THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



267 



One of these, belonging to John F. White, is situated 

 in the famous Genesee valley, about a mile from the 

 village of Mt. Morris, one of the old towns of the 

 State. 



This farm consists of 700 acres of as good fruit land 

 as can be found in that section of the State. Two 

 hundred acres are planted to peach trees, which are 

 remarkably vigorous and healthy, but during the 

 cold weather of last winter the buds were nearly all 

 killed, so that there was not a bushel of peaches in 

 the whole orchard. -His apples were affected with 

 the scab fungus the same as in other sections of the 

 State ; but his plum crop was a wonderful sight. 

 There are fifty acres in one body, all four-year-old 

 trees, comprising all the leading varieties, and nearly 

 every tree had all the fruit it could possibly carry. 

 But little rot was observed, and this seemed confined 

 mostly to one or two varieties. 



A story has been going the rounds of the agricul- 

 tural and horticultural press to the effect that Mr. 

 White has discovered a new way of disposing of his 

 plum crop. It was to sell them while yet green for 

 the purpose of making them into pickled olives. He 

 says that this story was purely imaginary on the part 

 of the reporter who started it. His plums are all 

 picked when fully ripe and put upon the market in 

 the best possible condition. 



The varieties which seem to be bearing the heaviest 

 crops are Lombard, Bradshaw, and a seedling called 

 the Empire, which promises to be a much finer plum 

 than any of the others, the Silver Prune also showing 

 a good crop of remarkably fine fruit. One hundred 

 trees of Prunus Simonii had very little fruit. They 

 will be dug up and other varieties substituted. 



would support an agricultural population of a mil- 

 lion people, in addition to the urban population and 

 those engaged in mining, grazing, etc. Irrigation 

 means much for Nevada. 



An Enthusiastic Opinion of Alfalfa. Al- 

 falfa is a curious grass, but a paying one, says an ex- 

 change. It is better than a bank account, for it never 

 fails or goes into the hands of a receiver. It is weath- 

 er proof, for the cold does not injure and the heat 

 makes it grow all the beiter. A winter flood will not 

 drown it and a fire will not kill it. It loves water 

 and bores to reach it. As a borer it is equal 

 to an artesian well. When growing there is no 

 stopping it. Begin cutting a twenty acre field, 

 and when your last load of hay is handled at one end 

 of the field the grass is ready to cut at the other end 

 of it. For filling a milk can, an alfalfa fed cow is 

 equal to a handy pump. Cattle love it, hogs fatten 

 upon it and a hungry horse will want nothing else. 

 Bees will leave all other bloom for alfalfa. If your 

 land will grow alfalfa, you will have the drop on dry 

 weather. Once started on your land, alfalfa will stay 

 by you like Canada thistles or a first-class mortgage, 

 but only to make you wealthier and happier. 



Nevada Statistics. Nevada contains a total of 

 71,737,900 acres, of which the water area is but 1,081,- 

 000 acres, or less than one-seventieth. Its timber 

 covers 2,600,000 acres, its pastoral area is estimated 

 at 30,000,000, its mineral area at 15,000,000, and its 

 agricultural area at 20,000,000. That is, the last given 

 number expresses the area that may be reclaimed if 

 water can be obtained. The State has now between 

 sixty-five and seventy artesian wells, and it is esti- 

 mated that storage in mountain lakes will, alone, 

 provide water for 1,000,000 acres. Even were devel- 

 opment to stop at a single million acres, that area, 

 provided with sure and ample means of irrigation, 



Bees as Fertilizers. According to conclusions 

 reached by the agents of the U. S. Department of 

 Pathology, bees, instead of destroying fruit, as they 

 are sometimes accused, are the only agents through 

 which certain orchards ever bear fruit. Pears are 

 given special attention in a recent bulletin, and 

 among others the Bartlett is pointed out as non- 

 fecundating and must be fertilized by pollen carried 

 from other trees by insects. The remedy suggested 

 for non-bearing orchards is grafting other varieties 

 into occasional trees. 



Asparagus. The- best soil for asparagus is a 

 , warm, sandy or gravelly one with good drainage. A 

 soil with hard-pan bottom will answer, if worked 

 deep and underdrained with tile, but it is best to 

 avoid such, because of the cost of repairing it for the 

 reception of the plants. It is not advisable to place 

 manure under the plants; but all manuring, except 

 that used at the time of setting out the plants, should 

 be applied to the surface and work in with a light 

 plow or cultivator. 



Water Measurement. The mode of measure- 

 ment of a miner's inch of water varies in different 

 localities, but the most generally accepted legal 

 measurement is that quantity of water flowing through 

 an aperture one inch square, under a four- inch 

 "head, ''that is, the surface of the water in the ditch 

 or reservoir from which the water flows standing 

 four inches higher than the aperture through which 

 the water flows. The better unit of measurement is 

 the cubic foot per second, which is, " in round num- 

 bers, 1 ' equivalent to fifty of the foregoing described 

 miner's inches. To reduce miner's inches to gallons, 

 multiply the number of such inches by 14,961 

 and point off five decimal places. The result will 

 be gallons per second discharged. To reduce gallons 

 to miner's inches, divide the number of gallons dis- 

 charged per minute by 8.9766. The result will be the 

 number of miner's inches sought. 



Orange Crop. Reports from Central and North- 

 ern California orange orchards show that their sup- 

 plies will cut a large figure in the market this year. 

 The increase has been rapid in the last few years, 

 but a large number of orchards are now for the first 

 time fairly in bearing. The fact that the Northern 

 California crop matures early and is for the most 

 part out of the way before the Southern crop comes 

 on the market is good for both sections. It makes it 

 easier to avoid the glut that is the specter in front of 

 our orchard men. The orange is a good money crop, 

 in spite of the lower prices of the past few years, 

 and it is to be hoped that the yield for the coming sea- 

 son will justify the promises now made for it. 



At the Kansas experiment station in tests with 

 oats it was found that the hot-water treatment for 

 smut resulted in an average gain for the past three 

 years of three bushels per acre in favor of treating the 

 seed. In tests the amount of seed per acre the yield 

 for light seeding was 32 bushels, for medium, 33%; 

 and for heavy, 35%. The heavy seeding in these 

 trials thus gave the best results. 



