46 



TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



If the irrigation of 250,000 acres has made Southern California what 

 it is to-day, what will the irrigation of 500,000 acres more do for this 

 country? 



Most of the irrigated lands of Southern California between the moun- 

 tains and the sea — to the extent of 250,000 acres — are devoted to the 

 production of citrus and deciduous fruits — a $10,000,000 item of oranges 

 annually leading the list — while the 500,000 acres under the Imperial 

 Canal System will be devoted mostly to the production of the great 

 staples of beef and pork. The Imperial Canal country will feed the 

 nation on the substantials, while the coast valleys will furnish it 

 with the delicacies. 



Not only is the Imperial Canal System adding this vast area to the 

 productive soil of the country, but the United States Government, 

 stimulated by the success of the Imperial Canal System, has undertaken 

 to utilize a portion of the waters of the Colorado River in reclaiming 

 other large tracts of the arid public domain — more than equal to the 

 present irrigated area of this portion of the State — all of which will be 

 tributary to the upbuilding of the five southern counties of the State. 



And why should not the Government take a hand in making valuable 

 its own worthless public domain? It has the land and it has the water. 

 It has the financial strength and it has the business ability. It can 

 take an acre of land that is to-day absolutely worthless and a stream 

 of water that is absolutely worthless, and by putting them together, it 

 can produce wealth — can make the acre of land and the acre-foot of 

 water very valuable, ready to assist in supporting our ever-increasing 

 population. After the land and water are brought together, the combi- 

 nation can be sold for more than it cost to bring them together, and the 

 homeless citizen, in search of a place to make a home, will be glad to 

 reimburse the Government in its effort to make valuable its own worth- 

 less land. 



To-day the Government is selling worthless land for $1.25 an acre, 

 and the purchaser must go to work and make that land valuable; 

 whereas, the Government should make the land valuable before selling 

 it, and then it would not only give value received for the money it 

 takes from the settler, but it could, if it so desired, get double the cost 

 of the reclaimed land, and still the settler would be better satisfied 

 than he would be to take a chunk of the desert in its native worthless- 

 ness for nothing. 



