TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IRRIGATORS. 



191 



Lemons (easily produced in any quantity in Califor- 

 nia and Florida) 4,285,278 



Oranges (easily produced in any quantity in Califor- 

 nia and Florida) : 1,127,005 



Prunes and plums (easily produced in any quantity 



in California) ... 416,342 



Raisins (easily produced in any quantity in Califor- 

 nia) 554,090 



Preserved fruits 526,551 



Almonds (.California could easily supply the desired 



amount; 769,453 



Goat skins ,...-... 412,603 



Hops 484,415 



Can skins 884,796 



Upper leather and dressed skins 1,622,330 



Olive oil (can be produced 111 any quantity in Cali- 

 fornia) : 909,897 



Meat and meat extracts and dairy products 1,797,847 



Rice (.can be produced in any quantity in Louisiana 



and the Carolinas) 2,014,896 



Flaxseed 701,866 



Tobacco 11,001,798 



Vegetables of various kinds, as pease, beans, pota- 



. toes, etc.. 3,894,992 



Wines 6,739,425 



Wool (for the year ending June 30,1893) .... 21,06t,180 



This gives a total import for the year just past, of 

 products which can be and should be fully grown in 

 the United States, to the enormous value of $257,- 

 782,000, or over ninety-one million dollars more than 

 was realized for the entire exports of grain and flour. 

 And a further scrutiny of figures furnished by the 

 Treasury Department shows the value of imports 

 named above to lack only fifteen million dollars of 

 being equal to the entire exports of all grain and 

 flour ; all cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, mules, and other 

 animals; all hay, hides, honey and hops; all manu- 

 factures of iron and steel in all forms ; all agricultural 

 implements; and all lumber and manufactures of 

 wood ot all kinds and descriptions. 



While these figures do not constitute a poem by 

 any means, they do constitute a sermon of very 

 grave importance to every American soil-tiller, and 

 prove beyond the shadow of a doubt what THE IRRI- 

 GATION AGE has long endeavored to impress upon 

 all farmers and horticulturists, that American farm 

 products need to be diversified, and that American 

 soil tillers do not give sufficient attention to acquir- 

 ing full and accurate information relative to the 

 very things of which the Treasury figures given here- 

 in speak so eloquently and so conclusively. We 

 plead for a broader study of economic principles as 

 affecting agriculture by those most vitally interested 

 in these problems that is, by farmers and horti- 

 culturists themselves. Provincialism is the bane of 

 agriculture almost everywhere. In the early spring 

 reports were published that the farmers of a certain 

 county in Kansas decided to plow under a portion 

 of their wheat crops in order to increase the price of 

 the remainder. It is entirely safe to say not one of 

 these farmers was a reader of THE IRRIGATION AGE, 

 or they would have known that plowing under any 

 or all the wheat in any county in Kansas, or in all 

 the counties, would not appreciably increase the 

 price of that grain in any great market in the world. 

 It will be seen that it required more than three- 

 fourths of our wheat and flour exports to pay for the 

 sugar we bought from Cuba, Germany and other 

 countries last year. Every pound of sugar consumed 

 in the United States, and millions of tons more, could 

 be produced in this country and give better returns 

 to the farmer than many of the staple crops to which 

 he is so firmly wedded. These treasury statistics 

 cry aloud for a more diversified agriculture, and add 

 their persuasive eloquence to the arguments of the 

 AGE, that the American farmer ought to produce 

 nearly everything consumed by American citizens. 



Bean Culture in California. Ventura county, 

 California, has the reputation of producing more 

 beans than any other county in the United States. 

 Not that the conditions for bean culture are neces- 

 sarily the best in that county, but the farmers have 

 the " bean habit," so to speak, and beans are planted 

 there as banking houses are established in Wall 

 street. Beans, then, may be said to be the Ventura 

 county specialty, just as prunes are the staple pro- 

 duct of Santa Clara county in that State. But the 

 farmers of the United States have not yet succeeded 

 in raising enough beans for the use of the people, 

 hence a number of localities best adapted might well 

 consider the advisability of increasing their bean 

 acreages. Last year over a million bushels of beans 

 and pease^were imported at a cost of nearly a dollar 

 per bushel. It is much the same in other years, and 

 may possibly continue, in spite of the fact that beans 

 are worth nearly twice as much as wheat and will 

 yield many more bushels per acre. The cost of pro- 

 duction and preparation for market is, however, in 

 excess of that for a wheat crop of equal area. 



A bean-grower of fifteen years' experience in Ven- 

 tura county has found the average yield of his land 

 to have been 1,500 pounds of marketable beans per 

 acre annually, and the selling price has averaged 

 2% cents per pound, or $37.50 per acre. 



It has been previously shown in THE AGE that the 

 average annual value of a wheat crop is much less 

 than the above ; in fact, not much more than one- 

 third during the past fifteen years, and during the 

 past two years not much more than one-sixth. The 

 grower referred to herein produced the lima bean, 

 which is not adapted to all conditions, to be sure, but 

 any variety of good bean will be found often to be 

 far more profitable than some of the staple crops 

 which American farmers continue to produce in 

 enormous quantities with very little profit. In the 

 bean-growing districts of California it is estimated 

 that the equivalent of one man and four horses, with 

 the needful farm implements, will suffice to handle 

 eighty acres of beans. Of course more men will be 

 needed at times, but, by proper management, it is 

 claimed that the expense may be brought down to a 

 moderate figure. In fact, the bean industry has so 

 far developed in Ventura county, that raw land, con- 

 sidered to be well adapted to the business, is held 

 quite generally at $150 to $200 per acre. It is prairie, 

 or mesa land, comparatively near the ocean, and 

 does not require expense in clearing, except to re- 

 move a growth of small brush, with sometimes here 

 and there a tree. The land in this section, as stated 

 above, is not superior in fertility or otherwise to large 

 areas elsewhere, and the industry can easily be ex- 

 tended, somewhat, at least, in almost any part of the 

 country. American farmers should learn more ex- 

 actly what crops are not fully produced and what are 

 already over-produced, and then gauge their plant- 

 ings accordingly. It will be a part of the business of 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE to point these things out 

 from time to time. 



Another Forage Plant. It it be true that he 

 deserves well of his fellow men who causes two blades 

 of grass to grow where only one grew before, surely 

 he who causes many blades of grass to grow where 

 none grew before must be entitled to still higher con- 

 sideration. Attention has lately been called by the 

 Department of Agriculture to the Hungarian brome 

 grass; and if extended planting shall justify present 



