TWENTY -EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



39 



them, and as your boys grow up under this healthful discipline, they 

 will have developed in them those rugged traits of industry and strength 

 that have made the American farmer what he is, the life blood of the 

 Republic. 



To recapitulate: The stepping-stones to California's future greatness 

 are, the breaking up of large holdings into small farms and orchards; 

 greater diversity in general, and in the products of each ranch; inten- 

 sive culture; greater care in maintaining the fertility of the soil. To 

 accomplish this latter purpose, it is to be hoped that dairying will 

 receive more attention on the part of fruit-growers. 



THE RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS. 



By L. M. HOLT, of Los Angeles, 

 Founder of the now popular system of mutual water companies in Southern California. 



For many years past, the people of the United States — and especially 

 the people of the arid West — have been studying carefully the question 

 of reclaiming our own worthless public domain, in order to enlarge our 

 nation and furnish homes to the increasing millions of our population. 



While this great question of national expansion within our own 

 territorial limits was under consideration, a new question of national 

 expansion beyond our territorial limits was forced upon our people by 

 international complications which could not be ignored, and which 

 resulted in the annexation of extensive insular interests in and beyond 

 the sea. 



The original question of home expansion finally resulted in congres- 

 sional action in favor of the construction of national irrigation works 

 for the reclamation and colonization of a portion of our worthless arid 

 public domain, which action will result in the practical annexation of 

 some of our own territory to the inhabitable area of our country. This 

 appears to be a species of national expansion to which there can be no 

 reasonable objection from any source, no matter how much it may be 

 mixed up with partisan politics. 



It is always considered good business policy for an individual to 

 improve his own property and make it more valuable — especially when, 

 by so doing, he can create wealth — when, by so doing, he can make ten, 

 five, three, or even two dollars by spending one — or make two blades of 

 grass to grow where none grew before. If this is good, sound business 

 sense for an individual, why is it not good, sound logic for a nation? 



It is the application of this sound, common sense that has created 

 Southern California out of nothing; that has created a Riverside out of 

 a poor sheep ranch, a Redlands out of a barren waste, and the Imperial 

 settlements out of a worthless desert. 



