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Show fSLivestoclel AHaM RWHTOjffjfr ' Los Angeles, February 23. California Cali-fornia is getting a good soaking and an abundance of snow in the mountain moun-tain regions. Sixteen inches of rainfall rain-fall so far for the season is nearly double last year's rainfall and substantially sub-stantially above the general average. This is a great boon to the livestock and agricultural interests. The In-termountain In-termountain country is also getting a lot of moisture. In California our water levels have been going down for several years and in many sections sec-tions profitable agriculture is out of the question based upon present cost of providing water. It is going to take not only heavy rains this year but for several years, to raise our water levels sufficiently to become a material factor in reducing production pro-duction costs. Cold weather all through the West and Southwest has held the grass back and it is improbable improb-able that there will be many grass cattle Iready beifore. the middle of May or first of June but the relationship relation-ship of marketing periods from grass sections is maintained between the different states. California has made substantial progress within the past five years in conserving the water supply by the construction of dams, and work is soon to begin on the San Gabriel dams involving an expenditure of some twelve million dollars covering over a period of two to five years, and employing several thousand men. The water thus saved not only lessens the flood possibilities but substantially substantial-ly increases the available supply for irrigation purposes. The Boulder Dam work is well under way and this project is immensely important to the States bordering on the Colorado Color-ado River assuring an abundant water supply and a lot of cheap power pow-er for industrial development. I have listened to a great many-arguments many-arguments between those who favor decreased production and those who favor increased consumption. We all admit that water is fundamental to our existence but there seems to be. a wide difference of opinion as to the amount of additional land that should be brought into cultivation. Generally speaking the viewpoint is largely actuated by selfish motives. We have always thought that the natural na-tural working out of the law of supply sup-ply and demand will determine the advisability of increasing or decreasing decreas-ing our farm production. It is a well known axiom that whenever prices are below the cost of production capi-I capi-I tal automatically retires, decreasing production; and the principle is still good. In the matter of livestock produc tion and farming it is pretty much a question of each one working out his own salvation. It has been observed that the diversified di-versified farmer has suffered the least under present circumstances and to my mind the farm with livestock live-stock properly placed is the difference differ-ence between profit and loss. In many of the western and southwestern south-western states where there is so much irrigable land it is a question of sufficient water to insure production, produc-tion, and in many respects the irrigated irri-gated land has an advantage over other sections that depend upon rainfall rain-fall ,so that with all the work that is being done, to confine the flood waters wat-ers for future use .making the supply available for doestic, irrigation and power purposes, we are making real progress. This is Olympiad year and Los! Angeles expects to be the host of more than 250,000 people from all over the world. Undoubtedly, these people, especially those coming from a long distance, are going to see the West generally so that out of this event all of the western states are going to profit, if not by the actual visit of these people then through the increased demand for food supplies. sup-plies. The class of people that will be here demand the best so it looks like we are going to have a demand for a lot of choice cuts. o |