The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-06-22

He adds Nevada and Colorado to the
list because they are States only in form
of government, and resemble the Terri
tories in the poverty OF soil and inca
pacity for much further development.
This estimate, if correct-and it is sus-
tanned by the best information that
comes from army officers and scientific
travelers-has an important bearing upon
many interesting public questions. The
time is mt hand when there will be no
vast areas of fertile land tempting the
emlgrant to the West. Even now the
limit of profitable agricultural settle
ment in Western Nebraska and Kansas
has been reached. Beyond stretch vast
plains available for grazing purposes
only where water can be obtained.
Further west comes the region OF noun
tains and table lands, where no rain
falls, and where agriculture is only prac-
ticable along the banks of rivers, or in
few localities where water can be OBJ
tanned for irrigation from the streams
formed by the melting SHOWS on the
mountains. These localities are rare,
because the mountain peaks and chains
are, for the most part, bare of snow in
summer. West of the Rocky mountains
and their lateral ranges the sage-brush
desert, utterly worthless for culture, ex-
tends to the Sierras. Washington Ter
ritory has different characteristics from
the elevated rainless interior region, but
timber is it's chief resource, and farming
is confined to few valleys.
The section of country described has
an area greater than that of all the States
east of the Mississippi river, but its
population q century hence will proba-
bly, not equal that of Massachusetts, to-
day. Each Territory, by making the
most of its mining and farming re-
sources, may acquire population sufficient
to entitle it to admission as q State, but
not one is likely to ever have more than
single member of Congress. Except
in the Senate the relative power of the
East and the West will not therefore
be much changed in the future. There
will be few more new States erected in
the present generation. Colorado was
only admitted after long fight Ne
vada ought to be set back into Ter
ritorial condition. Her population is
less than 1000, and it is not to be ex-
pected that she will ever have as many
inhabitants as In the old States are
requisite to form Congress district.
The influence which the cessation of
the movement of population West may
have upon the social, industrial and po-
litical phases of our national life opens
a wide field for thought and discussion.
Looked at in one way it will be an evil
day when there is no more virgin soil
awaiting the plowshare OF the farmer,
10 new towns springing up and inviting
the enterprise of the young men of the
East, no region for the restless and I'M
fortunate to flee to with the hope of bet
tering their condition. But there is an
other view to take, and it will probably
be the view taken by the social scientist
1t is that high civilization is inconsistent
with sparse settlement, and that culture,
wealth and happiness will rather increase
than diminish when the population of
the whole country is much more dense
than at present, and the vacant spaces
are filled up that have been skipped in
the rush to the West.