Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-12

| such thing as failure; without it drouth
and want are common. With irrigation
| of the Colorado Austin could have abund-
ant, varied and constant supply of veg
etables and fruits and be relieved OF the
enormous tax we now pay for irrigated
Western fruits. With Irrigation every
five acres of the Colorado valley would
support in luxury q family, whereas
| without 1t it is now difficult for farmer
to earn living upon twenty acres. Ir-
| rigation would enable farmers to relieve
themselves of the cotton growing slavery
to follow higher agriculture. Irriga-
| tion would enable Austin to possess can
ming factories and thereby increase our
mandatory resources. An acre of irri-
gated land of the proper kind produces
! 500 to $500 worth year. An acre of
cotton seldom produceI more than
$50 net year, and requires the
! maximum of labor. 1t Is a great mis-
take TO suppose that irrigation should be
produced only in arid regions, and to
think that Central Texas does net need
It. Tbs wealth of Texas is pre-emi-
nently in her soils, which exceed in value
| all possible mineral possibilities, and
this soil is too rich to be forever devoted
20 poorly paying plantation crops, I'M
worthy of the highest skill of the Anglo
Saxon laborer. Even where the rainfall
Is treble ours, irrigation Is practiced
most successfully. Not only does it give
water, but also fertility to the soil, aud
by its aid the rich red raises of the Colo
RADIO and the Brazos valleys, laden with
gypsum, lime and other ingredients,
would restore and maintain the sandy
loans in the Colorado valley below AUS
tin in high degree of fertility.
"The subject of irrigation is assuming
such proportions in the United States at
present that it is merely question of
years when we will see the rivers and
artesiau wells of Texas quadrupling our
agricultural productions. -
So say we. We must arrive at q means
of making our lands produce more than
they are now producing ere we can ever
reasonably expect TO become o highly
prosperous people. We have had people
tell us that the country is alreadyIproduc-
ing more than it can sell. Why? Because
thsre ure not more consumers, of course.
Heavy production invariably brings
heavy local consumption, but light pro-
duction cannot do otherwise than hold a
country down to thin population. If
every cultivated acre in Texas could be |
made to produce four times as much as
it now produces, Texas would draw so |
strongly upon all parts of the civilized |
world that but five decades would go by |
ere people would be living everywhere |
within calling distance of each other. |
And they would not all be soil workers,
either-a very large proportion of them
would be consumers and not producers
of soil products. An extremely pros
porous agriculture brings in thousands of
other industries. The products of the
soil must be worked up in some way, and
where they exist in attractive abundance
those workers invariably come to lake
charge.
The production plea is simply
nonsense, and to hold back on account
of any such notion is exactly on q par
with having rich gold mine and run
ming it on half time through the fear
that more gold would be taken
out than would be in de-
mand. The products of the soil
are more than gold. People of all the
world live off them directly or indirectly.
Gold is all well enough for ornamental
purposes, or as a medium in commerce.,
but life left to gold alone would soon be-
come extinct.