Nature's Unequal Distribution of Her Gifts 29 



While we cannot make it rain where not enough rain falls, 

 we can do that which is just as good or better : we can carry- 

 water by ditches and pipes to the land that needs it. Much 

 of the soil of the great deserts in the southwestern part of 

 our country is rich in plant food. All that it lacks is water. 



The Indian roamed over the rich lands of the great delta 

 of the Colorado River. He often went hungry and thirsty. 

 He did not think of taking the water out of the river in a 

 ditch and allowing it to flow over and wet the rich soil. 

 The white man came and turned the river out of its channel 

 and spread the water over hundreds of square miles of the 

 richest land on the earth. Now, where once you would 

 have died of thirst and hunger, there are green fields and 

 growing crops as far as you can see. 



The city of Los Angeles is situated in a dry region where 



The Owens River aqueduct, through which water is carried to Los Angeles from 

 a source more than two hundred miles distant. 



