid region is spread over every pos- 

 sible acre of the plains, can the subject be regarded as set- 

 tled. It has been urged that the national government 

 appropriate large sums for the construction of irrigating 

 works on an extensive scale in connection with the princi- 

 pal streams ; but this policy seems undesirable, for under 

 our present system it would almost surely lead to wasteful 

 expenditure, if not ill-devised schemes. The best means 

 seems to be some method of encouragement to private 

 capital. This might be done either by special acts 

 adapted to particular cases, or by a general law appl)'ing 



to all irrigation projects beyond a certain magnitude. This 

 method has been certainly most benelicent in its applica- 

 tion to- railways, for without the encouragement thus 

 given, chiefly in the shape of land-grants, the railways 

 would not have been built and the country would have 

 remained undeveloped and unsettled ; the national lands 

 consequently worthless. The railways now need no such 

 encouragement and they build readily through that por- 

 tion of the country without it ; therefore it would be gratui- 

 tous to give them a bounty for doing what they are eager 

 to do, and the land-grant policy has very properly been 

 abandoned. It would probably, however, be a good 

 policy for the government to encourage, for the present, 

 the construction of extensive irrigating works, by grant- 

 ing to the parties undertaking them alternate sections 

 of the land thus improved. Otherwise it might be many 

 years before such needed works were undertaken. Gov- 

 ernment land now absolutely worthless would thus be 

 made very valuable, with rich and prosperous populations 

 created in the wilderness. To guard against possible 

 abuse, it might be provided that the improved land thus 

 obtained by the companies should be sold to settlers at 

 certain fixed and reasonable prices. In this way, for in- 

 stance, the enormous flow of the Colorado River — the diver- 

 sion of which for irrigation involves peculiarly difficult and 

 costly engineering — might be utilized, and millions of acres 

 in the Mohave and Yuma deserts and on the Sonora mesa, 

 in California and Arizona, made fertile. 



The state and territorial governments have a concern in 

 the matter no less than that of the federal government, 

 their function being administrative, as well as incentive 

 like the latter. It is of such immense importance that the 

 irrigating works should be constructed and operated to the 

 best possible advantage of the public, that, in the states 

 and territories of the arid regions, boards of irrigation-com- 

 missioners are more essential than even the railway com- 

 missions that have almost universally become the rule. 

 The whole subject of irrigation should be entrusted to these 

 commissions, whose oltice should be advisory as well as 

 regulative. Colorado ranks probably foremost in having 

 adopted an enlightened system of this kind, and is reaping 

 the benefits in the shape of a remarkable growth of her ag- 

 ricultural interests, which are placing the state on a more 

 secure foundation of prosperity than mining, which has 

 been her chief industry, could ever do. The state is divid- 

 ed into twent)'-six water-districts, with a water-commis- 

 sioner at the head of each, in charge of all matters con- 

 cerning irrigation. The state engineer has supervision of 

 matters relating to his department. The laws of the state 

 provide methods for regulating outflow and distribution, for 

 organizing enterprises either on a joint stock or co-operative 

 basis, the supervision of water-rates, and the adjudication 

 of disputes. 



California also has a well-devised irrigation code. The 

 irrigation laws of Arizona are modeled on those prevailing 

 in California before revision, with some modifications, and 

 need improvement The irrigation laws of New Mexico 

 are substantially the same as when the territory was a 

 Mexican province. For the development of its great re- 

 sources a thorough remodeling is needed. 



In each state and territory there should be, under the 

 supervision of the irrigation commissioners, a thorough 

 topographical survey of the water-supply, actual and poten- 

 tial, indicating the best lines for canals, the amount of flow- 

 in the various streams and the amount that would go to 

 waste without storage, the spots in the valleys and among 

 the mountains where the water of either permanent streams 

 or of torrents may be husbanded by impounding, and 

 where water may be obtained either by artesian or ordinary 

 wells. The knowledge thus given would be of enormous 

 value in promoting the development of irrigation, for set- 

 tlers could proceed with confidence to utilize the resources 

 pointed out, saving them much uncertainty and possible 

 loss. Therefore such a survey, however costly, would 

 pay for itself manifold. 



