[1] In 1908–09 Barstow was the president of the National Irrigation Congress, the leading organization interested in water projects in the West, and he was in charge of the annual convention in 1909 in Spokane, Washington.

A Los Angeles Times reporter wrote about the impending congress that Barstow "has been a prime mover in inducing the federal government to build the systems that will make fertile over 3,000,000 acres of land which once was a desert."

In an interview, Barstow predicted that isolated farmhouses would become "a thing of the past" and that farmers would commute from their homes to farms via fast horses or automobiles or interurban streetcars.

[2]In his opening speech at the Spokane congress, Barstow urged the government to find work for (overseas) immigrants "out West," to provide them with transportation and to lend them money to establish homes.

[3] He asked: Shall I, who have always been broadly conservative, be regarded as preaching paternalism or as socialistic in my purpose when suggesting that the duty of the National Government may be found in providing under proper safeguard a fund which may be used to make loans of suitable amount to enable this thrifty and frugal class of people to locate their homes .

"[4] Barstow was born on November 19, 1849, in Providence, the son of Amos Chafee, a manufacturer, banker and one of the most prominent men in the city, and Emeline (Mumford) Eames.

They had nine children — Caroline Hartwell, George Eames Jr., Herbert Symonds, Helen Louise, Harold Carleton, Marguerite, Putnam, Donald and a ninth child, John P. or Paris (the sources differ).