n, the
rush of population thither in consequence of very extensive and rich
mineral discoveries having been a stampede almost like that of 1849-50
to California. Every hill was black with miners. The growth of New
Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada, considering their natural wealth, was slow,
owing in part to Indian hostilities. New Mexico fell from rank 37 in
1870 to rank 43 in 1890. Tucson, Ariz., according to the best figures,
fell between 1880 and 1887, from 10,000 to 7,500 inhabitants. In
material things Utah prospered greatly under the thrift, economy, and
hard work of the Mormons. Here mining and speculation were less rigidly
pressed, and more energy devoted to agricultural pursuits.

[Illustration: Orange tree and small water channels.]
An Irrigated Orange Grove at Riverside, California.

In California, a smaller proportion than formerly of all industry was
now applied to mining, a larger to agriculture and cattle-raising.
Southern California became the competitor of Florida as a winter
residence. Oregon and Washington vied with Minnesota for the world-medal
in wheat culture. Over the infinite pasture lands at both feet of the
Rocky Mountains roamed herds of bullocks destined to feed distant cities
in America and in Europe. It was foreseen that many of these lands would
in the course of time be ploughed, and by the aid of irrigation turned
into corn-fields, wheat-fields, and market-gardens, a process which in
New Mexico had already gone far. Even the tract inclosed by the
parallels 31 and 45 degrees and the meridians 100 and 120 degrees, which
long seemed destined for perpetual sterility, spite of the many
enterprises conceived, and the others, like the scheme of the Colorado
River Irrigation Company, initiated for redeeming it, grew valuable when
it was believed that the National Government would undertake to irrigate
there. Crops in that region grew bountifully under irrigation, and
permanent water-supplies could easily be created. Natural woodland
existed there only near the few streams, and of the scanty trees which
grew scarcely a single variety of hard wood was found; but the state and
national afforestation of vast tracts bade fair to change this. The
region comprised in the States and Territories named was not only the
richest precious-metal field in America, but one of the very richest on
the globe.

The picture we have presented is too glowing for the year 1893-94,
during which great depression afflict