132 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



very low, but other seasons they are high enough to 

 make up for it and so maintain a remunerative 

 average. 



ONIONS. 



Another small farmer makes onion-growing his 

 steady specialty and grows his two acres every year 

 with satisfactory average results. He knows what 

 varieties pay best, how and when to plant, cultivate, 

 harvest, handle and market to best advantage. In 

 fact, he has the special knowledge which only comes 

 from long experience and which is worth money in 

 any business in growing sweet potatoes or onions to 

 the same comparative extent that it is in conducting 

 a banking business or operating a railroad. 



OTHER SPECIALTIES. 



Many instances might be given of those who suc- 

 cessfully make a specialty of Irish potatoes, of cab- 

 bage, of asparagus, of strawberries, and so on through 

 a long list of the products more commonly grown in- 

 cidentally and in a more or less haphazard fashion, 

 saying nothing of the great staple crops, the produc- 

 tion of which absorb so large a proportion of the time 

 and energy of the mass of agriculturists. 



A PROFITABLE POLICY. 



As in these cases, cited merely by way of illustra- 

 tion, so it should be with the man who devotes a 

 larger acreage to the more common products. The 

 sweet potato grower adds alfalfa and poultry to his 

 list. The onion gardener has a somewhat varied but 

 systematic line of other vegetables to supplement his 

 one invariable crop. So the man who makes alfalfa 

 growing his principal business will do well not only 

 to have hogs and cattle or other stock to eat the al- 

 falfa, but to grow at least one other sort of forage or 

 grain crop to supplement it in sustaining and matur- 

 ing his stock. An orchard and a garden should be 

 considered matters of course and receive a full share 

 of care and attention. And so it should be with the 

 producer of wheat or corn, oranges, raisins or prunes. 

 A wise selection may be made of other sorts of crops, 

 the production of which will fit in with and around 

 the " leader," and it may be accepted as a demon- 

 strated fact that the experience of any considerable 

 term of years will prove diversity of production, when 

 intelligently practiced, the safe and profitable policy. 



THE LIVE STOCK. 



The " first assistants" of the irrigation farmer are 

 or will prove to be the cow, the bee, the pig and 

 the hen. Which of these is really entitled to be con- 

 sidered as chief probably cannot be definitely settled 

 because it will be a matter of opinion, and opinion is 

 largely dependent upon the point of view. The old 

 cow feeds more babies, adds more to the good things 

 on the table and probably pays more taxes and more 

 interest on the mortgage in an indirect way at least 



than any of the others. But mother hen also comes 

 in very close to the head along the same lines. How 

 seldom we think of, and how little do we realize the 

 fact that the poultry yard beats the wheat field as a 

 wealth producer! The pig, with his capacity for con- 

 verting almost every waste and unprofitable thing 

 produced on the farm into a profitable, cash article 

 of merchantable pork, is not to be overlooked, and 

 while the honey-bee may not figure so largely in the 

 sum total of profits as do some of the others, it adds 

 a big item of net profit, nevertheless, in addition to 

 the important and indispensable services rendered 

 as a bearer of pollen to and fro for the fertilization of 

 the blossoms from which comes so large a proportion 

 of our choicest and most valuable fruit. All are 

 grand helpers and will return manifold all judicious 

 expenditure of time and labor in their direction. 



DO YOUR OWN MANUFACTURING. 



ONE inflexible rule upon the irrigated farm should 

 be : Send to market in its most condensed and 

 valuable form everything you have to sell. Don't, as 

 a rule, sell hay. Feed some hay to stock and sell 

 horses, mules, cattle and sheep. Don't, as a rule, sell 

 grain. Convert your oats, your barley, and also your 

 wheat, into beef, pork, mutton, eggs, poultry, butter 

 and cheese. There is an added profit in manufactur- 

 ing hay and grain into these things and you should 

 do the manufacturing on your own land and thus reap 

 the profit. 



In fact, there are two substantial profits derived 

 from thus condensing the raw material of the farm. 

 There is the larger return in cash received for the 

 product and there is the fertility saved to the land in 

 the way of manures, and both are most appreciable 

 profits and will amount to a "pretty penny" in the 

 course of time. Just look around you, and recall in 

 mind also, taking note of the farmers who get on and 

 make money, and you will find that they are those 

 who make it a rule to send their grass and grain to 

 market on the hoof, and in the butter-tub and egg- 

 basket. 



Condensation is the "rule of faith and practice" at 

 the desk of every "able editor." It should be as faith- 

 fully and persistently applied by every practical 

 irrigator. Practiced along the lines suggested, it 

 will be found to affect in a most practical and indi- 

 vidual way the silver question, the price of wheat, the 

 per capita circulation, etc. "Condense," says the 

 editor. "Condense all along the line." 



LET THE STOCK GRIND THE GRAIN. 



How people do run in ruts, like an old wagon! A 

 few seasons ago, when corn was very cheap and 

 fanners, in some instances, used it for fuel, many 



