The need of more and still more land brought the farmers to the dry slopes and plateaus of both sides of the Rockies. Here were vast regions which water would make productive. The government gave its support to great irrigation projects. Water was brought to the barren deserts and they became vast expanses of waving grain.
Gold becomes more difficult to get
In California the rich gold deposits which lay comparatively free were growing smaller. The gold seekers were no longer able to wash gold from the sands and gravel of the river beds, or to find nuggets in rocky hollows of the hillsides. They had to make a living in some other way. Vast mineral resources were still there, but they could only be reached by mining. Expensive machinery was necessary, and companies were formed to work the deposits.
California a great agricultural state
Then began the real development of California and the great Pacific Northwest. Up to 1875 California had been peopled with prospectors for gold. Now the output of minerals kept increasing, but the farm crops grew still faster in value until in 1920 they were worth many times the mineral output, because of the wonderful climate and the richness of the land.
The leading fruit-growing state
The first product to which the settler turned was wheat. California became one of the leading wheat states of the Union. Then the state discovered its great fruit-growing possibilities, and to-day it raises the largest fruit crop in the nation. People at first became almost as excited about their golden orange crops as they had been over yellow metal.
Great cities develop
Meanwhile great cities were springing up rapidly, and the riches of forest, mine, and stream brought unlimited prosperity and growth. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland have taken their places among the great cities of the Union.