TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IRRIGATORS. 



261 



SOMETHING NEW IN IRRIGATION. 



A novel device for irrigating lands along water 

 courses has lately been put in use on the Sacramento 

 river in California. A company has organized, or 

 offered to organize, a pumping plant, capable of 

 supplying a large flow of water, the whole being 

 placed on a barge which is floated along the stream 

 and operated wherever desired. It is proposed to 

 supply farmers and orchardists near the river with 

 all the water desired at a cost of only two cents per 

 thousand gallons. At such cost it certainly behooves 

 the farmer or fruit grower who can use the water so 

 offered to do so to the full extent needed by the crops 

 he seeks to produce. At this writing it is not known 

 to what extent this system of littoral irrigation may 

 be developed, but should it prove successful along 

 the Sacramento, there is no good reason why it may 

 not be put in practice elsewhere, pending the 

 development of other and perhaps better systems 

 of irrigation on lines well tried and approved by long 

 and successful experience. 



SUGAR BEETS IN WYOMING. 



Prof. E. E. Slossen, in bulletin No. 17 of the Wyo- 

 ming Experiment Station at Laramie, gives an inter- 

 esting account of the experiments in the culture of 

 sugar beets carried on at the six experiment farms 

 during the past year. 



It is said that experience in various seasons has 

 shown that beets unusually rich in sugar can be 

 grown by irrigation in almost all parts of Wyoming, 

 and that in their crop report the sucrose content of 

 the beets has been above 12 per cent. The officers 

 of the station claim to have thoroughly demonstrated 

 the desirability of Wyoming for sugar beet produc- 

 tion, and that it remains now for the people of the 

 State to develop the sugar industry. 



LOSS OF WATER BY SEEPAGE. 



The loss by seepage from ditches is considerable, 

 and with the increased value of water it is probable 

 that many will find it profitable to so construct their 

 ditches as to save loss from this source. In several 

 places in the State farmers have recently made their 

 laterals of sewer pipe, saving loss from seepage and 

 the annoyance of trouble with neighbors. The State 

 agricultural college at Fort Collins is constructing 

 such a line for the purpose of collecting seepage 

 water, and in addition for carrying the supply of 

 water which comes from one ditch. The pipe line is 

 made of 15-inch sewer pipe for the greater part of 

 its length, carried underground below the plow and 

 frost. The gathering galleries are of smaller pipe, 

 laid without cement. The length of the main pipe is 

 about 4,000 feet. It is expected to collect some 



water by this means for use late in the season when 

 the ditch furnishes no water. The work is being 

 carried on under the direction of the professor of 

 engineering, with Ray Walter, one of the graduates 

 of the engineering course, as constructing engineer. 



THE CREAMERY INDUSTRY. 



A hopeful sign of increasing prosperity in the 

 North Pacific States is the awakened interest shown, 

 especially in Washington and Oregan, in the estab- 

 lishment of creameries. The abundant pasturage pro- 

 curable over so wide an area in the two States named 

 has long been a standing protest against importing 

 from the East or from California so large a percentage 

 of the dairy products consumed. It is gratifying to 

 observe the increasing interest taken in the dairy in 

 the sound States, and the prospect now is that but 

 a short time will elapse before those States will be 

 large exporters of dairy products rather than import- 

 ers. To a considerable extent the same may be said 

 of poultry. It is found much easier, cheaper and in 

 every way more satisfactory to produce a home sup- 

 ply of poultry and eggs than to procure them by selling 

 wheat at the rate of a bushel for two dozen eggs. To 

 produce a home supply of food is not only a privilege 

 of the farmer, but it is his first duty to himself, his 

 family and the community in which he lives. 



OVER-PRODUCING WHEAT. 



Gradually, and in some sections of the country, the 

 wheat farmers are coming to see that over-production 

 is one of the great evils with which they are contend- 

 ing. It is reported from Minnesota, for example, that 

 the acreage of spring wheat sown has been consider- 

 ably diminished the present season, in some districts 

 amounting to a decrease on the acreage of perhaps 

 30 per cent. This is well, but if the farmers of Min- 

 nesota alone curtail their output, little good will 

 follow. It is also reported from Kansas that some 

 farmers' clubs in the western counties, impressed with 

 the over-production idea, have been plowing under 

 considerable acreages of fairly good wheat. This is 

 alleged to have been done under the impression 

 that it would raise the price of wheat. While such 

 action on so small a scale reminds one of the fable of 

 the bull and the gnat, and can have no possible im- 

 pression upon the wheat market, yet the principle of 

 curtailment of output is correct. But concert of action 

 along this line must be secured before tangible results 

 can be reached. 



The Enterprise Canal people are making improve- 

 ments on their canal by widening out the canal from 

 16 feet to 24 feet, and putting in a new head-gate. 

 Approximate cost of improvements, $6,000. T. D. 

 Dietche is superintending the work. 



