The Arizona sentinel., 1903-11-25

determined to build there his
 house of logs and plastered mud
 and begin to irrigate the deso-
 late soil. he did not think that
 upn the very ground which he chose would spring up a pros
 porous town of many thousand
 inhabitants.
 His work was very simple.
 Turning to the crystal Truckee,
 he cut a large canal leading from the banks. This he fitted with a sluice- box and dam, so that he might control the flow of water in his excavation. From the larger. canal smaller ditcheS were dug across the flat sage brush covered ground, and these, in turn, were cut with smaller channels. Eventually his minia- ture system of life giving arter- ies covered many acres of seem ingly unfertile soil.
 He flooded the ground; the sage brush died; he removed the rocks and bOulders and turned up the earth; he planted the seeds of vegetation, and with an arid climate-a substantial guar entee against injury by Hood and perfect control of the water Supply-a protection against loss of crops by drouth-his crops became fruitful and multiplied far beyond his most sanguine expectations. As the measure of value is not in area but in pro- ductive capacity, twenty acres of this soil was equal to more than fifty acres in the eastern country he had left behind.
 This husbandman found also that the land of sunshine was good for his health and spirits. Perpetual cheer from the heav- ems acts unconsciously upon ones nature. The dry, pungent air was stimulating to his nerves. This was natures sanitarium, and as it's fame spread abroad, more settlers came to the banks of the little stream and the colo ony of irrigationists began to increase.
 At the same time others, of more Venturesome temperament, found that here also was nature's treasure house. At Virginia City, some twenty miles beyond in the great brown mountains, was unoarthed a gold and silver vein of fabulous wealth. This was the great Comstock Lode, and the eager adventurers who crowded the streets of this town brought the name and fame of the Truckee valley to far distant ears. These people needed food and the farmer in the smiling valley soon had a market hun gry for his producsts.
 Thus the ranchers, few at first, became more numerous; the irri- gation ditches were bigger, and tapped the suppl ying Truckee at at a higher altitude in the snow which gave it life. Where the water would not run advatageously across the valleys great wooden fumes were built on trestles. Now the prosper ous Truckee valley, green, peace ful and fragrant in the clear, brilliant sunshine, lies restfully between the granite ridges of the beetling mountains a posi- tive example of the creative handiwork of man, and of the marvellous results of irrigation.
 Where first the venturesome farmer plunged his spade is now the town of Reno, with homes to shelter eight thousand souls and with a university to further the intellectual life of the residents of the state. The school of min ing engineering department of the university-has a wide reputation, and has trained a corps of efficient workers, many of whom are now prominent in ventures in South Africa, Nome and the Klondike. The great Comstock Lode has not yet been exhausted; and m the beyond, at Tonopah, new dnOOSitS of DrnciOuS metal