TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IRRIGATORS. 



137 



provides for the formation of irrigation districts and 

 the issue of bonds thereby to construct irrigation 

 works. The people in question are scattered over an 

 area six miles square. What they propose to do is to 

 select a single section of land centrally located, lay it 

 off in small tracts, reserving plenty of ground for 

 public parks,etc., and all the people in the district move 

 to this section, the proceeds of the bonds of the dis- 

 trict being used to put in a pumping plant and build 

 a reservoir large enough to irrigate the small tracts 

 settled upon. Thus they will be enabled to en joy the 

 advantages of irrigated land, a good school and social 

 privileges, using their scattered, dry farms to grow 

 such grain and fodder crops as they may produce. 

 The plan is excellent if properly carried out. 



The Best Farm Horse. For farm work the best 

 horse, other things being equal, is the one that walks 

 most rapidly. As an all-around work animal for the 

 farm no gait compares with a rapid walk. The trotter 

 and the running horse are of comparatively little 

 worth on the farm, but the fast walker is invaluable. 

 The horse that moves off with a firm, confident and 

 rapid walk will do more work and do it more easily 

 than any other animal. Entirely too little attention is 

 paid to breeding fast walkers by farmers, as a class. If 

 any special attention is given to the matter at all, it is 

 generally in the direction of strength and weight, or 

 in that of the fast trotter. With the better roads of 

 the near future and with the light, improved agricul- 

 tural implements, neither the heavy draft horse nor 

 the trotter will have any proper place upon the small, 

 irrigated farm. A horse of reasonable weight, but not 

 so heavy as to be clumsy, and which has a rapid, vig- 

 orous walk, will be the horse to meet most completely 

 the needs of the irrigation farmer especially. And 

 the proper feed for such horses will not be corn in the 

 ear, but oats or barley, with a judicious ration of wheat 

 bran or other similar substances, and good sweet clover 

 or barley hay. And the men who own such horses 

 will see to it that they always earn their keep and a 

 good deal more ; in short, such horses will never be 

 allowed to " eat their heads off. " 



An Indiana Irrigator.As an object lesson in 

 irrigation, on a small scale, the experience of Mr. W. 

 W. Warner, of Marshall county, Indiana, may be of 

 interest to farmers in the Mississippi Valley States 

 who think their lands do not require irrigation. It may 

 be said that Marshall county is in the northern central 

 part of the State, and enjoys as great a rainfall per- 

 haps as any part of Indiana. Still Mr. Warner found 

 it very profitable to irrigate two acres of his land 

 from a reservoir fed by springs. 



The fertilizers used were such as were produced on 

 the farm, and the soil was not of extra quality. The 

 work was performed by the usual farm help, and Mr. 



Warner gives to the Indiana Farmer the following 

 statement of the product of the two acres referred to: 

 He produced 415 bushels of onions, which sold for 

 $332.27 ; celery to the value of $645.43; cabbage, $60; 

 making a total cash return, after paying freight 

 charges on shipments, of $1,037.70. The labor cost 

 was less than $45, thus leaving a net return of nearly 

 $500 per acre from his little patch of land properly 

 treated. It is entirely safe to say that there are many 

 farms in Marshall county, and in all other counties in 

 the United States, containing 160 acres each, from 

 which much less money is annually received than Mr. 

 Warner received from his irrigated "farm" of two 

 acres. 



Good Roads being one of the greatest concomi- 

 tantsa sort of twin-sister interest of irrigation de- 

 velopment, every irrigator ought to make it a matter 

 of personal care and pride not to allow the water to 

 escape to highways or sidewalks while irrigating. To 

 do so shows a slovenly or careless bent in the farmer, 

 wastes good water which ought to be devoted to 

 better purposes, and has a tendency to draw from 

 passers-by uncomplimentary and untidy remarks, 

 thus unduly adding to the burdens of the clerical 

 force in the office of the recording angel. As a 

 matter of fact, we shall not be surprised to find that 

 the man who carelessly allows water to flood a public 

 highway has charged up to his private account all 

 the sinfulness occasioned thereby, and it would serve 

 him right. 



A Potato Fertilizer. An experienced potato 

 grower recommends as the best fertilizer, if the crop 

 is planted on a sandy loam (the most suitable for 

 potatoes) the following : Sulphate of ammonia, 105 

 pounds; muriate of potash, 225 pounds, and super- 

 phosphate, 85 pounds. This amount of the ingredients 

 named applied to an acre of potatoes has been known 

 to double the ordinary yield, and can generally be 

 depended upon to very largely increase not only the 

 yield but the quality of the tubers. 



Those who have given but little attention to fer- 

 tilizers, as is very likely to be the case with farmers 

 in the arid belt, will be surprised at the increased 

 yield of a better quality that almost invariably follows 

 a fairly liberal application of suitable fertilizers to 

 the growing crop. All plants require for their growth 

 and maturity definite quantities of nitrogen, phos- 

 phoric acid and potash ; and if a soil is deficient in 

 any one or more of these necessary ingredients, it 

 will be impossible to mature a full crop, even though 

 the other ingredients be present in excess. The 

 strength of a chain is that of its weakest link ; and 

 the strength of a soil may be fairly estimated by 

 the bulk of the above named ingredients which it 

 contains. 



