TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IRRIGATORS. 



133 



people considered it little less than wicked to do so. 

 They did not grasp the utilitarian fact that corn is a 

 better and cleaner fuel than coal, and that circum- 

 stances may be such as to make it economical to burn 

 the former instead of the latter. But the simple idea 

 of burning up something ordinarily used for food, and 

 not commonly used for fuel, is naturally repugnant 

 to most people and doubtless many a man has shov- 

 eled a ton of corn into his wagon, taken the time and 

 labor of himself and his team to draw it ten miles 

 and shovel it out again, received less than $5.50 for it 

 and drawn back a ton of coal which cost $7.50, or 

 more, without observing that he had lost a day's labor 

 and the price of another day's labor in cash in the 

 operation, because it did not occur to him to use the 

 corn for fuel. 



WHEAT. 



In disposing of wheat people are as much inclined 

 to follow custom. Wheat is ordinarily exchanged for 

 flour at the most convenient mill, or sold to the grain 

 dealer, and hundreds of men have sold thousands of 

 bushels of it at 50 cents per bushel, or thereabouts 

 when it might have been used as feed and netted the 

 grower a dollar a bushel or thereabout. Made into 

 chop, wheat can scarcely be excelled as a food for hogs 

 and cattle, or horses, and, either whole or ground, it 

 is the food par excellence for poultry. Utilized in 

 this way, it can be made to yield a remunerative price 

 when shippers' figures are down in the neighborhood 

 of the cost of production. Hence, we suggest to those 

 who grow wheat, when the price is low, try taking at 

 least a part of it to mill to your pigs, poultry and 

 cows. A cheap chop mill and windmill or horse- 

 power are first-class assistants in such case. This 

 course will both benefit the grower who intelligently 

 follows it by giving him a fair return for his product 

 and aid in reducing "the visible supply" to proper 

 limits. 



THE SMALL FARM. 



THE eleventh commandment, so far as irrigators 

 are concerned, is: "Despise not the day of 

 small things! " This is directed especially to the 

 beginner and the prospective beginner in the practice 

 of irrigation. Look out for the details. The work 

 fairly bristles with details which may seem of little 

 consequence to the amateur, but they are all big 

 somewhere out of sight. If you are planting an 

 orange grove or seeding a tract to alfalfa, remember 

 these are truly perennial crops, and see to it that 

 your ground is thoroughly prepared and that you 

 know precisely how it is to be irrigated. Plant only 

 healthy trees of any sort, and purchase stock from no 

 one but a reputable and responsible dealer who 

 understands his business and cannot afford to deceive 

 you in any way as to quality or variety. If you are 



building new ditches, be sure of your grades, get the 

 ditches in the right place, andjmake every ditch 

 broad and deep enough, every dam and embankment 

 strong enough, have flumes so they wont leak and 

 gates so they will clear. There is economy in having 

 things right and sufficient for their intended uses in 

 irrigation work. 



DON'T WAIT. 



If you have a quarter section you would like to irri- 

 gate and the water supply is not all in sight, don't wait 

 for somebody or some company to undertake furnish- 

 ing you water for the whole 160 acres. Get what 

 water you can, and try an acre or half an acre. There 

 are 'steen thousand men living upon land which 

 ought to be irrigated to produce the best results and 

 who wish to begin, but are waiting and have waited 

 for years for the appearance of some capitalistic 

 company which shall make rivers of water flow where 

 little or none ever was seen before. Don't wait on 

 the big companies and great canals of water. Sink 

 a well, or dam a draw, or impound the waters of a 

 spring, or get a small supply of water from some 

 source, and be rich in experience at least and 

 know what you want to do and how you ought to do 

 it, and what a water supply is worth by the time the 

 big company arrives on the ground. 



Furthermore, the little farm has proven and will 

 prove the corner stone and also the basement, side- 

 walls and mansard roof of irrigation. There will 

 be men who can successfully conduct a bonanza farm 

 under irrigation just as there are Marshall Fields in 

 trade, Jay Goulds in railroad assimilation and 

 Pulitzers in the newspaper business; but their num- 

 bers will be about in like proportion to the mass of 

 irrigation farmers as are the phenomenally success- 

 ful to the rank and file in other industries and call- 

 ings. The mass of those who succeed to their own 

 satisfaction and to the good of the community in 

 irrigation farming will be those who do thorough 

 work upon a small tract. It is a sort of situation 

 where 



" A little farm well tilled " 



must be the rule if success is to follow effort. 



One of the strongest proofs of the wonderful ad- 

 ministrative ability of Brigham Young is the fact 

 that he limited the farm unit, under irrigation, to 

 twenty acres. He placed the limit high enough, and 

 the results of fifty years' practical working have 

 abundantly proven the wisdom of his regulations in 

 this regard. It would be well if people would accus- 

 tom themselves to contemplating irrigation farming 

 on such a basis the basis of the quantity of land a 

 man can handle for himself. 



Little beginnings, small areas intensely cultivated, 

 small investments of cash until experience justifies 

 branching out by safe degrees, these are some of the 



