New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-01-26

1t is not an agreeable piece of information.
this which Gen. IIazcn forces upon rs so per
sstcnty, and with an array of evidence too
strong to be questioned. He insists that the
"rrgion of country between the Tooth mcrid-
ian and the Sierra Nevada Mountains all the
sway from Mexico to the British Possessions,
as practically valuelcss for agricultural pur-
"DO,es;" and having made This startling state
mcnt lie goes on to prove 1t, or rather he
keeps on proving IT, for hc returns to
the charge again and again with fresh
rcGnrorccments of Witnesses. II hurts orr ma
tional cgotsm to be told that Uncle Sam is no
longer erich enough to give Us all farm"
We have been in the habit of looking with
satisfaction upon the wide blank spaces on the
map of the United States, and of carving them
ont into future States, rich and populous like
Wisconsin or Missouri, dotted with towns and
cities and covered with network Of railways.
Not for century to come, twas thought, would
the political economist have other advice TO
give to industrious young men seeking q broad
field for their energies than t. Go West,
and the proner of free homescads would it
was confidently believed, long serve to attract
to our shores the stream of European immi-
grafton Now we are called upon to recon
struct our ideal future map and to leave the
vast area between tho present picket line Of
advancing settlement and the slopes of tie
Sierras-a region about equal in extent to that
between the Mississippi River and the
Atlantc-pretty much as it now exists.
There will be- Gen. Hazen tells us, n
few more mining camps in the gorges of the
mountains few more pastoral colonies along
the river valleys, and here and there an agri-
cultural settlement in localities where water can
be had for irrigation, but that will be all. The
Mdurnises Teyres of the early French y0yageurs,
which they placed IN what is now Dakota,
extend, it would appear, over fully one-third
of our whole national domain.
The fact which Gen. Iazen again puts before
the public has long been known to army Off
GERS, miners, explorers, and others who have
traversed the heart of the continent, and was
probably much better understood by the
country at large fifteen or twenty years ago than
now. Then the overland journey to California
was an affair Of weeks or months, and travel
ers who made it got correct and lasting impress
sions of tho region they trayersed. Now.
people are whirlcd through from Omaha to San
Francisco in Pullman cars, and about all they
recolect of the journey IL that they ate antelope
meat at some Of the stations, saw few prairie
dogs and perhaps a buffalo, and stopped day
OF two at Salt Lake to get look at the Nor
mons. This new evidence OF the almost
complete sterility of the region west OF
the Tooth meridian Is therefore disagreeable
surprise to most people. No single fact bear
ing upon the future Of the Republic
is OF more Importance. 1t will change
radically the nature of our material growth.
To use figure from botany, the country will
soon cease to develop, like the exogens, by
external layers OF new structure, and must,
like the endogens, fill out from within. The
loose and spongy fabric of our Western civil
ization cannot be extended for thousand OF
fifteen hundred miles further toward the
Pacific. 1t has almost reached its limit. Ia
this to be regretted Possibly, looking to the
far future, 1t il, but for the next century or
two tho wide wastes of aridsplains..and sage