The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-11-27
GREAT EXHIBIT IS DUE ID IRRIGATION Wonderful Future in Store for
 the West WORK IS NOW UNDER WAY When Next International Falr Is Held the Fruits of Irrigation VIII As. tonish the WorId-Muoh
 Accomplished.
WORK IS NOW UNDER WAY

Accomplished.
 BY GUY E. MITCHELL.
 St. Louis, November 26-(speeial)- Of the hundreds of thousands of people who have viewed with amazement the magnificent fruits and grains from the western states, exhibited at the St. Louis fair-far more notable in size, appear ance and yield than anything they ever saw in the east-lhow many of them real ized what enabled growers to achieve such results? How many of them have thought out the wonderful fact that these products were borne upon lands which a few years ago were useless deserts, but now made fertile by the art of irrigation?
 No Irrigation exhibits" of prominence were in evidence at this Worlds fair as such. yet in everything agricultural they formed a leading part and their with drawal would have left huge gaps and have taken away the best. Had the products of the dam and the ditch all been labeled Grown by Irrigation." the irrigation exhibit would have been very big one. And it seems to me that this would have been a good thing. The west is proud of it's irrigation; why not thus call attention to its superiority of productlon7
 Fabulous Grain Growths.
 In grains and grasses colorado's ex- lad neil ings were made by other arid states Oregon, Washington, Montana, Utah, californla-but the Centennial state showed 100 different kindS of grasses and 1SO varieties of grain. It had oats feet tall and timothy heads 8 inches long. 1t took $40 prizes and S9 gold medals. And its separate fruit exhibit included almost all the products of America except the truly tropical.
 Oregon had mortgage litter wheat, ' feet tall Think of a wheat field in which an army of 6-foot men would stand con- cealed; and snow-white onions inches across. And Idaho and Utaha and New Mexico, and all the west set forth dag zing display of irrigated apples and plums. peaches anu grapes, of color, size and beauty which 1t would take a book to describe.
 But ahead of all the west in the extent and variety of her exhibit stood Califor- nia-California, that vast strip of golden land reaching from Oregon to Mexico and including the vegetable wealth of the tropics.
 Fruit is the main stay of the Golden State, and $250,000 is represented in her shoYings at St Louis The great Palace of Agriculture is the largest building of the exposition, covering sixteen acres, and 1t seemed as though I would never get outside of the domain of the Califor- mia exhibit. Single counties made show ings creditable for a state. Such things caught the eye as a life-size elephant of English walnuts, the state capital build ing constructed of almonds, the famous Lick Observatory done in dried fruits and big enough to contain several fam lilies. The wine exhibit took the grand prize above all foreign competitors. The most luscious and enormous pears, peaches, oranges lemons. grapefruit, plums cherries and all kinds of huge vegetables were stacked in rich profusion alongside of great branches and clusters of fruit of all kinds, showing how things can grow under irrigation. The grape punches of California are almost of the biblical kind requiring two men to carry a single bunch. No man can carry the product of a single vine
 
 Practical methods of irrigation were demonstrated at the government build ing by model of the Salt River Valley in Arizona showing the great govern ment dam now under construction in the mountains and the system of ditehes and laterals by which the water is distrih- uted to the farms and orchards below Real water was running through these ditches. This great work of Uncle Sams in Ariz tc told by Engineer Savage, whom re- gently met in Montana. A cement mill to make the 100000 barrels of cement needed in the masonry, is completed a $l00, GOO mountain road to convey the dam material from Phoenix is finished and most remarkable, thu river itself has been carried through tunnels around the dam site. and is furnishing some 1000 electric horse power with which to build the dam. This is to be used to construct the giant works and thus the river will build its own dam and form a reservoir, the greatest In ,he nited States.
 Of all sizes and classes were the irri- gation pumps exhibited In the farm inn plement department of the St. Louis flair; but more striking than these were the windmils. These busy machines, rearing their tall heads above the sur rounding buildings and whirring galy in the breeze formed a striking example of mans ingenuity in harnessing the ele- ments. The highest of these. built by one of the windmill manufacturers, spread its galvanized steel wings 120 feet in the air and with a moderate wind pumped 10000 gallons an hour The water gushes up like fine artesian we'll and supplies a ditch to irrigate a good sized farm.
 lrrlgation's Future.
 What will be the next irrigation exhibit at the Worlds fair? Some say that for many years to come this is the last of the big international expostions. If this be so and it should be fifteen or twenty years before another great fair, when one does come, its irrigation ex- hibit is likely to overshadow everything else in agriculture. The west Is at the beginning of great things The govern ment has undertaken the work of na- tional reclamation of the desert and is pushing fhe work rapidly. Vast engi- neering worlxs-huge dams and canals are being constructed fin the western states and territories and as the work proceeds the people will realize it's wis dom and worth and it will be pushed tor ward still faster. As Engineer Savage remarked Tt is an entrancing work, is it not this creating of homes for men out of desert wasteT'
 And so twenty years from now, if the