CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1901-07-18
RECLAIM ARID LANDS.
With a System of Government Stor-
age Reservoirs 1000 Square
Miles OF Arid Land Would Be
Placed Under Cultivation.

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United States west of the Rocky
Mountains, President J. j. Hill of the
Great Northern system says that
when that slope shall have 20, 100000
people Chicago ought to be the larg
est city in the world. He bases this
interesting possibility upon the fact
that 76, 100000 people in the country
are supported more or less directly
by trade with Europe and Africa,
with their 4OO,OOO,O0O population.
''On the other hand" he says,
there are l 200, 100000 people off our
western coast with whom we should
trade, and yet we have only 100000
population to reach out for it,
He confesses to the handicap of the
present coast country, but he is SAN
guine of the good time coming when
the United States shall dominate the
trade of Asia Mr.. Hill insists that
the building up of such a trade will
depend in great measure upon the
development of the agricultural re-
sources of the Pacific slope. To de-
velop this he says that government
aid in building canals will be neces-
sarv. Grain and flour will be prime
articles of export to the Orient, and
at the present time rates are prohibi-
tory on these products of the middle
west.
Except for manufactured stuffs
and cotton, these exports will be grain
and flour" said Mr.. Hill, "and these
agricultural products must be grown
on the Pacific coast. For this pur
pose we have territory 1000 miles
square, which, through centuries of
aridity, have become vast nitrate beds
needing only water to make them the
most productive spots in the world.
There is water enough for the pur-
pose melting from the mountain
SHOWS; all that is needed is the canal
system.
THE execution of this work is the
one thing needed to give the United
States the dominion of the Pacific
ocean commerce and the supremacy
of the worlds trade. Without it,
progress will be slow because, unless
there is an abundant supply of food
products always available at shipping
ports, it will be impossible to insure
full cargoes and quick dispatch to the
vessels of large capacity, which alone
can be profitably employed in the
trade. Every business interest which
hopes to benefit by participation in
the trade of the Pacific ocean must
be in favor of the reclamation of the
great mountain valleys for the occu-
patton of agricultural workers. If
successful in the advocacy of this
public improvement full rewards will
come in the shape of new markets in
the Orient, and it will be found ad-
ditiOnally that the settlement of the
western mountain region has de-
velOped local market richer in natu-
raj resources than any other portion
of the earths surface.
There, where the soil under irri-
cation will grow the best quality and
greatest quantity Of all the grains,
except corn, all the grasses and fruits,
the ground is scanned with deposits
Of gold, silver, copper, lead, iron and
coal. There is the largest supply of
standing timber, and petroleum and
natural gas abound. Under the in
huence of the dry atmosphere and
constant sunshine good health pre-
walls, and the melted snow in falling
to the sea level creates a water power
available for electric heat, light and
motor service, equivalent in energy
to the combustion of 300, 100000 tons
of coal per annum.
People regard with amazement
the present rapid growth of wealth
in the United States, but this will be
comparative poverty when with 2O,-
100000 people on the Pacific slope
enpared in raising rrain and rnann-