--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young, Levi Edgar collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 31 number: 12 published: 1928-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Levi Edgar Young, “Irrigation,” *Improvement Era* 31, no. 12 (October 1928): 987–1000." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera31012unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera31012unse start_page: 987 end_page: 1000 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1928-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera31012unse publication_year: 1928 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1928, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Irrigation Improvement Era Vol. XXXI OCTOBER, 1928 No. 12 Irrigation By Levi Edgar Young, of the First Council of Seventy "O Maker of the material world, thou holy one! Who is it that rejoices the earth with greatest joy? Ahura Mazda answered: 'It is he who sows most corn, grass, and fruit: Who waters ground that is dry, or drains ground that is wet.' "He Who Sows Corn, Sows Righteousness" The Zend-Avesta Behold! Our Mother Earth is lying here, Behold! She giveth of her fruitfulness. Truly, her power gives she us. Give thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here! Behold on Mother Earth the growing fields! Behold the promise of her fruitfulness! Truly, her power gives she us. Give thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here. Behold on Mother Earth the spreading trees! Behold the promise of her fruitfulness! Truly, her power gives she us. Give thanksi to Mother Earth who lieth here! Behold on Mother Earth the running streams! Behold the promise of her fruitfulness! Truly, her power gives she us. Our thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here! — From a Pawnee Song of the Earth. A treasured relic in the Dcseret Museum at Salt Lake City bears this inscription: THIS PLOUGH WAS USED BY ELDER WILLIAM CARTER TO PLOUGH THE FIRST HALF ACRE IN SALT LAKE VALLEY, JULY, 1847. ALSO THE FIRST FURROW IN ST. GEORGE CITY, FEB., 1862. THE plow which turned the first furrows in the valley of the Great Salt Lake inaugurated a system of agriculture in Amer- ica that today is practiced in most of the states west of the Mississippi river. An half acre of land was plowed on that July morning, and a small ditch was made which led the waters of City Creek on to the soil. A great task was undertaken, and it is a lesson in physical and moral fortitude to know in what spirit that task was conceived. The "Mormon" pioneers were moving into 988 IMPROVEMENT ERA the Great Basin, a country practically unknown at that time; at least no one as yet had formed any conception of the possibilities of the sage-brush soil. It was what the French writer, Febvre, says was the ground soil of which the State carved its domain. The people who began the conquest of the elements in those early days of Utah were deeply religious and they had the power of adapting their religion to practical purposes. They were new comers into a fixed environment, and their economic growth was the result of an immediate adaptation to their new surroundings. The Indians of the southwest were the first irrigators of the soil in America. As far back as we are able to trace the history of the Navajos, Piutes, Zunis, and other tribes, we find that they raised corn, pumpkins, beans and squash by watering the seed they had planted. In Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Utah, prehistoric canals and reservoirs are found which show that the natives brought irrigation to a rather high state of development. In the Salt and Gila valleys of Arizona, an immense network of ancient canals has been discovered. Coronado, the Spaniard, came to the Seven Cities of Cibola (Zuni) in 1542, where he found the Indians till- ing the soil, and this could only be done by irrigating it, for it was an arid country and water was necessary for the raising of crops. Canals used by the Indians of ancient days were ten miles in length, and even twenty-five mile canals have been traced. These canals were seven feet deep and four feet wide, with the sides sloping gradu- ally. Remains of wooden headgates have been found in the excava- tions. "Several old canals have been utilized for miles by modern ditch builders, and in one instance, a saving of from $20,000 to $25,000 was effected by the "Mormon" settlement at Mesa, Arizona. In the Chaco canyon of Northwestern New Mexico, large ditches were made and the retaining walls were constructed of stone. The Indians say that in some parts of the mountains where reservoirs were constructed, large snowballs were rolled into them during the winter, which provided water in the spring. Throughout the box canyons of the Southwest, the natives used the "water pools." These were natural reservoirs which collected the waters of spring and con- served them during the summer months. When the Spaniards estab- lished the missions in Arizona, New Mexico, and California, they carried on irrigation and many of the old missions bear record of the extensive agricultural pursuits of the Spanish people who settled the present confines of the United States as early as the seventeenth century. In the early history of the Indians of the upper Missouri river, we have some interesting references on irrigation. One time, Sak- wi-ah-ki, or EARTH WOMAN, and Is-sap-ah-ki, or CROW IRRIGATION 989 WOMAN, and Crow Woman's little daughter lived together in one of the old camps of the Mandan Indians. After the buffalo had been exterminated, and they had settled down at old Fort Conrad, the old women and their daughters planted a garden by the river each season, and laboriously watered the hills of corn, beans, and squash with buckets which they carried up the steep banks. Beside the garden, they would sit in their tepee, and watch the growing crops. While they worked and irrigated they did beautifully colored por- cupine-quill embroidery work on buffalo leather and buffalo robes. Such work often required many summers to complete. The state of Utah is in the very heart of the arid West. It lies in the Great Basin between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains and is the country that has less rainfall than any other part of America. There are some parts where at times there are only four inches a year. The Great Basin was explored by trap- pers and adventurers from the early part of the eighteenth century to 1847, but no one seemed to appreciate the many natural resources nor did anyone ever write or leave any statement as to the possibilities of the soil. It was looked upon as desert waste. Sagebrush and greasewood grew everywhere and the portion around the Great Salt Lake was bleak and sterile and seemed to have an influence on the entire country. There were prairie dogs, rattlesnakes, coyotes, wolves and, in the early part of the century, there were buffalo. The "Mormon" pioneers settled in this arid country. They were accustomed to more humid conditions, where corn, wheat, vegetables and fruits grew without irrigation, and where the land needed only to be cleared, plowed and planted, and kept free from weeds. In their former homes, in Missouri and Illinois, the "Mor- mons" had become good farmers, and they always understood the science of agriculture. They could adapt themselves to all condi- tions of climate and kinds of work, and it was the careful reason- ing from conditions that made them know the results that would accrue from watering the soil of this extremely arid land. Combination of geographic factors made irrigation possible. The Wasatch mountains robbed the westerly winds of their moisture, storing it in the form of snow in the higher altitudes. The canyons afforded water courses, the rivers cutting their way into the alluvial plains of the valleys, and easily transforming them into reservoirs. These are the main factors in the task of catching the waters. To conduct the waters, canals were often dug along mountain sides for miles to some valley or vale far below. Agriculture was the first industry, and it was a work common to all the people and com- munities. The land was used to the best advantage by the farmers of that day. The Bible speaks of "marrying the land," and the 990 IMPROVEMENT ERA farmer of early-day Utah looked upon the land as "holy," using the expression of Prof. L. H. Baily of Cornell University. The farmer was characterized by initial utility. He cleared the land of the sage- brush and greasewood, he then tilled it, for he sought the first values of a virgin soil. In time the policies of government were dominated by the farming element of the new territory. On July 22, 1847, an advance company of the pioneers under Orson Pratt entered the valley of the Great Salt Lake and camped on Canyon Creek. On the 23rd, the company descended the hill and camped on City Creek at a spot where the City and County Build- ing now stands. The leader of this vanguard, Orson Pratt, called a meeting of all the men and "dedicated the land to God." He asked for the blessings on the seeds they were about to plant, and invoked divine protection of the people that their work in the valley might be successful. The camp was organized for work. Says Orson Pratt in his Journal: "This afternoon, we commenced planting our potatoes; after which we turned the water upon them and gave the ground quite a soaking." ! It is evident that, from the first, those colonizers had faith in the sagebrush soil. Their plowing and planting on those memorable days, July 23 and 24, 1847, marked the beginning of a system "that has made the produce of the Western farm a competing force in the world's market." Plowing and planting were continued during the summer, and in the autumn hundreds of acres of land were cleared and made ready for the coming spring. Sagebrush grew profusely, and the farmer was compelled to drag it from the soil. Fortunately, this was not a difficult thing to do, for the roots of the brush yield readily to pick and harrow. The Journal of Lorenzo D. Young and his wife, Harriet, both of whom were in the pioneer company, is one of the most interesting diaries we have on the migration of the "Mormons" to Utah. A great deal is given about the general life in the community during the first season, and in one part of the Journal is a sentence that tells of an important event. Writing on October 19, 1847, Mr. Young says: "I sowed the first acre of wheat that was sowed in the valley. Two weeks after, I sowed another acre; two weeks after I sowed another acre and dragged it in." On January 19, Mr. Young writes: "This day I finished sowing winter wheat. The weather is warm and pleasant, and the grass is growing finely." During the summer of 1847, eighty acres of land were planted with corn, potatoes, beans, buckwheat, turnips and a variety of "garden sauce." By November between 200 and 300 acres of fall wheat were sown, and just before the snow began to fall, a company of men went to San IRRIGATION 991 Francisco to procure wheat for the spring sowing. During the winter, which was mild, over 2000 acres of wheat were sown. As the colonists spread out, wheat was planted, and it soon became one of the staple products of the soil. The people were taught to conserve a certain amount of their grain every year in little granaries. This was done to prepare for shortages through loss of crops, by drought and otherwise. It was a wise thing to do, for in those early days the wheat put awayfor use in time of famine saved many people from starving. Farming in the valley was pursued by all the people. Plowing and planting were continued through the first winter, for the season was a mild one. By the summer of 1848, over 6000 acres of land were brought under cultivation and, notwithstanding the destruction wrought by the crickets in the spring of that year, the crops were fairly good. Parley P. Pratt, in a letter of September, 1848. to his brother Orson, then in England, says: "Early in March the ground opened and we commenced plowing our spring crops. I plowed and planted about twenty acres of Indian corn, beans, melons, etc. My corn planting was completed on the 15th of May; most of it has done extremely well. We have now had ears to boil for nearly a month, and my large Missouri corn is in roasting ear. I had a good harvest of wheat and rye without irrigation, though not a full crop. Those who irrigated their wheat raised double the quantity on the same amount of land. Winter and spring wheat have both done well. Some ten thousand bushels have been raised in the valley this season. Oats do extremely well, yielding sixty bushels for one sowing; barley does well. Also all kinds of garden vegetables; we had lettuce on the 4th of May and radishes by the middle of May. We have raised a great quantity of beets, peas, beans, onions, cucumbers, melons, squash and almost all kinds of vegetables, as well as some 200 bushels of Indian corn. * * * There will probably be raised in the valley this season from two to twenty thousand bushels of grain over and above what will be con- sumed by the present inhabitants." The people began planting their gardens and plowing the land beyond the city limits. The head of every family had a tract of land, which became an industrial and economic unit. There was little money in circulation and the people bartered whatever they had in surplus. There were other companies on the plains when the pioneers arrived in July, and by the end of the first year at least four thousand "Mormon" immigrants had settled in the valley. Within two years colonies had been sent out from Salt Lake to the south and north. Ogden was founded; Lehi, American Fork, and 992 IMPROVEMENT ERA Provo became thriving centers and within a few months colonizers had gone into Sanpete county, made a treaty of peace with the Sanpitch Indians and obtained that beautiful valley. It was not long before the valleys of the Wasatch and the Colorado watersheds were colonized by "Mormon" pioneers. Beautiful towns and cities were laid out, and wheat fields and farms came to dot the great wastes of these mountain climes. Brigham Young directed the colonizing and in this one activity alone he showed remarkable genius. Professor Charles A. Bear says in his Rise of American Civilization: "The entire outcome of the adventure was due to the economic system directed by Brigham Young. Tested by the widespread prosperity which it eventually produced, in spite of all the diffi- culties, that system was in most respects superior in results to the methods adopted in any other American settlement organized on communal principles. In the early days of the experiment, specu- lators and commercial profiteers were both restrained by an iron hand. Land was not sold at first to settlers outright; but each family was allotted a share — proportioned to its needs — to till for private profit as long as it was thrifty and industrious. None was allowed to accumulate a large estate, and the industrious poor were given advantages in competition with their richer neighbors. The purchase of supplies and the sale of produce were carried on through a common store, while irrigation works to provide water for the arid soil were built by community action and service rights granted to all families on equitable terms. Iron, woolen, printing, and mining industries were managed also on the cooperative principle, fair wages being paid and the profits going into the common chest for the promotion of fresh undertakings." The "Mormon" colonies were always well organized religious and civic communities. Wherever they settled they constituted a body of free persons united for the common benefit, to enjoy peace- ably what is their own, and to do justice to others. The celebrated French economist, DeMarns, says that "A state is a certain number of men and of families who, being united and having a fixed home, associate themselves and submit themselves to a common leader, with the intention of living together for the good and safety of all." John Fiske in his Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, gives us a paragraph which applies to the social methods of the "Mormon" pioneers. He says, "The ability to forego present enjoyment in order to avoid the risk of future disaster is what we call prudence or providence. The superior prudence of the civilized man is due in great part to his superior power of self-restraint." Fiske also gives another splendid thought which is applicable to the early-day history of Utah. Says he, "The power of economizing in harvest time or in youth in order IRRIGATION 993 i to retain something upon which to live comfortably in wealth in our old age is dependent upon the vividness with which distant circum- stances can be pictured in the imagination." The first economic problem of the pioneers arose with the ques- tion of the division of the water of the streams on which the colonists located. The work of reclaiming the soil and the digging of ditches and canals was difficult. There was much severe labor, combined with hardship and exposure, and yet the redeeming of the land was made pleasurable because of the ideal of religion and home which the people always sacredly held. A wider division of labor came in due time, and brought about a greater abundance of material goods. Roads and bridges were built, and eventually the people asked Con- gress to build a railroad to their new Territory. Variety of work brings love of freedom, and democratization of society. This raised labor to dignity and self-respect, and brought happiness and the spirit of altruism. A sense of novelty and freedom developed in early Utah, for the economic and social life of the people was founded pretty much on general ownership of land, and every man owned his home. The economic wisdom of their leader, Brigham Young, is seen in his words to his people, December 18, 1848. Said he: "The immense labor of irrigating alone, to say nothing of the scarcity of water that exists in nearly every settlement during mid-summer, at the very time that water is most needed, should be an incentive to the farmer to exert himself by more thorough culture and liberal application of every species of fertilization, to raise his sustenance from a smaller quantity of land." The economic success of the "Mormon" migrations is attested by the fact that every company brought seeds and trees, oxen, mules, horses, poultry, sheep, hogs, etc., safely into the valley. When Captain Howard Stansbury was returning with his command to the East after having spent the winter of 1849-50 in Salt Lake City, he met a caravan of ninety-five wagons each drawn by from three to five yoke of oxen in fine condition. "The wagons swarmed with women and children. * * * I estimated the train at one thousand head of cattle, one hundred head of sheep, and five hundred human souls." A few days later on his journey on the upper Platte, Stansbury met crowds of emigrant wagons wending their way to the "Mormon" valley, with droves of cattle and sheep. (Expedition to the Great Salt Lake, pp. 130-1.) Catherine Coman has rightly char- acterized the "Mormon" migration as "all in all, the most successful example of regulated immigration in American history." In the early days of the State, before the introduction of capital, irrigation meant more than a mere investment. It meant the very material to keep people's bodies and souls together. If the irri- 994 IMPROVEMENT ERA gation water failed, the settlers might be destitute; if sure, the settlers were able to build comfortable homes and live in peace and plenty. When a community met with repeated trouble or had difficulty in finishing a project, people from neighboring towns came and helped, and thus aided in removing a burden which would other- wise have been crushing. Persistence has borne fruit, until now there are over a million acres of fertile land in the State under irriga- tion systems, and the acreage is rapidly increasing. Institutions in Utah show distinctly the influence of irrigation farming. The cities and towns are located on streams, and the farm- ers live in villages rather than on their farms as in the East and Middle West. Irrigation has given a rather intensive system of agriculture and it has also made it possible to produce a greater diversity of vege- tables and cereals. These facts, in their turn, have an influence on the entire economic condition of the commonwealth, making it more stable and giving it a better balance. They also have contributed to the educational progress of the state. The schools have always been better than they would have been if the people had lived farther apart. The accomplishments of irrigation in the past in- clude the making possible of establishing a permanent, prosperous commonwealth in the midst of a desert, thousands of miles from civilization; the development of a sturdy manhood and womanhood and the grouping of the tillers of the soil into communities, which have excellent social and economic advantages. Farming in bygone days was, however, a toil beyond imagina- tion. The land had to be cleared of sage and greasewood. Heavy drags were made of tree trunks and poles, and the brush was burned. The plows were made of wood and the shares of iron. Often the land was hard and dry, and water for the season might be late, or the sources of the streams dried up. Rains might not come, and drought would prevent the preparation of the soil. "Still there was some- thing about the soil that gripped the farmer. He was farm-minded, and never ceased to look forward for the ushering in of a Golden Age the following spring. It might have been too wet or too dry ; or the grasshoppers might have eaten up the crops; or the worms taken their substance. But next year the farmer prospered and all was well; for he dealt not with prosaic known things, but with the sunny future; and he left events in the hands of God. He loved the great out-of-doors. He found joy in the fields; and he was happy to see the corn dancing in the breeze." The story of irrigation in the West is a dramatic and tragic one. Not always would the crops mature, and sometimes if it were not a drought it was a flood, which would overrun the land and carry away the seed and potato fields. Not until reservoirs were made IRRIGATION 995 and the water conserved in the different parts of the State were the farmers sure of having enough water for their crops. At first irriga- tion was practiced by the individual family; but where a tract of land was settled by a group of families all united their efforts and dug large canals and ditches from the mountain streams and rivers. Not only would they build their canals and ditches together, but groups of men who lived as neighbors would unite in building cabins. One group would go to the canyon and get out the logs, another would haul them to the farm site, while a third group had prepared the ground for the building. With their united efforts it was not long before substantial log cabins made up the settlements. These together with the old adobe and rock house made the early Utah dwellings places of good homes and substantial farms. The "Mormon" colonizers had not only a knowledge of agriculture and other useful arts, but well defined ideas of government and the ad- ministration of justice. They naturally turned to the establishment of American civic and political life in their communities. They soon acquired a new type of colony and a new incentive to labor more assiduously and to adopt rules for making their labor more effectual. They established markets for surplus agricultural produce, and markets brought about the building of roads and bridges. The colonists of Utah realized that a country will seldom have potenti- ality of agriculture unless it has a large town population, or, in other words, a population non-agricultural. Towns make it possible for markets and wherever there are communities composed of a non- agricultural population the people naturally pursue other lines of activity which make for a dynamic society. To understand the early history of Utah one must know the larger elements of economic life and the forces that gave rise to civilized communities. Freedom of spirit, and the diffusion of education are necessary for the dis- covering of those people who possess unusual gifts. There must, therefore, be a general diffusion of education in all social groups. Taussig has pointed out that the effectiveness of industry depends not alone upon material equipment, but also on what we may call immaterial equipment; not only on accumulated surplus, but moral qualities, abundance of industry, truthfulness, honesty, sobriety, and consideration for others. Originally every settlement in the Great Basin was of small population. Land and water were free to all. All had plenty; but naturally sooner or later community action was necessary to procure water. Water then became an "economic good" because effort was needed to obtain it. Therefore, the first great problem of any "Mor- mon" community in early days was the problem of securing enough water for land, for the people were totally dependent upon irriga- 996 IMPROVEMENT ERA tion and as population increased in any community the problem of water and land increased. There was an economic foundation in the development of Utah that is very striking. Economists have told us that the more things a community has in the nature of wealth, the less prosperity there is. In communities where it is hard to get a living and where obstacles have to be overcome, the people gain in resources which lead eventually to greater prosperity. So it is with individuals. He who has abundant means at his command often lacks spirit and in the end is surpassed in happiness as well as in resources by him who had to face hardships from the start. Taussig has pointed out in his Principles of Economics, that "Wealth is the result of effort." It is the scarcity that lies at the base of economic life, and scarcity of materials supplied by nature must be adapted to man's use by labor. In the "Mormon" communities in early days there was another type of work besides reclaiming the land. Out of a study of seventy-two towns and cities in Utah, we find that everyone of them had a meeting house and school within a very short time, and substantial public buildings were erected by all the people working together. In Salt Lake City there was a civic building put up as early as 1850, and in the building of the "Mormon" Tabernacle and Temple the builders and craftsmen enjoyed their work for they had what Ruskin has pointed out, "the joy of beauty and character." In this spirit of mutual helpfulness a democracy of society sprang up which raised labor to dignity and self-respect. There was an equalization of conditions, and this brought about happiness and the spirit of altruism. Wherever the "Mormons" settled they acquired property and in some instances considerable tracts of land, and the love of prop- erty to a certain degree is indispensable to sound morals. Naturally as the pioneers acquired land they sold their first farms in time at an enhanced price. The possession of this money awakened an interest again in life and work. The possession of property de- manded naturally the hedge of laws. The "Mormon" pioneer was easily reconciled to government and his impatience to realize certain hopes impelled him to a life of sobriety and perseverance. It was not hard for the Utah pioneer to join his neighbors in building schools and to do everything to secure teachers. He easily built a church and had a regard for his own character and the character and felicity of his family. He always attended to the worship of God on Sundays for he was naturally a religious man. When the pioneers inaugurated the system of irrigation in IRRIGATION 997 the middle of the nineteenth century, they inaugurated a creative epoch. America was fast entering the age of great internal improve- ments. There was a larger change in the industrial history of the world between the years 1830 and 1850 than in all the rest of the ages of the world together. During that period, the reaper, the mowing machine, the modern plow, the sewing machine were all invented, and these changed the economic and social life of all America, and made it possible for the Western pioneer to bring the land almost immediately into subjection. In 1878, Major John W. Powell wrote a report on the IRRIGATION LANDS OF THE WEST. Powell in his report shows two advantages of irrigation: 1. That crops thus cultivated are not subject to the vicissitudes of rain-fall. 2. The water for irrigation generally comes down from the mountains and plateaus freighted or charged with fertiliz- ing materials gathered from the decaying vegetable matter and soil of the higher regions. He saw that only the government could accomplish the great feat of conserving the waters and reclaiming the millions of acres of arid land of the West. He explained many of the gigantic engineering problems involved in the storage of waters; the erection of stupendous dams capable of sustaining the never-ceasing pressure of such large volumes of water as would be needed to make irrigation of large areas constant. Powell's report is one of the most remarkable works ever written on the West, and for the first time in our history the attention of the government was called to the importance of the lands of the irrigated regions. Powell's survey of the land stimulated a new interest in the West, and a series of national irrigation congresses were held in various cities of the West from year to year, the first of which was held in Salt Lake City, September 15, 1891. Another was held in Los Angeles, California, in 1893, and the third in Denver, Colorado, in 1894. These conventions, with subsequent ones, all advocated the reclamation of the lands of the West, and at the ninth Irrigation Congress, held in Chicago in 1900, resolutions were adopted in favor of a comprehensive system for the storage of waters and the reclama- tion of our Western lands. In December, 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt outlined his ideas for a system of national reclamation and irrigation in his message to Congress. In words that precipitated a wave of great interest in the question of reclamation, he said: "The pioneer settlers on the arid public domain chose their homes along streams from which they could themselves divert the water to reclaim their hold- ings. Such opportunities are practically gone. There remain, how- ever, vast areas of public lands which can be made available for homestead settlement, but only by reservoirs and main-line canals 998 IMPROVEMENT ERA impracticable for private enterprise. These irrigation works should be built by the national government." As a result of President Roosevelt's statement Senator New- lands of Nevada introduced his bill which became our national irrigation law. It provides that "the entire receipts from the sale of public lands in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, Ne- braska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Oregon, be set aside and appropriated as a special fund in the Treasury to be used for the construction and maintenance of irriga- tion works for the storage of and development of waters for the reclamation of the arid lands of the West." The law makes it possible for a man to take up from forty to 160 acres of land and to pay the government $1.25 an acre. As a result of this bill, great irrigation projects have been constructed in the far West, and hundreds of young men have gone on to the farm. Within a few years, twenty-five great projects were under way, and with their completion nearly four million acres of land will be reclaimed. In Utah alone the irrigated land has been doubled by the building of the reclamation projects, which include the Straw- berry valley reservoir and the Utah Lake reservoir. With the completion of the government reservoirs in the West, an area as large as France and Germany will be brought under cultivation. The most outstanding piece of work in reclamation is that of the Roosevelt Dam in the Salt River valley of Arizona. Its height is 286 feet, it is 800 feet long, and has made the largest artificial lake in the world, being twenty-five miles in length, and two miles wide. In its construction many Indians were employed, and the total cost was $6,500,000.00. This reservoir is located in a country where ages ago the native races had their canals and reser- voirs. Along the Gila and Salt River valleys are many remains of irrigation canals and ditches. The old city of Los Muertos was composed of thirty-six large communal structures. It was supplied with water by a large canal seven feet deep, four feet wide at the bottom, and thirty feet wide at the top. The walls had been ce- mented and from it were constructed many smaller canals for the distribution of water over the fields. Old posts for the gates for the regulation of the flow have been found at the head of the laterals, and Dr. Hodge has reported that at least 200,000 acres of land were irrigated by the ancient people in the Salt River valley alone. Among the most important government projects that have been completed are the following: IRRIGATION 999 Salt River, Arizona Truckee-Carson, Nevada Belle Fourche, Yuma, Calif. — Arizona Lower Yellowstone South Dakota Uncompahgre, Colorado Montana— North Dakota Strawberry Valley, Minidoka, Idaho Utah Milk River. Montana Klamath, Oregon Tieton ^^ North Platte, Nebraska California Sunnyside, Wash. Wyoming Umatilla, Oregon Shoshone, Wyo. The project at American Falls in Idaho has just been completed, and it takes its place as one of the most important pieces of work in the history of reclamation. Today on the old Oregon trail, where, a generation ago, thou- sands of pilgrims treked their way to Oregon and California, there are large farms of alfalfa, sugar beets, oats, potatoes, and corn. Bungalows, barns, and feeding corrals dot the country side; and beautiful towns and villages have replaced the Indian tepees. The pilgrim is no longer going "where rolls the Oregon." He is settling on the land to redeem it; not to fight the Indians as of yore, but to fight the gophers and grasshoppers. The old trail east of the Rockies runs through an irrigated country that produces as fine crops as any country in the world. The trail has become the Lin- coln highway, on each side of which is a vast empire of fields and gardens. The work of the Reclamation Service is founded deep in democracy and the needs of the common people, for it gives the lowliest, poorest, and humblest the opportunities to have homes and the comforts of life for themselves and their children. The reclamation work, as fostered by the government, is the first example in the history of the world where irrigation works of gigantic magni- tude have been built for the benefit and profit of the people. The people are to own and maintain them. Land is not to be the prop- erty of the few, but of all the people. Herein is American democracy expressing itself as never before in history. Well may. we sing the Irrigation Ode composed by Mrs. Gil- bert McClurg: Oh! desert land! The land of the smiting sun-glare, deep-blue of the star-pierced night, Of rcck-piled heights and chasms, awe-fraught to the dizzying sight, Where the shadow ever chases the light of the blinding day With purple and pink and crimson, opalescent and far away! The candlesticks of the cactus flame-torches here up-hold; Sunflower disks and feath'ry mustard spread fields of the cloth of gold. The polished cups of amole are girded with spears of thorn — When the desert wind arises,- — and they fade as they are born! The rainbow-colored spaces, wan and withered in a breath; — Bones of man and beast lie together, under mirage-mock of death! 1000 IMPROVEMENT ERA Chorus: Life of sky and sand awaking to prey when all is done; Land of the desolate people, born of sirocco and sun! Oh! desert land! Oh! glorious land! The land of homes for the homeless; of shepherded flocks and herds; The land where the green-walled thickets are choral with songs of birds; Where, over the ancient furrows, silver streamlets are re-drawn; Where slopes, once arid, lie teeming with wealth of the vine and corn; The land of sunny spaces, the land of the leafy glades; Of the faith that sees in the desert the promise of verdant blades, Where fruits, purple, crimson and golden, roll from Plenty's horn, Where souls of noble fealty, of diviner mood are born; Where, on glimmering heights of future, gleam fair regenerate years. Read in crystal chrism of water, the transparent globe of seers! Chorus: In the garden grows the Tree of Life where Eden's rivers run, Land of the world-dowered people, nurtured by water and sun! Oh! glorious land! Listen Listen! The woods now are calling! The mountains are casting their spell — A call has come out from the highlands. Where the creatures of nature dwell. Oh hark! The light winds are telling Of wonderful things they have seen. They're asking you to explore them — The hills and the valleys so green! Listen! The murmuring brooklet Glides on, to a much larger stream; The twittering song of the warblers, In beauty surpasses your dream. And listen! neighbor, the outdoors Is better, as autumn draws nigh; The heat of summer is over, And the soft, cooling breezes sigh! Come then, be joyful and merry, Enjoy life while your autumn lasts; For seasons come, and seasons go, But the die of life isn't cast! Weston N. Nordgren