TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IRRIGATORS. 



195 



feed. We have also the Poland Chinas, the Chester 

 Whites and the Duroc-Jersey, which seem to be the 

 favorite breeds in the corn-growing districts in the 

 western States." 



Nearly all the above named breeds have been found 

 valuable on the irrigated farms of the West. They 

 thrive well on alfalfa pastures, and stock hogs have 

 often been kept in good, growing condition on a 

 liberal diet of alfalfa hay. A favorite method of 

 turning hogs into gold coin in the irrigated districts 

 is to allow them to feed on the growing alfalfa until 

 the early autumn, when they will generally be found 

 in prime condition, and require only to be ". finished 

 off" with a ration of grain for a few weeks to make 

 very desirable pork. In California, Arizona and other 

 sections where corn is not a staple crop, barley or 

 wheat is fed with profitable results. It is generally 

 found to be more profitable to feed ground grain of 

 any variety than to require the animal itself to do the 

 grinding. As a matter of fact, a considerable amount 

 of pork is every year placed upon the market which 

 has been fattened on alfalfa pastures alone and with- 

 out the aid of grain of any kind. 



Pasture Grasses. Bulletin No. 33 has just been 

 issued by the Experiment Station at Logan. It treats 

 of the "grazing values of varieties of grass," and 

 " drilling versus broadcasting grass seed." The 

 grazing experiment has been carried on for two years 

 on upper bench gravelly soil. In 1893 a steer was kept 

 on each of the half acre lots used during the whole 

 summer; while in 1894 two steers were put on each 

 half acre in the latter part of May, and the lots 

 quickly eaten off. This gives a test of the lasting 

 qualities of 'the different grasses, as well as a test of 

 their early growth. 



Two points are brought out prominently of practical 

 importance. The first is that lucerne comes seventh 

 out of a list of nine for an all summer pasture, and 

 only gets to second place as an early pasture. This 

 strongly indicates that there are several grasses better 

 for pasture than lucerne. The other point is that a 

 " mixture '' of grasses gave nearly double the gain of 

 any of the common grasses alone. 



The bulletin is summarized as follows: 



"A mixture of pasture grasses proved very much 

 superior for grazing steers to each one of the grasses 

 sown singly. 



" Of the single varieties, tall oat grass leads, with 

 timothy second, and lucerne third. 



" The results indicate that the difference in the past- 

 urage value of the several grasses is very marked." 



The drilling of timothy seed, as against broadcast- 

 ing, gave an increase in yield of hay of about eight 

 per cent. 



There was found to be less moisture in the drilled 

 area than in the broadcasted area, though this fact 

 may not be unfavorable. 



Temperature slightly favored the drilled area. 



The Small Irrigated Farm. Upon the sub- 

 ject *of the small irrigated tract, an experienced ob- 

 server remarks that a farmer with five acres of land, 

 and no more, if that five acres is irrigated, can keep 

 two horses, two cows, a good poultry yard and half a 

 dozen hogs, He can also market a large amount of 

 vegetables, small fruits and winter fruits, can make 

 a comfortable living, and in ten years have a good 

 home and a bank account. If he has one hundred 

 and sixty acres of land, five acres of which -is irri- 



gated, he can become rich. More men will succeed 

 with five acres than with one hundred and sixty. 

 This is because it pays to do well what is worth do- 

 ing at all, and one man cannot care for one hundred 

 and sixty acres as it should be. Most men will do 

 better where they look after their own farms and do 

 their own work than where they entrust it to others. 

 Nine-tenths of the failures in every department of hu- 

 man effort and industry come from inability to suc- 

 cessfully operate hired labor. 



Wheat for Hay. These days of low prices for 

 wheat, it will be interesting to many of our eastern 

 readers to know that in pcrtions of California 

 wheat is sown thickly and cut green for hay. A resi- 

 dent of Kern county, recently describing farming op- 

 erations there, where the wheat fields are irrigated 

 from artesian wells, mentioned one tract of 340 acres 

 which was sown thickly with wheat which was cut for 

 hay yielding from one to four tons of feed per acre. 

 When carefully put in and well irrigated, a yield of 

 four tons per acre is counted on with certainty. One 

 advantage of growing such a crop is the fact that af- 

 ter the wheat hay is off the ground the same field may 

 be immediately seeded to sorghum, or some similar 

 forage crop, and a second fine crop of feed secured 

 the same season. 



Flies in the Stables. In almost all parts of the 

 country the fly pest in summer is to be dreaded. Of 

 late years, however, wire or cloth screens placed at 

 the doors and windows of dwellings have tended 

 greatly to relieve families from the annoyances 

 and discomforts caused by flies. In this age of the 

 world it should be regarded as an evidence of want 

 of thrift, or even of culture, to allow dwellings to be 

 overrun by filthy insects, at once annoying and dis- 

 gusting to a person of refinement. A little effort 

 properly put forth in attaching screen doors and win- 

 dows will not only add very greatly to the comfort and 

 health of a family, but will be amply rewarded in the 

 aesthetic results sure to come to the children of the 

 family in the course of years. Rooms swarming with 

 flies suggest untidy lives and slip-shod methods, and 

 are certainly discreditable to any American family. 



But flies should be kept out of the stables where 

 the work horses and milch cows are housed, also. It 

 is a needless suffering to which these faithful animals 

 are almost universally subjected, and a proper show 

 of a humane spirit could be made in suppressing flies 

 in the stable. It can be done, and has been in a good 

 many cases by those who have not only a humane 

 disposition toward noble animals, but also an appre- 

 ciation of the commercial value of the undertaking. 

 Wire screens should be placed at the doors and win- 

 dows of the stables, and every precaution taken to re- 

 lieve the animals in the stalls of the terrible discom- 

 forts caused by swarms of flies. It is well known 

 that cows give less milk in the fly season, and that 

 work horses almost always lose flesh and do less sat- 

 isfactory service. It becomes, therefore, a question 

 of importance from a financial standpoint, to say 

 nothing of the dictates of a higher civilization, to pro- 

 vide the quarters occupied by cows and work horses 

 especially, against invasion by swarms of insects. 

 Every appliance, therefore, within reason should be 

 employed to bar them out; and in addition to the 

 screens mentioned fly papers found effective in the 

 household should also be used liberally about the 

 stables. Such precautions as may be taken to pre- 



