Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-11

IkY MEN begins in Chicago November
I'D W 20 promises to be the most
ia ~ unique and complete show
AkeaHaN4 ing of the successes of 1rrl-
cation that ever has been
made. The products of the erstwhlle
Great American Desert will be on eX-
hibition in the richest profuslon, ana
will tell their own story of what frri-
cation may be expected to mean to the
American people in the generations to
come. "Saye the forests, store the
floods, reclaim the deserts and build
homes on the land" is the motto of
those who have the irrigation interests
of the country at heart.
This will be the first exposition ever
held solely to promote the colonization
of new land in this country, now made
available to homeseekers, because OF
the recent reclamation of vast ex-
panses of arid tracts. The object of
the exposition is to guide and inspire
the '1and hunger of the nation. The
irrigated lands of the west afford OPP
portunities for thousands of new
homes 1t will not be mere county
fair exposition of land products, al
though the products will be exhibited,
-but It will be an educational institu-
tion for the exemplification of the pos
sibilities of farming in lands reclaimed
from the desert.
California will tell the story of fifty
years progress from one lone orange
tree to an annual crop of $4,000 car
loads Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho,
Wyoming. all the arid and semi-arid
states. will have exhibits showing that
arid land with irrigation is to be pre-
ferred to the best of land without irri-
cation. 1t is said that there are from
seventy to eighty million acres of irri-
gable land in the United States, each
acre of which might be made to pro-
duce enough to support a human soul.
Ten million acres have been irrigated,
the bulk of 1t by private capital.
It is well that America has embarked
upon an era of irrigation. The statis-
ticians calculate that the appetites of
men are growing bigger with the pass
ing years. Although the population of
the world has increased only % per cent
in the past forty years. the amount OF
food products required has increased
40 per cent in the same time. In other
words, men eat about one-fourth more
than they did q generation ago. With
the population of the world increasing
at the rate of eight million souls
wear, and the appetites of the people
growing proportionately, the business
of making two blades of grass grow
where one grew before will be an in
creasingly great benefaction to the
race.
Statistics showing the per cent of the
arabic land actually under cultivation
in the various states show remarkable
facts. Only 33 per cent of the arabic
land in Massachusetts, is cultivated. In
New York only 54 per cent is culti-
waited: in Ohio, 20 per cent; in Indiana,
66 per cent; in Illinois and Iowa, 72
per cent: Nebraska, 81 per cent; Colo
RADIO, per cent; Utah and Nevada,
per cent: and California IL per cent
The ninety-seventh meridian, cutting
i'm twain the Dakotas Nebraska, Kan
sas, Oklahoma and Texas, divides the
climatic east from the west. West OF
that line lie the regions where the
rainfall Is perpetually insufficient for
crop growing. Yet the west does not
regard that as an evil One of the en-
thusiastic irrigationists of the far west
has gone the whole length of optimism
by speaking of the blessings of arid
ity," and he offers many interesting
facts to prove his case. He first de-
clares that the Bible offers conclusive
evidence that the Garden of Eden was
an irrigated spot, and calls attention
to the passage where IL says that
river went out of Eden TO water the
garden. Then ne looks around and
sees that every ancient civilization had
it's birth in semi-arid regions, and
that most of the glories of antiquity
sprang from the heart of the desert.
He looks to Egypt, Asia Minor, Syria,
Palestine, Persia, Arabia, Northern
India, Carthage; into the lands of the
Aztecs and of the Incas, and sees civ
ilization rising from the sands and
semi-arid lands. He says that the
common belief that the fertility of the
Nile regios is due to the coat of mud
deposited by the rivers subsiding wa
ters is not well founded; that it
amounts to less than two ordinary
two-horse loads of material per acre.
whereas Americans may put three
times os much material per acre with
out as great resultant fertility.
Furthermore, oil going up to Fayum,
in the Libyan desert, where irriga-
tion is carried on with clear water, the
land is just as fertile as the mud-cov-
cred valley of the Nile itself. Also, in
the Loess regions around the head
waters of the Yellow river in China,