228 



THE DESERT 



JUelavming 

 the vaUeys, 



Fighting 

 fertility. 



country was planned by Nature to be desert. 

 Down to the water-edge of the Pacific she once 

 carried the light, air, and life of the Mojave 

 and the Colorado. 



But man has in measure changed the desert 

 conditions by storing the waste waters of the 

 mountains and reclaiming the valleys by irriga- 

 tion. His success has been phenomenal. Out 

 of the wilderness there have sprung farms, 

 houses, towns, cities with their wealth and lux- 

 ury. But the cultivated conditions are main- 

 tained only at the price of eternal vigilance. 

 Nature is compelled to reap where she has not 

 sown ; and at times she seems almost human in 

 the way she rebels and recurs to former condi- 

 tions. Two, three ; yes, at times, four years 

 in succession she gives little rain. A great 

 drouth follows. Then the desert breaks in 

 upon the valley ranches, upon the fields of bar- 

 ley, the orchards of prunes and peaches and 

 apricots. Then abandoned farms are quite as 

 plentiful as in New England ; and once aban- 

 doned, but a few years elapse before the desert 

 has them for its own. Nature is always driven 

 with difficulty. Out on the Mojave she fights 

 barrenness at every turn ; here in Southern 

 California she fights fertility. She is deter- 



