May  I,  1896.J 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
759 
area  of  the  new  world.  Tlio  now  system  has 
restored  the  prestige  of  agriculture  among  the 
most  progressive  people  in  the  world.  But 
the  discovery  has  done  far  more  than  provide  com- 
petence and  comfort  for  the  new  population  of  the 
“arid”  States.  Economically,  the  system  is  ideally 
perfect  ; socially,  it  exactly  meets  the  pressing  ner“ds 
of  a particular  phase  of  civilisation.  It  offers  an  escape 
to  better  things  to  the  overgrown  town  population  of 
the  Eastern  States,  and  give.s  this  alternative  in  a form 
which  pays,  which  gives  permanent  homes,  progressive 
incomes,  and  is  of  almost  unlimited  capacity  for  the 
reception  of  the  urban  overflow.  In  view  of  the  com- 
plete failure  of  Australia,  the  prairie  area,  and  the  Ar- 
gentine plains,  to  attract  this  population,  and  of  the 
rapidity  with  which,  in  spite  of  their  want  of  inhabi- 
tants, the  surplus  lands  of  Canada,  the  States  and 
the  Southern  llepnblics  have  passed  into  private  owner- 
ship, the  reason  for  the  “ population  capacity  ” of  the 
arid  belt  of  the  United  States,  when  irrigated,  needs 
some  explaining.  The  surplus  lands  of  the  rest  of  the 
New  World  and  Ausiralia  present  the  apparent  contra- 
diction of  having  failed  to  provide  new  homes  for 
any  great  number  from  the  old  countries,  and 
yet  of  being  already  completely  “occupied”  in 
the  sense  that  all  paying  land  is  now  private 
property.  It  is  not  a contradiction,  in  fact,  because 
their  development  has  been  in  precisely  the  opposite 
direction  to  that  most  to  be  desired.  The  system  has 
been  precisely  that  which  is  most  wasteful  of  land- 
area  and  most  exclusive  of  the  small  settler.  In 
Australia  the  big  squatter  “ ate  up  ” the  little  squatter, 
and  then  sold  his  interests  to  banks  and  land-coin- 
panics  who  joined  run  to  run,  and  cut  down  man- 
agement expenses  until  the  small  settlers  ceased  to 
exist.  On  the  pampas  of  the  Argentine  Eepublic,  the 
size  of  the  branches  has  continually  tended  to  expand, 
while  on  the  corn-growing  prairies  the  size  of  tne 
farms  increases  while  the  cultivation  becomes  less 
efficient.  Even  in  the  old-fashioned  Eastern  States 
of  North  America,  the  hard-working  New  England 
farmers  are  increasing  the  size  of  their  farms,  because, 
by  cultivating  much  land  ill,  they  run  less  risk  of 
complete  failure  than  by  cultivating  a small  farm 
well.  Here,  then,  was  a hopeless  outlook.  lu  Europe 
and  America  a town  population,  dependent  mainly 
oil  weekly  wages,  and  for  these  on  the  chances 
of  commercial  success  or  failure,  menaced  every 
year  by  some  great  catastrophe  such  as  a general 
war— a population  spending  at  least  70  per  cent  of 
this  wage,  when  in  work,  on  food,  clothes,  and  shelter — 
were  yet  debarred  from  return  to  agriculture  by  its 
economic  failure  in  the  old  countries,  and  the  monc- 
pioly  of  capitalists  in  the  new  ones,  a monopoly  not 
maintained  selfishly,  but  due  to  the  fact  that  on 
the  existing  system,  whether  of  cattle,  sheep,  or  corn 
farming,  only  great  areas  could  be  made  to  payn 
The  irrigation  farming  of  the  “arid  States”  has 
solved  this  problem  for  many  years  to  come  for  the 
artisans  of  the  United  States.  It  pays,  it  provides  a 
life  not  only  of  competence,  but  of  positive  charm, 
and  it  is  essentially  economical,  not  only  of  laboiir  hut  of 
area.  Small  farming  pays  best.  As  the  system 
grows  more  perfect,  the  size  of  the  garden-farms 
decreases,  while  the  produce  doubles  and  trebles. 
The  utmost  possible  crop  is  produced  by  these  garden- 
farms  of  from  five  to  twenty-five  acres.  Thus  in  Cali- 
fornia a single  great  estate  of  four  hundred  thousand 
acres  has  now  been  split  up  into  thousands  of 
these  farms.  “ The  Anglo-Saxon  has  at  last  thrown 
himself  into  the  study  of  the  new  methods  with  as  much 
enthusiasm  as  he  bestows  on  electricity  and  new 
mining  processes,  and  the  men  who  arc  doing  this 
are  being  mainly  recruited  from  the  millions  engaged 
in  the  industries  of  the  Eastern  States  and  towns.” 
“ The  Western  labourer  is  his  own  employer.  lie  is 
also  his  own  landlord.  These  two  facts  constitute 
ideal  independence.  But  there  is,  in  his  case,  the 
jiracticnl  side.  From  his  ten  or  twenty  acres,  in- 
sured against  failure  by  flood  or  drought,  first  by  its 
aridity  and  second  by  irrigation,  ho  can  systemati- 
cally produce  almost  every  item  of  food  which  hiu 
family  consumes  Western  rivers  and  lakes  abound 
with  fish  which  can  be  had  without  cost ; salmon  are 
abundant  in  all  the  streams  which  enter  the  I’acific.” 
Trout  are  kept  in  immense  numbers  and  artificially 
fed  in  the  farmers’  pools  and  dams.  “ In  average 
years  on  a twenty-acre  farm  there  is  a comfortable 
surplus.  It  may  be  said  that  the  same  results  are 
yielded  by  the  agricultural  industry  elsewhere ; but 
it  cannot  he  done  ivith  equal  certainty  nor  on  an 
equal  area  without  irrigation.”  The  “water-far- 
mer” has  no  bad  seasons,  and  the  small  size  of 
the  farm  prevents  that  curse  of  the  Eastern 
States  farmers,  the  year-long  strain  of  physical 
overwork.  Any  analysis  of  the  means  by  which  these 
results  are  reached,  strengthens  the  conviction  that  the 
elements  of  the  system  are  sound  and  permanent.  The 
basis  of  agricultural  depression  is,  first,  the  over-pro- 
duction of  the  staple  produces,  corn  and  cattle,  and 
secondly,  the  fact  that  they  are  the  production  of  what 
is  in  each  country  the  least-skilled  class  of  labour. 
The  iriigatiou  farmer  does  not  aim  at  growing  corn, 
or  even  cattle — except  as  a dairyman  ; and  his  farm 
is  a mechanical  manufactory  of  luxuries,  of  choice  fruits 
and  vegetables  for  sale  with  a reserve  of  grain,  cattle 
aud  poultry,  mainly  for  household  consumption.  He 
thus  avoids  competition  with  the  peasant  corn-produ- 
cers aud  the  imskilled  labour  of  the  rest  of  the  world  ; 
in  other  words,  he  is  above  the  level  of  conditions 
which  produce  agricultural  depression.  He  raises 
from  three  to  six  crops  a year,  according  to  climate  and 
the  kind  of  crop  ho  plants,  and  by  singular  good  luck  or 
good  judgment  he  has  found  a fodder-plant  specially 
suited  to  “intensive”  cultivation.  This  is  the  alfalfa, 
a species  of  lucerne,  which  will,  in  the  South,  produce 
six  crops  a year,  and  is  eaten  not  only  by  cattle,  but  by 
poultry  and  swine, 
The  home  question  at  once  suggests  itself.  Are  the 
benefits  of  this  astonishing  revival  confined  by  climate 
to  the  regions  on  either  side  of  the  “ Great  Divide,” 
the  mountain  chains  of  the  United  Sta’tes,  or  are  they 
applicable  in  part  to  the  fields  of  England?  The 
answer  must  be  sought  in  reference  to  the  area  to 
which  the  system  is  now  applied  in  the  United  States. 
There  it  is  not  limited  to  the  “ arid  belt.”  It  has 
spread  northwards  to  latitudes  as  high  as  that  of  the 
St.  Eawrence  and  the  cities  of  Lower  Canada,  and 
has  passed  the  latitude  of  New  York.  It  has  spread 
from  the  barren  wastes  of  Lower  Texas  and  New 
Mexico  to  the  temperate  climate  of  the  North,  and 
it  is  the  experience  of  Montana  and  Wyoming  which 
will  be  most  eargerly  scanned  by  the  farmers  of  Eng- 
land. Here  we  shall  do  well  to  quote  Mr.  William 
Smythe  verbatim  : — -“The  evidences  of  the  triumph  of 
irrigation  might  be  multiplied  a hundredfold  by  re- 
ference to  the  story  of  the  valleys  of  arid  America. 
But  there  is  a wide  difference  between  the  agriculture, 
and  especially  the  horticulture,  of  the  Salt  River  Valley 
of  Arizona,  and  the  Yellowstone  Valley  of  Montana. 
The  one  produces  oranges,  figs,  aud  pomegranates; 
the  other  only  the  hardiest  fruits  (English  fruits). 
The  same  conditions  influence  the  size  of  the  farm 
and  the  methods  of  applying  the  water,  but  the  fact 
remains  that  without  irrigation  neither  Arizona  nor 
Jfontana  would  have  any  agriculture  worthy  of  the 
name,  while  with  irrigation  both  support  fanuiug 
populations  which  may  be  vastly  multiplied.”  In 
Wyoming  the  new'  system  has  won  a mosc  complete 
triumph  over  the  old.  Wyoming  lies  south  of  Mon- 
tana and  has  an  English  climate.  There  was  an 
“organised  stock  interest”  of  large  cattle-farmers, 
who  resisted  the  new  idea  of  agriculture  almost  by 
armed  force.  They  were  beaten.  Circumstances  were 
too  strong  for  them,  and  Wyoming  is  on  its  way 
to  become  an  “ irrigation  state,”  “ There  will  be 
more  cattle  in  the  aggregate,  but  distributed  among 
a multitude  of  small  owners  living  in  the  irrigated 
valleys.  There  they  w'ill  raise  the  diversified 
products  necessary  to  their  support,  and  great 
crops  of  winter  fodder  (on  irrigated  fields)  for  their 
cattle.  This  process  has  begun,  and  it  results  in  the 
elevation  alike  of  the  men  and  their  industry.” 
Here,  then  is  the  lesson  for  English  agriculture. 
Watcuncadows,  irrigated  on  a primitive  plan,  are  even 
now  worth  double  the  rent  of  ordinary  grass-land. 
Alfalfa  will  grow'  on  English  soil,  and  the  average 
duration  of  sunlight  is  calculable,  though  not  constant. 
Each  year  more  laud  is  laid  down  to  grass  in  a land 
of  rivers  aud  ponds.  Millions  of  pounds  have  been 
spent  in  draiiiing  away  the  stagnant  waters  which 
injure  the  land,  yet  the  knowledge,  common  to  every 
