At Walla Walla—the lowest point near the centre of the Columbia River Plains—we are told that the same results have been obtained from experiments there. Five years ago Walla Walla was a seemingly barren spot; now its homes are embowered in shade from trees of a most astonishingly rapid growth. The wheat product of the Walla Walla Valley is no longer procured from its creek-bottoms alone, but farms are being laid out more and more among the rolling hills. Irrigation, where it can be made available, is resorted to; but from what we have learned, we have great faith in the soil and climate to produce all that is necessary to man's support.
Civilization began in either hemisphere in the rainless countries of Egypt, Peru, and Mexico. The reason is evident. Civilization depends on the ease and security with which man harvests the fruits of his fields. The crop in the Nile Valley was unfailing, from the certainty and uniform duration of the Nile overflow. In Peru, from the constant presence of moisture eliminated from the atmosphere in the form of heavy dews, the cultivation of the earth repaid man's labor surely. On the high table-lands of Mexico irrigation was necessary, but once accomplished, there, too, agriculture flourished unfailingly; and men, instead of roaming from place to place, settled and remained, until civilization arose and declined, by the natural processes of the growth and decay of nations,
In these countries, superior intelligence also resulted from the dryness of the climate; as it is well known a pure, dry air is stimulating to the mental faculties, while a moist, dull, or cloudy atmosphere is depressing. It is evident that men in a savage state, having the obstacles of want and ignorance to overcome, have
