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MOST enjoyable occasion was the recent seventh annual business meeting and banquet, in Chicago, of the Western Association of California Pioneers. The organization was effected in 1890 through the efforts of Charles P. Jackson, Addison Ballard, H. A. Eastman and others, and there are now 143 members. Chicago is rapidly becoming a great mining center, and, with the influx of mining men, it is likely that the membership will be largely increased. The reunion was held in the club-rooms of the Sherman house. At the business meeting the following officers were elected: President, Addison Ballard; first vice-president, Candam Knight; second vice-president, G. G. Curtis; treasurer, G. G. Pope; secretary, G. W. Hotchkiss; trustees, Joseph Clark, Israel Sunderland, Thomas Mahew, John Kinsey, J. A. B. Walker.

Among the members present were M. Parkins, George G. Custer, E. G. Crane, J. A. B. Waldo, W. E. Reed, S. P. Blodgett, L. M. McEwen, T. P. Sears, John B. Kerr, Addison Ballard, H. W. Emery, J. H. Smiley, G. W. Hotchkiss, J. C. Gault, John Kinsey, G. E. Strong, H. Latham, Thomas Mahew, J. A. Macomber, J. F. Thompson, William Johnson and others. Benjamin R. Nickerson, of Chicago, eighty-five years of age, is the oldest member. He is the only surviving member of the first California Legislature.

The decorations about the banquet room were of golden hue, as also those on the tables, and old-gold badges were worn by the veteran miners. A more hardy, better preserved, better informed or more jolly set of men has not come together in Chicago for many a day. All are wealthy, and most of the gentlemen are still in active business. As seen by the names, several are still prominent in politics, as well as business, in Chicago.

This annual reunion is held in commemoration of the discovery of gold in California, which occured January 24, 1848. September 9 is also a day of celebration, as it marks the admission of California into the Union in 1850.

Alderman Ballard was toast-master, and he used a handsome gavel made from the

wood of the hanging tree at Hangtown and Sutter's Mill, near which the first find of the yellow metal was made. There were no regular toasts, the time being occupied in discussing the good things on the menu, and in exchanging reminiscences and making speeches on the days of '49, when the California gold fever was at its height, as well as the days of Pike's Peak, and the new finds of today. "What was missed at Pike's Peak," in Colorado, by the armies of men who toiled about there in 1859, was dwelt upon by members who were there at that time. The Cripple Creek of today is down the southwest slope of Pike's Peak, near its western base. 1859 men froze to death and died of starvation right in the neighborhood of where the new Cripple Creek diggings are today.

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George Custer made the Western trip in 1850. He told graphic stories of the hanging tree at Hangtown. After being in California for some time he returned to "the States, with his father by way of the Isthmus of Panama and New York. It was in 1849 that Mr. Ballard went to the California gold fields, and the trip consumed six months. Chicago then had no railroads. He returned in 1852. Mr. H. A. Eastman went by way of the Isthmus and remained ten years. Mr. Parkins (of Mendota, Ill..) went West in 1849, using a team of oxen, and the trip out was made in five months. In his party there was a long train of "prairie schooners." Mr. E. G. Crane, a cousin of Congressman Hopkins of Aurora, walked all the way to Pike's Peak in 1859.

After the reminiscences came discussions on the great progress of the West, what irrigation was doing for its development, the admission of Utah, and the bills in the present Congress for the admission of Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. That ex-President Harrison had just made argument in the United States Supreme Court in favor of the California (the Wright) Irrigation District Law was regarded as conclusive that one great constitutional lawyer was willing to risk his reputation at a most critical time that the said law was constitutional.

A CHICAGO combination will reclaim 10,000 acres of land in Idaho.

BLOOMING UTAH, the forty-fifth star, is welcome as the flowers in June.

COLORADO has a great opportunity just now to market her agricultural lands.

CHICAGO is becoming the mining center of the whole North and West-iron as well as the precious metals.

CONNECTICUT leads New England in resorting to irrigation and all the other States are falling into line.

THIS Congress will possibly submit its differences on tariff and silver to arbitration-arbitration at the polls.

THE great salt springs and salt beds of Wyoming are abandoned because of the cheap imported Liverpool salt.

ONE sure way of securing new settlers is to secure new railroads and railroad extensions, and through connections.

SECRETARY MORTON opposes the use of public money in solving irrigation problems in the West. But that gentleman will not be in office forever.

THE great growth of manufactures in the far Western and Southwestern States within a year past is astonishing. Notwithstanding the tariff insanity, even woolen mills are among the industries.

ALL through the central Western States and the East and South, and also in Canada, the agricultural press has taken up the subject of irrigation, a fact that is most flattering to THE IRRIGATION AGE.

WHICH State or Territory wants the printers' colony? The many printers (or ex- printers) conferred with seem to prefer New Mexico. They will make good citizens and, with their intelligence, must become scientific farmers.

WASHINGTON and South Dakota have already followed out the plan of the Northwestern Immigration Bureau and organ

ized State bureaus, with branches in each county, and the other States in the northwestern organization will do likewise.

It is now suggested that Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona, organize a great immigration bureau after the style of the one organized at St. Paul.

THE Illinois Farmers' Institute urges the farmers of the State to make a special effort to secure the election of such members of the Legislature as will make laws to equalize taxes on farm property with those on other property.

H. V. HINCKLEY, Mem. Am. Soc. C. E., has been appointed by the commissioners of Shawnee county, Kansas, to have charge of the Melan bridge to be built in the City of Topeka. It will be the largest Melan bridge on the American Conti

nent.

HON. F. D. COBURN was re-elected secretary of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture by a rising vote, a compliment well deserved. The farmers of the State, and people in all occupations, well know and duly appreciate Mr. Coburn's great services.

IT is a question whether the Standard Oil Company has gobbled up the Kansas oil fields or vice versa. Anyway, opera

tions have begun and it is predicted that the exciting scenes of Oil City, Pa., and thereabouts are to be repeated in Southeastern Kansas.

THE fact of the possibility of such an association of associations-such a federa tion of interests-as the National Association of Manufacturers of the United States is in itself one of the signs of the times. Congress will never be allowed in the future to disturb and injure the business of the whole country.

AS EXECUTIVE committee of the South Dakota State Immigration Board, the following gentlemen were elected: F. W. Morris of Tripp; T. H. Brown, of Sioux Falls; S. N. Narregang, of Aberdeen; J.

A "POPULAR LOAN is somewhat better than a deal in which a syndicate gathers in millions, but the necessity for a "popular loan" and the loan itself are to be deplored. Of course numerous banks will suspend payment rather than let the people withdraw their deposits to invtes them in bonds. Money in the banks is really money in circulation in business enterprises.

BI-METALLISM seems still to be going to the front. In his speech at Columbus, Mr. Foraker, the new Republican Ohio. senator, outlined his policy as favoring protection to home industry and also bi

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metallism. He believed the world made a mistake when it demonetized silver, and 'sincerely hopes that some safe way may be found for the restoration of silver to its rightful place alongside of gold as a money of ultimate redemption."

Ar the annual meeting of the Western Society of Engineers, in Chicago, officers were elected as follows: President, John F. Wallace, chief engineer of the Illinois. Central; first vice-president, Thomas T. Johnson of the drainage board; second vice president, Alfred Noble of the Nicaragua Canal board; secretary, Charles J. Roney treasurer, E. Gerber of Morrison & Gerber, engineers; trustee, Horace E. Horton, president of the Chicago Bridge Company.

IF Western and Northwestern farmers see fit to risk themselves and their families south of Mason and Dixon's line, well and good. It may be truthfully stated, however, that the survivors of colonies which went South from the Northwest two and three years ago, and who have just managed to get back, tell most dismal tales. They insist that only negroes can work in that climate. They say also that in many cases it was impossible to perfect the titles to land.

THE Comparative small cost of irrigation in Illinois and the other central Western States, as shown in the January number of THE IRRIGATION AGE, seems to have astonished the farmers. Further information on the subject is given in this number. The irrigation fever is an epidemic that is sweeping in every direction, especially in this State, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Experiments are also being made

in Missouri.

Defrauding The one most important

the matter to be considered in Settler. purchasing Western lands is the water supply for irrigation. On the correct answer to this depend the welfare and prosperity of the settler. Climate,

fertility of soil, transportation facilities and nearness to markets are of no avail if the water supply is inadequate. The practice, so common among a number of land and irrigation companies, of selling water rights when they cannot deliver the water, is outrageous and it is working injury to every Western interest. The prospective settler looks with distrust upon every proposition because he has heard of some one who has been deluded and swindled by purchasing land and water upon promises made but to be broken and by having conditions falsely represented. The water supply in the streams has in many cases been over-appropriated and the settlers who have purchased and paid for the water in good faith suffer for the sins of others and are a prey to the extortion and greed of the reckless money grasping company. This condition of affairs is a positive detriment to the entire West and especially to those individuals and companies who are doing a legitimate business and dealing fairly with their patrons. THE IRRIGATION AGE proposes to take a stand on this question hereafter and it will work for the best interests of the honest land company and the prospective purchaser.

The There is a general desire West is that a national commission be Waiting. created to regulate the distribution of irrigation waters in the West, and in the country generally, for it is evident now that the sure mode of farming is to obtain on an extensive scale, in all sections of the country. Something looked for a long time ago was a decision by the United States Supreme Court of the question before it as to the constitutionality of the Wright District law in California, but it is not yet forthcoming. The district laws in other States being

about the same, this decision will have equal application. While this legislation and court business is pending there is of course uncertainty, and the rapid progress of development in Western America is much retarded. The people of the country are growing very tired of the political pulling and hauling at the national capital and would like to see Congress get down to business.

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How innocent of those Coming commissioners authorized by Discovery. Congress to choose a deep waterway connecting the lakes with the Atlantic ocean! Interviewed at Detroit, they have not the least idea, as yet, what route may be chosen." Well, here's a guess: Chicago is spending about $30,000,000 building a "Drainage Canal." When this is completed there will be only a short strip between the end and the Mississippi river. In other words, here is a deep waterway already about built. What more natural than that the commissioners may "discover" this canal and recommend that the government complete the waterway to the Mississippi, thus connecting the lakes and the Atlantic ocean? Why, gentlemen, whether you know it now or not, that was the sole purpose of the creation of your commission. Come to it, you must. The South and West will push this through Congress in spite of all Eastern opposition.

America

Free wool has brought for the Pacific coast sheep raisAméricans. ers to the verge of ruin, and the practically free importations of Mexican cattle would eventually put the cattle industry in the same ship. But all that will be regulated by and by.

It is asserted and reiterated for the farmers (not by the farmers) that a protective tariff does not benefit them in the least is rather against their interest. It was promised that the Wilson free trade law would enlarge the markets of American producers, thus benefiting them, but

as a matter of fact it has injured the farmer, and the manufacturer as well. Here are some official figures: During the first nine months of the Wilson law in 1895, the imports of agricultural products, including live stock, breadstuffs, eggs, flax, feathers, fruits, hay, hides, hops, provisions, rice, seeds, tobacco, vegetables and wool amounted to $85,256,219 against an importation of the same products of $55,840,848 during a like period of the last year of the McKinley tariff, showing at direct loss to American farmers of $29,415,371. On the other hand, the exports of the chief agricultural products showed a decline of $23,787,180.

Irrigation At the close of a calendar

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year the agricultural, comMining. mercial and industrial progress of a section can be figured up. The live and aggressive press of Western America has done its figuring for 1895, and the results are astonishing. Irriga tion has done wonders, these wonders have attracted attention to the West generally and to the hidden wealth of the earth in particular. Investors have been attracted to the mining properties, and they are to be worked during 1896 as never before. There will be armies of immigrants in the spring, and the development of the mining and agricultural resources will go forward with a rush. Now is the time for the various States and Territories to let this country and Europe know fully the merits of their agricultural lands. The Northwest Immigration convention at St. Paul, and the Washington and South Dakota State Immigration convention were most timely, and cannot fail of good resuits. Each State and Territory, however, should have an immigration bureau East, with branches at the seaports and also in the great central cities.

quarters in this country and abroad, are ably edited and, in typographical appearance, are the peers of the press anywhere in Christendom. Western America also has its own magazines, illustrated to perfection. There is no longer any "rowdyism" in Western literature. Rare good taste is displayed by the editorial management, and the manners of this literature are the most metropolitan.

Most Bitter

The immense corn crop and the consequent low Experience. value, and the hog cholera with its great losses, will doubtless force upon the minds of central Western farmers the urgent necessity of diversifying their operations. One or two specialties cannot be depended upon. With, at least, a small patch of orchard and garden irrigated (to be dead sure on), and a diversification of operations generally, giving some attention to dairy and poultry, no farmer can be wholly stranded, as thousands have been the past season. Many men who have heretofore paid their whole attention to stock raising will do something in agriculture on the side during the coming season. If the affairs of the State granges were systematized and reports required from each member, it would seem within the range of possibilities for each farmer to be notified before planting time of the total average contemplated for at least corn and wheat. The extension of the corn belt and the advent of cotton seed must be taken into all calculations. It seems likely that Mr. P. D. Armour will rake in millions of dollars through the mistakes and disasters of 1895.

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Investigating Notwithstanding the recent "iron-clad" ruling by Department. the Department of Agriculture that packers could no longer use any name for their oleomargarine that is "suggestive of the dairy," it is alleged that a permit has been obtained from the department by the Kansas City Armours which will allow them to continue to stamp and label their bogus stuff "Silver Churn.' The dairy interests are asking' what such conduct on the part of Secretary Morton means, and urge that, with this permit the recent ruling cannot be consistently enforced against other packers who stamp a milch cow or a churn on their bull butter.