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a visionary scheme, it was declared
Commenting upon this subject the Denver Republican says:
When the Agriculture Deparment began its experiments with the date palm in the arid lands of the Southwest it was denounced for “puttering” with a visionary scheme. It was declared that nothing would grow in the bad lands of the Southwest, but the Department persevered, and now it seems on the point of conferring a vast benefit on the ranchers of Arizona, New Mexico, and southern California. Unless all present signs fail... The country is being settled so rapidly that even the resources of the desert must be called out in the future.
— Report of the Governor of New Mexico, in Annual Reports of the Department of the Interior for the year ended June 30, 1901. Miscellaneous Reports, Part III (1901) : 283