THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



269 



Selling Water by the Pound. There is a fea- 

 ture of the irrigation question which is quite striking 

 when you observe it. The Ranch recently called 

 attention to it by saying that many of us fail to give 

 water credit for all that it does and is in the grains, 

 vegetables and fruits which we labor to produce and 

 upon which our profits depend. Take, for example, 

 the potato crop. The average yield of marketable 

 potatoes per acre at Greeley, Colo., the great center 

 of potato production, is about eight tons. Of this 

 salable weight at least three-fourths is simply water. 

 The average selling price, on the ground, for a series 

 of years past, has been about 80 cents per hundred 

 pounds, so that from each acre of his land the potato- 

 grower has sold each season an average of at least six 

 tons of water, at $16.00 a ton. Onions, beets, carrots, 

 turnips, etc., contain a still larger percentage of wa- 

 ter, apples and the other principal fruits as much, 

 alfalfa nearly as much, and so on through the list of 

 principal and best paying products. From these 

 facts the conclusion very naturally follows that while 

 it is expensive to make, prepare and utilize the ca- 

 nals, laterals, gates, dams, pumps, reservoirs, etc., 

 which enter into the construction of irrigation systems 

 in order to supply water to crops, yet when it is real- 

 ized that a considerable part of the water sells on the 

 market at from one- half to three or four cents a pound, 

 the plain business sense and profit in taking all pains 

 necessary to supply water enough to produce the most 

 luxuriant growth of plants are strikingly illustrated. 



Some tests have been made this season in the semi- 

 arid portion of Texas, of a new forage plant known 

 as Russian millet, which it is thought will prove val- 

 uable as a dry-land forage crop. It appears to be a 

 non-saccharine sorghum, and produces a large crop 

 with very little moisture. 



G. W. McClure, of the Illinois Experiment Station, 

 puts the " Kansas '' raspberry at the head of the list 

 of black caps, following it with the Gregg, Nemaha 

 and Palmer, and accords the Turner the place of 

 leader of the reds. 



Protect the young trees against the depredations of 

 rabbits. Painting, rubbing the trunks of the young- 

 trees with axle grease, raw liver, fresh blood, etc., will 

 continue to be practiced, but nothing is so safe and 

 satisfactory as inclosing the tree stem, and for this 

 purpose nothing is cheaper, more convenient, more 

 effective or more quickly put in place than heavy, 

 tough wrapping paper. 



A fruit-grower near Tyler, Texas, alleges that he 

 can get twenty-five cents a pound for all the good 

 butter he can produce, but is offered only four cents 

 a pound for his cotton. He is almost convinced that 

 it pays better to cultivate Jersey butter than cotton, 

 even in Texas. 



We may often learn even from the " unspeakable 

 Turk." In a recent talk on the preparation of coffee 

 for the table, an old Turk engaged in the 

 coffee trade in New York is reported to have said: 

 "At home we roast the coffee, you Americans burn it; 

 we powder it, you grind it; we steam it, you cook it. 

 The result is, we save the bouquet, the flavor, the 

 strength; you lose them all in the burning, grinding 

 and boiling." 



On Selecting and Buying Trees. The inex- 

 perience of many would-be fruit growers in the irri- 

 gated valleys has led them into grievous errors. They 

 have bought trees because of cheapness rather than 

 quality ; have paid no heed to the locality where grown 

 as bearing upon results; have overlooked the. fact 

 that ten cents in the price of a tree might make dol- 

 lars of difference in its first season's fruiting and 

 more in following years. Thus they have been easy 

 dupes to the wiles of tree peddlers pretending to rep- 

 resent reputable nurseries at a long distance away. 

 We are led to these remarks by the opposite of H. A. 

 Carmichael, who is interested with millionaire Marcus 

 Daly in large fruit growing operations at Hamilton, 

 Montana. Mr. Carmichael is an old-time Western 

 New York grower and insists on the best at any price. 

 A few years ago he bought several carloads of tree 

 stock from his old friends, Smiths & Powell, at Syra- 

 cuse, and the results have been highly satisfactory. 

 He claims that northern/grown trees are far superior 

 to southern, being hardier and more vigorous, even 

 though the southern grown may be as good for the 

 southern portion of the arid region. Indeed, the 

 point has been made that fruit trees and plants should 

 always be moved east and west along lines of lati- 

 tude, or in isothermal belts, and never north and 

 south. How true this is remains to be proven, but it is 

 safe to practice at any rate. Experienced fruit grow- 

 ers now-a-days rarely buy trees of any traveling 

 agents, and only a few of the reliable nurseries em- 

 ploy them now, preferring to deal wholly by mail or 

 direct negotiation, trusting to their well-earned repu- 

 tations to give weight to their representations. By this 

 system, first-class stocks can be sold at much lower 

 prices than where agents are on big commissions. In 

 this direct dealing, too, there is greater surety of se- 

 curing stocks true to name than in trusting to the 

 alleged "agent"' who is too ready to have whatever 

 varieties the buyer desires, as he can easily be out of 

 reach when the trees bear fruit, while the established 

 nurseryman has his reputation to maintain. Only No. 

 1 stocks are even fit to plant, although it is often, in- 

 deed usually, wise to purchase young and light 

 weight trees and plants, because of freights and be- 

 cause they more readily adapt themselves to trans- 

 planting and new conditions. 



Windmill Irrigation. J. F. Monson of Sedg- 

 wick county, Colo., thus gives his experience with- 

 windmill irrigation: "During the extreme drouth of 

 three years ago an idea struck me to construct a 

 reservoir and use windmills and pumps to fill it. I 

 selected the only suitable place on the farm to build 

 the reservoir, which was sandy or rather gravelly, 

 and it was necessary to build it of stone and cement it 

 inside. It was made 80 feet in diameter with $% feet 

 walls banked up all around on the outside. I dug 

 two wells as near the reservoir as possible. I had 

 to go 20 feet for a supply of water, so erected 

 two 12-foot windmills. One of them operates a 

 4-inch double acting cylinder and throws a 2-inch 

 steady stream; the other mill operates a 4-inch single 

 acting cylinder which does not pump so much as the 

 other. With this arrangement I can irrigate about 10 

 acres of land. I have raised garden stuff, mostly 

 onions, celery, potatoes, and have begun to plant fruit 

 trees and small fruit, and it has thus far paid fairly 

 well on the investment considering my inexperience 

 in irrigation. I feel thoroughly satisfied that with 

 experience and good attendance it will be a paying 

 investment." 



