The Conquest of Arid AmericaHarper & brothers, 1900 - 325 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
acres advantages agricultural alfalfa American arid arid region artesian basins beautiful Brigham Young building canals capital cattle cent cities civilization climate co-operative colonists colony Colorado Colorado Desert cost crops cultivated desert districts ditions dollars per acre eastern economic enterprise experience fact factories farmers favorable fertile field forests fruits furnish future Greeley Greeley Colony homes Horace Greeley hundred Idaho important individual industry institutions interest invest irrigated land irrigation labor living localities markets ment methods Mexico miles million mineral mining Montana Mormon mountains natural nearly Nevada oranges orchards organized Pacific Ocean planted population profits prosperity railroad rainfall result rich river Salt Lake Salt Lake Valley San Joaquin Valley settled settlement settlers small farm social soil southern California square mile streams success surplus territory thousand tion to-day towns United Utah valleys vast water supply wealth West western Wyoming
Popular passages
Page 245 - As long as you have a boundless extent of fertile and unoccupied land, your laboring population will be far more at ease than the laboring population of the old world, and while that is the case, the Jefferson politics may continue to exist without causing any fatal calamity.
Page 311 - ... because no imperative necessity compelled them to make the acquaintance of God and work hand-in-hand with Him in finishing the world. It is the fortune of Arid America to be so palpably crude material that it can not be used at all, save upon the divine terms. THE END. APPENDIX I NOTE AS TO METHODS OP IRRIGATION To those who are unfamiliar with the life of the arid region the actual process of irrigation seems a deep mystery. They regard it as an effort to overturn the laws of nature, and think...
Page 109 - The mysterious line which divides the region of fairly reliable rainfall from the land of sunshine has been discovered at last and generally accepted. This, as stated before, is the ninety-seventh meridian west from Greenwich. It divides the United States almost exactly into halves, running through the middle of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian Territory, and Texas. The vast territory lying between this meridian and the foothills of the Rockies, bounded on the north by Canada...
Page 43 - The essence of the industrial life which springs from irrigation is its democracy. The first great law which irrigation lays down is this : There shall be no monopoly of land. This edict it enforces by the remorseless operation of its own economy. Canals must be built before water can be conducted upon the land. This entails expense, cither of money or of labor.
Page 80 - ... wealth of the country's undeveloped resources. The old enthusiasm for colony-making filled his imagination. Wearied with a life struggle to remodel old social structures, he longed to avail himself of this opportunity to build on new foundations. These hopes he communicated to his friend, John Russell Young, who agreed to bring the matter to the attention of Horace Greeley. This he did at a dinner held at Delmonico's in December, 1869. Mr. Greeley was instantly interested, and beckoned Mr. Meeker...
Page 51 - ... land, it was necessary for them to remain in communities sufficiently large to repel Indian attacks and it was a policy of the church to encourage the building of compact towns rather than detached ranches, thereby enabling the people to meet more often socially — an antidote for nostalgia and a 1 " In California, in Colorado, in Nevada, in Idaho, and in Montana, mining, rather than agriculture, was the motive which induced the original settlement by Americans and irrigation grew up only as...
Page 315 - Tiie ideal climatic conditions of California attracted both wealth and intelligence into its irrigation industry. Scarcity of water and high land values operated to promote the study of ideal methods. Where water is abundant it is carried in open ditches, and little thought is given to the items of seepage through the soil and loss by evaporation. Under such conditions water is lavishly used, frequently to the injury rather than the benefit of crops. But in southern California water is as gold, and...
Page xiii - American people lies not in the tropical islands of the Pacific and Caribbean, but in the vast unsettled regions of their own country. Their true mission is not to impose their dominion upon distant lands and alien peoples, but to work out the highest forms of civilization for their own race and nationality.