OCR Text |
Show One of the'ehiefest benefits of the 'irrigation H Congress will be the direction of eastern minds H to the subject of irrigation. H We in the arid belt have all the time appre- H elated its importance; it has aheady been taken H up along the eastern slope of the Rockies; the H reports from tho Congress will extend the in- H terest still further east. It is hard to break the H inertia of a people. Those who have always de- H pended upon, tho rains for moisture cannot bring H their minds at once to believe there can be any H improvement on that plan or to understand that H land may be valuable where there is not rain H enough to bring out the fruitlfying elements In H tho soil. But tho utility of irrigation is gaining H ground. fl It is strange that its progress is so slow, for H it is as old as any civilization that we know of. H The Chaldeans were familiar with it four thou- H sand years ago; it has always been a fixed fea- H ture in India and China. The eastern states will H have to adopt It before they obtain full returns H for cultivating tho soil. H |