The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-11-12

bad LANDS or Montana and the Great
American DESERT l am glad that you
mentioned that. Within twenty-five
years there will not be between the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts "a hundred
miles of land not reclaimed either by
farmers pillow or miners crowbar. By
irrigation, the waters of the rivers and
the showers of Heaven, in what . le
called the rainy season, will be gath
cred into great reservoirs, and through
aqueducts let down where and when
the people want them. Utah is an OBJ
ject lesson. Some parts of that ter
ritory which were so barren that a
spear of grass could not have been
now rich as Lancaster county farms of
New Jersey. Experiments have proved
that ten acres of ground irrigated
from waters gathered in great hyro-
logical basins will produce as much as
so acres from the downpour of rain as
seen in our region. We have our
freshets and our drougths. AS you
take pitcher and get it full of water,
and then set it on table and take a
drink out of it when you are thirsty
and never think of drinking pitcher
full all at once, so Montana and Wyo-
ming and Idaho will catch the rains OF
their rainy season and take up all the
waters of their rivers in great pitchers
of reservoirs, and refresh their land
whenever they will.
The work has already been grandly
begun by the United States govern
ment. Over 400 lakes have already
been officially taken possession of by
the nation for the great enterprise OF
irrigation. Rivers that have been roll
ing idly through these regions, doing
nothing on their way to the sea, will
be lassoed and corralled and penned
up until such time as the farmers need
them. Under the same processes the
Ohio, the Mississippi, and all the 9TH
err rivers will be taught to behave
themselves better, and great basins
will be made to catch the surplus OF
waters in times of freshet, and keep
them for times of drought. The irri-
eating process by which all the arid
lands between the Atlantic and Paci-
fic oceans are to be fortified is NO
new experiment.
1t has been going on successfully
hundreds of years in Spain, China, in
India, in Russia, in Egypt. About
100000 of people of the earth to-
day are kept alive on food raised on ir'
rigated land. And here we have al
lowed to lie waste, given up to rattle
snake and bat and prairie dog, lands
enough to support whole nations of
Industrious population. The work be-
gun will be consummated. Here and
there exceptional lands may be stub
born and refuse to yield any wheat OF
corn from their hard fists, but if the
hoe fail to make an impression, the
miners pick-ax will discover the rea.
son for it, and bring mp from beneath
those unproductive surfaces coal and
iron and lead and copper and gold
God speed the biologists and survey
ors, the engineers and the senatorial
commissions, and the capitalists ant
the new settlers and the husbandmen
who put their brain and hand ant
heart to this TRANSPORTATION of the
American continent! Streams in the
DESERT"
But while / speak of the immensely
of the continent, must remark it i!
not an immensely of monotone o.
tameness. The larger some countries
are, the worse for the world. Thi,
continent is not more remarkable fol
it's magnitude than for it's wonders o
construction. Yosemite and the ad
joining California regions! Who tina
has seen them can think of them with
out having his blood Jingle? Tree
now standing there were old wheI
Christ lived! These monarchs o
foliage reigned before Alexander, ant
the next 1000 years will not shatte
their scepter! They are the masts o
the continent, their canvas spread o.
the winds, while the old ship bears OIL
it's way through the ages!
That valley of the Yosemite is eigh
miles long and a half mile wide. an
5000 feet deep. 1t seems as if it ha
been the meaning of Omnipotence t
crowd into as small place as possibl
some of the most stupendous scener
of the world. Some of the cliffs yo
do not stop to measure by feet, fo
they are literally mile high Steep S
that neither foot of man or beast eve
scaled them, they stand in everlastin
defiance. If Jehovah has a throne o
earth, these are its white pillars
Standing down in this great chasm {
the valley, you look up, and yonder
Cathedral Rock, vast, gloomy, minste
built for the silent worship of tn
mountains! Yonder is Sentinel rocl
3,27O feet high, bold, solitary, standin
guard among the ages, its top seldol
touched, until bride, one Fourth {
July, mounted it and planted the n;
tional standards, and the people dow
in the valley looked up and saw I'll
head of the mountain turbaned wit
Stars and Stripes! Yonder are tt
Three Brothers, 1000 feet high
Clouds rest, North and South dom
and the heights never captured say
by the fiery bayonets of the thundt
storm!
No pause for the eye, no stoppin
place for the mind. Mountains hurle
on mountains. Mountains in the wal
of mountains. Mountains flanked /