THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
163 
Salt Lake congress. The second congress was held in 
Los Angeles, in October, 1893. This congress dropped 
the question of national cession and dealt with methods 
of irrigation, cost and duty of water, government control 
of water sources and questions of like character. The 
result of this congress was the appointment of a commis¬ 
sion of five persons in each of the 17 arid states and ter¬ 
ritories, who were authorized to report at the next con¬ 
gress on the local conditions in each state. 
The third National Irrigation Congress was held in 
Denver, in September, 1894. In calling the delegates to 
this meeting it was decided by the national executive 
committee to make it a purely American Congress, unit¬ 
ing all irrigation interests from British Columbia to 
Mexico, and with this end in view Secretary of State 
Gresham was asked to invite the governments of Canada 
and Mexico to join in discussing questions affecting the 
settlement of the arid lands of North America. Each of 
these governments promptly responded by sending an in¬ 
telligent and representative delegation of skilled engineers 
to Denver, and the gentlemen took a prominent part in 
all the discussions and deliberations affecting their re¬ 
spective governments. In addition to delegates from 
every one of the 17 arid states, gentlemen were in attend, 
auce from Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and 
Rhode Island, and strong letters of encouragement were 
sent from Florida and Georgia. The delegations were 
thoroughly representative in character, being composed 
of prominent citizens, both in official and private life, 
and the congress numbered among its members United 
States senators, governors, and members of congress. It 
showed in its groupings and makeup that the whole 
country is aroused over its possibilities. Leading news, 
papers of the eastern cities, including New York, Chicago^ 
Bosto 1 and St. Louis, contained lengthy editorial com¬ 
ments on the proceedings of the congress, which were 
telegraphed across the country daily by the Associated 
Press agents. The congress, in its final resolutions, asked 
for the repeal of the desert land law, and for government 
survey of water sources, catchment basins, and storage 
sites. It also asked for the appointment of a national 
irrigation commission to have charge of all irrigation 
work national in its character, as under the present law a 
portion of the money appropriated by congress for irri¬ 
gation inquiry is expended by the Department of the 
Interior, and a portion by the Department of Agriculture, 
and no good results can be expected from this division of 
the work. An international commission was also sug¬ 
gested to adjudicate questions arising between Mexico 
and the United States on the south, and between Canada 
and the United States on the northern border. 
The fourth National Iirigation Congress will meet in 
Albuquerque, in September, 1895- It will deal largely 
with the local legislation needed to secure the benefits of 
the Carey law. The work being done by the congress is 
supervised by a national executive committee of one 
member from each western state and territory, the chair¬ 
man of which.is William E. Smith of the Irrigation Age. 
The main points of the Carey law are that it gives to 
any state the right to select tracts of arid public land— 
up to one million acres—first filing with the Secretary of 
the Interior a plat of each separate tract of such land 
and a map showing the sources of water supply to be 
used in reclaiming the land. On approval by the Secre¬ 
tary, the state is authorized to place water on the land, 
sell it to actual settlers in tracts not exceeding 160 acres, 
and when proof is filed by the state that the land has 
been reclaimed, and that at least twenty acres of each 
quarter section are in cultivation, and that it is actually 
occupied by a settler, the government will issue a patent 
for the land. The title in all cases is to pass through the 
state direct to the settlers, but the price paid for the land 
is to go direct to the state. 
The undertaking of the National Irrigation Congress is 
one of great importance. It is sure to be successful and 
the result will be the rapid extension of all kinds of busi¬ 
ness into territory now practically excluded. Landscape 
improvement and the planting of large commercial 
orchards will be primary steps in the occupation of these 
once arid regions. It is not too much to predict, says 
Mr. Alles, that the highest civilization of the North 
American continent to be shown by the coming century 
will be found within the limits of what is now an almost 
virgin desert, starting from the eastern line of the great 
plains region, touching the one hundredth meridian, and 
extending west across mesas and mountain valleys to the 
white foam which fringes the waves of the restless Pacific. 
N. S. Platt, of Cheshire, Conn., says: “ I have fruited 
the Champion peach this year for the first time. Com¬ 
pared with an older tree of Mountain Rose beside it, the 
time of ripening and size of fruit is the same. In two 
important particulars, however, the Champion is superior 
to Mountain Rose. It is much better in quality, and the 
fruit buds appear to be hardier. This was a year of a 
scant cr ip of peaches here, and the fact of the Champion 
trees being two or three years planted, giving as much or 
more fruit to the tree than the Mountain Rose of twice the 
age and size, indicates that it is a surer bearer.” 
A number of horticulturists remembering at the holiday 
season tlie immense advantage derived from the intro¬ 
duction of the Concord grape, the originator of which E.W. 
Bull, of Massachusetts, received nothing for it, sent Mr. 
Bull a purse of money collected at agricultural and horti¬ 
cultural society meetings. Mr. Bull is an inmate of an 
old people’s home in his native state. 
The report of the reception to Dean Hole, of England, 
by American horticulturists, in our last issue was taken 
from The Florist's Exchange. 
P'rank R. Pierson, of Tarrytown, N.Y., is general agent 
for Europe and America, of a consolidated company of 
the largest lily bulb growers in Bermuda. 
