Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-17

GLASSES of society, the agricultural and other
laborers being rarely afflicted with the
disease. Men are more liable to 1t than
women, in the proportion Of three to one.
DIR. Mckenzie, like most of the other recent
writers on the subject, holds to the doctrine
that the disease is induced by particles of
pollen or other bits of vegetable matter
which irritate the air passages This makes
the distribution Of the disease still more
singular, as such irritants are. of course, as
common in continental Europe as In En-
gland and probably as common as in the
United States Those in immediate con-
tact with the fields should apparently suffer
more from the malady than those who by
their habits of life are less exposed to the in
fuence of the country.
The occurrence of this peculiar malady
in the upper classes seems to point to the
conclusion that the conditions of life COM
mon to such people are calculated to breed
peculiar habit of body. More than any
other fact this appears to show that our
civilization is separating the diverse
classes of men from each other, not only
IN qualities of mental culture, but in
| physical characteristics as WELL
TO REDEEM STERILE LANDS.
The first session of the present federal
Congress appropriated the sum Of S100, 900
to begin d series of surveys with reference
to the irrigation of the arid land in the
district of the Rocky mountains. In the
second session of the same Congress, the
amount provided for in the appropriation
bill to continue this work is $3.50, 900.
These appropriations mark the beginning
of the largest combat with the physical
difficulties which beset the agriculture
OF this continent which has ever been
entered upon. Our continent appears
very large on map of the world and
in our patriotic imaginations. The fact is,
however, that nearly one-half of its surface
is made unfit for agriculture, save in isolated
patches, by the evils attendant on a scanty
or irregular supply of water, and about one
fifth of the area is desert by extreme cold
Tie rapid advance of our population in the
fertile districts OF the Mississippi Valley
gave the nation for a time sense of un-
bounded domain. Already our people begin
to feel the limits of the lands, which by their
natural conditions are suited to tillage. Be-
fore the next II years OF the century are
over there will be no virgin fields Of good
land awaiting the settler. All the area
where the soil is ft for tillage by its natural
conditions will have been taken up, and the
newcomers born in America or emigranh
from other countries will have to betake
themselves to lands obtained from private
holders rather than from generous Govern
ment.
A FOOD BASIS FOR 100000
A number of years ago Major j. W. Pow
ell, now director Of the United States Geo
logical Survey, with admirable foresight,
called the attention of the Federal authori-
ties to the importance Of arranging our pub
lie land laws in such manner that it would
hereafter be possible to provide system of
irrigation in that part of the continent be-
tween the one hundredth meridian and the
Pacific coast, in which irrigation alone can
afford the basis of agriculture. His treatise
on the arid lands Of the far West showed |
clearly that the area to be measured by the |
hundreds of thousands of square miles could |
be redeemed from sterility by proper sys-
tenn for storing the rain water in the high |
lands and distributing it over the fields in |
the manner long practiced in India and |
other countries of the Old World. Good as
this advice was, it has only received due at
tention with the past two years. Although |
much has been lost by the delay, it is al
ready time to secure the essential advan-
tages proposed by this scheme.
The preliminary computations made by
Major Powell indicate approximately that
there may be won to agriculture in the arid
region of the West by this method of i'm
proving the conditions of the lands an area
of somewhere near 300, 900 square miles,
When so adapted to the uses Of man, this
area will probably have a food-producing
power at least six times as great as that now
afforded by the titled lands in the State of
Illinois, 1t is not too much to say that this
system will, in the centuries to come, win
from what is now desert land the food basis
for population which may amount to more
shan 10000, 900 Of souls.
n. S. SHALER.