The Imperial press., 1904-06-11
To Racial Development---The Anglo-Saxon Races Have Appreciated its Worth Only Within Half Century---Extension in East.


 of the agricultural development ut the southwest rsur~-,-s~,-> a. much interest for inc people of il,c northern aud va~l. ern states as irrigation u i> something outside of their traditions ant practice. and heucc is rcgaricd as feasible "r necessary only iu the ncgiou~ west ot the Mis,issippi. Tie systems ot sinrag,' reservoirs and network ut distributing canals. the mcihoi ui applying the va. fer to the crops an. but little understood.
 The term irrigation conveys bat an indeierminai... elusive id,a oi the pro cess itself. The fact that this is true serves io demonstrate how slow. even m so highly developed a country as the United States. is the inierchangr of ideas and mctpcis. Many who arr con versani with the conditions both iu the eAs, and west. know ,hai vast ara east oi the Mississippi could h~ rendered more productive and crop returns more sure hy the introduction ui irrigating systems Ia supplement the rainfall
 II WAS the writers privilege, some years ago. Ia return la Ohio and Illinois after ten v,-ar~' residence. in the south west All through the sout ern pol iions of these two states the crol- were
 
 the land was a. we'll suited fnr ITriga- ton as land in California. and water could be obtained iu abundance. In the fine vegetable district, be,Wecn Cleveland. Toledo and >andn-ky. the same state of affairs existed. For three wears there had l--en a Iartiai failure of crops on account oi dry weather; yet water could h,. obtainesl in any amount, N zine and pnlnp would have saved thpus- ands of dollars worth oi berries and produce. One instance. in particular deserves mention. \ five acre field of raspberrie- was a total lu--, t--rau-e there had been no rain when the berries were filling, and they had diei ou the stem; not A box WAS picked. The Toledo market wa- i-Ht twelve mlle- distant, and dealers were paying l5 and Is cents Der box for the few berries they could get. The unnecesSary waste was all the more noiic,-able io a western man, understanding the probabilities oi Irri- gaiion, since the ~audu-ky river -klrtei the field. only twelve feet below the level. What wA- true ID this ca-s was true, in the main, oi all that portion oi the -iate-Once known a. the "Ncui ral t1NHk4lE bftAAARA HA kAAF ~AA sNaAAta4T-
 Crops were ruined b--cause oi trough, though water couli l- obtained any where al depth "i from twenty ,o forty feet, and tie fields were a. nearly level a. in this viicniiy.
 IL l. one of the unex r---tesi aspects of human nature that prejudice against irrigation exists m many sections of the country. There ses-ms to be an inn pr-ssion ,speaking now of northern and eastern sections that irrigation implies unusual or abnormal climatic or soil conditions whereas but few sections would not ie benefited by some prep aration to supplement the rainfall and furnish growing crops with water when il was most needed. This antagOni-tic attitude is almost ineIplicable when we recall that as tar back in the misty, uncertain past ar ever coujectural his- tory, founded on archaeological inye-ti- gatson, takes us the highest develop ment of the human race has bs7.n ac- complished by and founded on the e1- tension and development of irrigation.
 Research in the ruins ol Babylon, Nineyah and the dust mounds of Egypt, since 1899, draw aside the curtain oi conceding time to al least ten thOu-and years before the Christian era. and eyeil then the processes oi irrigation had been highly developed. Among the-e ruins were remnants of aaurducts and