Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station 245 



replaced by a new structure which contains rooms for ripening, pack- 

 ing and displaying the product of the orchard. The crop of 1916 was 

 very much inferior to that of 1915, not only because the trees set less 

 than half the number of clusters of fruit, but also because a heavy rain 

 early in September caused a large portion of the crop from many 

 varieties to sour. The total sales from the crop of 1915 amounted to 

 ^4734. 10, while those from the crop of 1916 amounted to $1563.79. 

 These two years' experience, one of them the most prosperous and the 

 other the most unsatisfactory in the history of the orchard, afi'ord us 

 excellent means of judging the vicissitudes to which the crop in this 

 dimate is liable and enables us to strike a fair average of performance 

 for a number of the more promising varieties of dates at the orchard. 

 A feature of the year's work with dates has been the installation 

 on the Mesa Farm of a propagating house for date suckers according 

 to the plan developed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in the 

 Coachella Valley, California. This house, the sides of which are con- 

 structed of boards coated with paper roofing and the top of which con- 

 sists of 10 oz. canvas, affords in summer a hot and humid atmosphere 

 and a diffuse light evidently very favorable to the rooting and growth 

 of offshoots, while in winter the newly rooted plants, which are 

 very susceptible to cold, are protected from frost. This method, which 

 at least affords success in the rooting of suckers, solves what has thus 

 far been a most serious problem in connection with the date industry, 

 and puts horticulturists in position to propagate much more rapidly 

 desirable varieties of palms. 



THE DRY-FARMS 



The dry-farms at Prescott and Cochise have had a fairly successful 

 year, particularly the one at Cochise in the Sulphur Spring Valley, 

 where the summer rains were somewhat more favorable than usual and 

 afforded excellent crops of Tepary beans, milo maize, feterita, and 

 Sudan grass. A silo was constructed during the year and filled with 

 silage products on the place. The year's work, indeed, has seemed to 

 demonstrate a successful scheme of agriculture for the Sulph ir Spring 

 and similar valleys in the Southwest. 



The salient features of this plan are, the most effective use of rain- 

 fall, quick growing drouth resistant crops, silos, livestock and the 

 skillful supplemental use of grazing range, dry-farming and irrigating 

 resources available within the region. The supplemental use of the 

 various resources referred to is of particular importance to the dry- 

 farmer in this region, for he must combine grazing, rainfall and 



