"
He shrugged his shoulders, and Conniston noticed for the first time
how big and broad they were.
"But it is not impossible. It is merely the repetition of such work as
has been done successfully in the Imperial Valley. The stuff which
looks to be sand--barren, unfertile sand--is the richest soil in the
world. Put water on it and you can raise anything. Reclamation work is
a fairly new thing with us, Conniston. Men have been content
heretofore to squat in the green valleys and let the desert places
remain the haunts of the horned toad and coyote. But now the green
valleys are filling up, and there are hundreds of thousands of square
miles like the country you rode over from Indian Creek to the Half
Moon which are calling to us. To redeem them from barrenness, to do
the sort of work which our friends have done in the Imperial Valley,
is pioneer work. The pioneers ever since Adam, be it the Columbuses of
early navigation or the Wrights of aerial navigation, have always
taken the long chances. They are the ones who have suffered the
hardships, and who, often enough, have been forgotten by the world in
its mad rush along the trail they have opened. But they are the men
who have done the big things. The pioneers are not yet all gone from
the West, thank God! And their work is reclamation work!"
"And it's for the work over there that you want an engineer?"
"Yes.
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