THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



265 



nugget on the streets of Chicago. To diversify and 

 to irrigate must be the watchword of New England 

 as well as for the new West. 



Profits on Alfalfa. Evidences of the profit- 

 ableness of alfalfa on irrigated land in the semi- 

 arid regions multiply from year to year. Here is the 

 account kept by a farmer near Denver on seventy- 

 seven acres of alfalfa the past season : 



Received for 557^ tons hay @ $5. 00.... 52,787.50 

 Pasturing 203 head horses, 3 3-5 months, 



@ $1.50 per head per month 1,096.20 



Total receipts for season 



Cost of irrigation and harvesting, for 

 the season 



$3,883 70 

 940.00 



Net profit for the season on 77 



acres, $2,943.70 



Or $38.23 per acre. This is not a phenomenal or 

 rare return from alfalfa, many other growers having 

 done as well and better the past few years. It 

 should be remembered that alfalfa, once well set, is a 

 well-nigh everlasting crop. There is no plowing.no 

 seeding, no cultivation; only irrigation, harvesting and 

 marketing, year after year, and a man can manage 

 profitably large tracts of it. It is one of the few 

 crops for which no expense for labor need be incur- 

 red until a paying harvest is " in sight. 1 ' 



Melons for Profit. Rocky Ford, Colorado, 

 melons have become deservedly famous, but for 

 profit we have heard of none that exceed the Yakima 

 product. This year we saw cases of a dozen canta- 

 loupes that sold at 4.00 per case, and many brought 

 $1.50 and more. For flavor none is more delicious 

 than the old Christiana. The variety had pretty well 

 died out when my good friend, Dr. E. Lewis Sturte- 

 vant, of Massachusetts, revived it by careful selec- 

 tion through a series of years. Now the leading 

 seedsmen sell Sturtevant's strain of the Christiana, 

 which yields much better than the ordinary, and fruits 

 in large size. 



Montreal Market is a very large and handsome 

 melon of fine quality. I have seen specimens that 

 sold for $5.00 each in Boston market. Early Hacken- 

 sack is a good market sort, if you can get the selected 

 strains. Melons run out quickly if the grade is not 

 kept up by constant selection. 



A variety is desirable in market growing. J. M. 

 Gilbert sold his melons at good prices in Tacoma 

 last year, when others failed. Miller's Cream was his 

 chief market sort. People did not like its looks at 

 first, but when they had tried its flesh they came back 

 for more, again and again. It cracks some, but its 

 yield was so great that that did not count. 



Emerald Gem with Mr. Gilbert cracked so badly 

 that fully one-half were lost; its quality is of the 

 finest. Hackensack was a big yielder, but of poor 

 quality. This is a sort that varies greatly in its differ- 

 ent strains, due to the degree of selection by growers; 

 some of the selections are very fine in both quality 

 and yield. Jenny Lind is a small sort of fine quality 

 and a good yielder, liked for hotels and restaurants. 

 As a general proposition, an abundance of water at 

 ripening time causes cracking, softness and quick 

 decay. 



Send to the Director of your State Experiment 

 Station for the bulletins issued. They are always of 

 value, and any one can procure -them without ex- 

 pense by making timely application for them. 



Care in Storing Fruit. It is scarcely too late 

 to caution farmers- and others who lay away a few 

 barrels of apples for winter use, to use care in pack- 

 ing and handling the fruit. It is a well-known fact 

 that a large percentage of the fruit stored for winter 

 use is spoiled before spring. This should not be, and 

 in most cases need not be, if proper care is bestowed 

 in the handling of the fruit from the time it is taken 

 from the trees to the time it is put into the cellar. Of 

 course, apples not properly picked are liable to be 

 bruised, and such are sure to decay. Apples for 

 winter use should not be allowed to become too ripe, 

 and should be carefully removed from the trees and 

 all bruising avoided. Every defective apple should 

 be thrown out, and the fruit thus assorted should be 

 put in a cool place for two or three weeks to fully 

 sweat. After this put into clean barrels lined with 

 clean paper, being careful throughout not to bruise 

 the fruit. Head the barrels tight and remove to the 

 cellar and keep at a temperature of about 38 if pos- 

 sible. A little higher or lower temperature may be 

 nearly as well ; the main thing being to have it uni- 

 form at about the degree named. A good thermom- 

 eter should always hang near the apple barrels and 

 if it shows too high a temperature the windows 

 should be opened during the day and cold air ad- 

 mitted sufficiently to regulate the temperature. 

 Some advanced orchardists recommend wrapping 

 each apple in tissue paper when packing in barrels 

 for winter use. If the other precautions named 

 above be observed, however, there will scarcely be a 

 need for wrapping the fruit. 



The California Fertilizer Law. The want 

 of a stringent law regulating the sale of commercial 

 fertilizers has been felt in nearly every State 

 at some time during recent years. Owing to the 

 large amounts of commercial manures used in many 

 of the cotton States, laws fully guaranteeing <_he rights 

 of purchasers have been in operation there for some 

 years. Wherever such manures are extensively 

 used the need of appropriate legislation can scarcely 

 be questioned. Until very recently the need for 

 such legislation has not been felt in many of the 

 newer States, but at a recent meeting of the Farmers' 

 Institute, at Santa Barbara, California, the matter was 

 brought up and ably discussed. As a result of the 

 consideration of this question a committee was ap- 

 pointed to formulate a bill embodying all known re- 

 quirements in this connection to be presented to the 

 legislature at its coming session, which begins in 

 January next. The committee comprises Messrs. 

 Abbott Kinney, of Lamanda Park; N. W. Blanchard, 

 of Santa Paula, and J. E. Packard, of Pomona. It is 

 the wish of the committee to get the views of cultiva- 

 tors and others in the State or elsewhere who have 

 knowledge of the subject or pertinent suggestions to 

 make, to the end of embodying every essential point 

 in the law at first, if possible. Readers of THE AGE 

 in California are especially interested in this subject, 

 and should aid the committee as far as possible in 

 presenting a bill which may serve as a model for the 

 legislatures of other States to work from in subse- 

 quent years; for it is certain that the extensive use of 

 commercial manures in all parts of the country is but 

 a matter of time and a better knowledge of the sci- 

 ence of agriculture. 



Bees should have water. 



