The irrigation revolution comes to the Yakima Valley

The early opening of the present spring accords well with the eagerness apparent on every hand to put in cultivation. Sagebrush fires light up the nights, and trainload after trainload of hop poles indicate an activity such as has never before been seen in this valley. It is no longer an uphill argument to convince farmers of the superiority of continuous sunshine with irrigation to the risks and losses of cloudy and uncertain weather. Many who went heedlessly over the sagebrush plains, eager to acquire farms among the timber of the luxuriant coast on the west side, are now returning after a hard fight with stumps, preferring to pay for water to irrigate, and so get immediate results, rather than continue the warfare with rain and timber. The Yakima people can well afford to see the towns go slowly a year or two longer while the country catches up. All have realized that the country must be permitted to come alongside; but not until recently did so many believe that the great agricultural revival would begin around Yakima so vigorously and so soon.