Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-26
CUR PRAIRIE PI.CDUCTS AND THE
ORIENT.

In the Worlds Work for April is a
most interesting article by William r.
Lighton on the prairie farm of the United
States. The prairie lands constituting
this great farm include portions of Mon
tana. Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, Ohio.
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama and
all of the Dakotas. Nebraska. Kansas.
Oklahoma, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri,
Arkansas, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Illinois.
Tennessee, Mississippi. Michigan and In
diana. This great stretch of country con-
stitutes third Of the United States. and
as Mr.. Lighon says, incomparably the
richest third. 1t is farm of more than
a million square miles, producing every
variety of farm products. and what
| irrigation means, what it will do for an
arid region is happily indicated by Mr..
Lighton in this brief description
In the year 1888 I spent some time in
the town of Phoenix. Arizona, which was
then in the very heart of a superheated
prncipality of desolation, almost as bar
rem of life as the coppery sky above it.
| listened curiously to those who seemed
to be talking in their dreams of what
| they meant to do with the damned
| waers of the ella river. I could not be-
| lieve that that was wise talk their
| terrible sun had made them mad! But
Phoenix was indeed risen out of the fire.
| That baked expanse of sand Is now rich
with orchards of figs, almonds and
citrous fruits, and beautiful with long
avenues of palms.-a new Paradise fash
toned out of the refuse materials of
| iS % 80
The most valuable. because the most
productive, farm lands of the United
States are in those parts of the arid
region where irrigation is practiced; for
!, agriculture by irrigation yields larger
crops of nearly all the staples than are
produced upon the same acreage in the
humid districts; and agriculture is even
| now the chief resource of nearly all of
the arid states.
The relation of these prairie lands to
trade of the Orient is just outlined by
Mr.. I4ighton, who says:
Traffic with the Orient will be sea-
borne. The Greater United States is
| China's nearest western neighbOr;
| China's needs are our opportunities.
1t is a market without bounds. Four
hundred millions of people are living
| within an area one-half that of the
| United States; they are using the rudest
| of agricultural and industrial methods,
| which limit the mans effort and his
| productive efficiency. They are subsist-
| ing in the most meagre fashion; their
needs are great. We have plenty to offer
them; yet it is only within the last ten
years that China has really discovered
America as source Of supply. and it is
| within five years that we have really
walked to the fact that China is a mar
ket worth our while. We have been
used to ascribing our limited intercourse
to the self-imposed isolation and con-
servatism of the Chinese; but a large
share of responsibility is due to our con-
| sentative prejudices.
1t is not my purpose to discuss the Chi
nese trade situation. but only to indi-
cate what the prairies may do in that
market. 1t is sufficient to say that at the
beginning of the present trouble in
China not one-tenth Of the Empire was
open to foreign trade, even by indirect
means; nevertheless (taking into account
the change in value of Chinese currency
which is the basis of the estimate) the
value of import trade had nearly doubled
within twelve years. Most Of the in.
crease was in the years 1898 and 1899.
Mr.. Lighton closes his article with
| these words:
We must bring our western prairies
up to the fullest measure of their fruit.
fulness; we must found in the Pacifi,
an American merchant marine; we mus
secure a canal to connect our gulf port:
, | with the Pacific; and we must dig III
from the dusty deeps of memory all tina
we have forgotten since our school day!
about the lands of the far east, which
We are now to dominate. We have ou
work cut out for us.