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Show H - feWBJBAiiB'slgiSWI H Irrigation. H Auy man in middle age to-day H can remember the time when it H was generally believed (kat Cal- H ifornia and Colorado would never B be able to produce anything but B silver and gold and that all the B men engaged in mining in those BBb states would have to be fed by BBb other portions of the country j but B California to-day exports mote B wheat than auy other statu, in the B union; while her fruit, fresh and B canned, are known around the B world ; and Colorado is not much BBBJ behind her older sister on the BBBJ Pacific; already she is not only BBBJ self-sustaining, but has foi ship- Bt ment abroad a large annual sut- H plus of wheat, which r.inks. with B the best in the markets of the H world, while hr-r potatoes which H are unsurpassed, now supply the H whole southwest. And there is H nothing iiMhe natural condition!) BBfl). to prevent the experience of Bflj these two slates from being re- H peated in New Mexico, to the BH extent at least of feeding her own H people; the elements of climate BBS and noil are essefitttityMlic Mmo BBS the difference where any exists, H being in fnvor of New Mexico, B nu i-Htnate is milder than that of B Colorado, and as compared) with BBB that of California, is superior In B all essential respects for the grow- B ing of eveiy product except the B scrui-tr.opical fruits while the B power of the soil is practically un- B limited. The two gicat states B named, when in a condition of BK nature, were as barren and unpro- BBB ductivo as auy other section of B what we call the "arid regions," BBS and all the munificence of their BV present productiveness is due en- H tirely to irrigation. If certain B portions of the desert can be thus BBS made to blossom as the rose, will B not the same means applied to M other sections produce the same H results? Who, then, will assume H to set a limit to the countless mil- H lions of bushels of grain and fruit H which a general and intelligent H system of irrigation will some- H time produce upon the now barren BBj plains of the great southwest, or B to the sum which such products B will annually add to the aggregate H wealth of the nation. If the man H who causeb two blades of grass to H grow when! but one grew before B" is a public benefactor, by what BBf name shall we characterize a sy$- H tcm which shall cause the food H supply of a nation to grow upon B lanJ ot) which only cactus and B '"K6 brush have gruwn before? |
