ter in Semi-arid Regions. (McGee.)

Irrigation in the United States. Dept. Commerce and Labor Census Bureau.

Irrigation Projects of the U. S. Reclamation Service.

Reports of Irrigation in various states. Apply to Governor.

CHAPTER V.

COAL

When we begin to study the mineral resources of the country we pass to
conditions altogether different from those which we have been
considering. Heretofore we have been dealing with resources that can be
renewed, the soil by proper management, the forests by replanting, the
waters by nature's own processes; but the fuels, the iron and many other
mineral resources once used are gone for ever.

As to their importance Andrew Carnegie says: "Of all the world's metals
iron is in our day the most useful. The opening of the iron age marked
the beginning of real industrial development. To-day the position of
nations may almost be measured by its production and use. Iron and coal
form the foundation of our prosperity. The value of each depends upon
the amount and nearness of the other. In modern times the manufacturing
and transportation industries rest upon them, and with sufficient land
and a fertile soil, these determine the progress of any people."

We are sometimes told that we need have no anxiety about the future,
that new discoveries and inventions will take the place of the present
fuels, and even substitutes for minerals will be devised long before the
supply is exhausted. This may be true, and in a way the future must take
care of itself, but until new inventions have actually been made it is
criminal to waste present resources and blindly trust that time will
make our folly appear good judgment and foresight.

We have vast mineral resources unused; the present generation, even its
children and its children's children need have no fear of a shortage.
But in the use of those resources that are steadily and for ever
diminishing we must look a long way into the future. We are under the
most solemn obligation to take only our part of the store, and leave the
rest untouched and unspoiled for those who are to come after us. When we
consider what these mineral resources have done for our country in the
last fifty years, when we realize that it is only by having cheap and
abundant coal, iron, and copper that our railroads, our various electric
systems, and our great manufactories have been developed, we can realize
our duty to give the coming generations an equal oppor