THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



93 



requested to give full tests to any suggestions which 

 to them appear unusual or doubtful, and report 

 results. While we cannot expect always to be in the 

 right, the conditions under which all matter appears 

 in this magazine are such as to afford a more than 

 usually safe guarantee that it is of specific value. 

 Covering so wide a field, it may sometimes happen 

 that local questions may not be treated with entire 

 accuracy, but the utmost care is exercised to make 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE authority in a general sense in 

 every part of the world where it finds its way among 

 the hardy sons of toil. There is no other journal 

 published which in its peculiar field approaches the 

 standard set for THE IRRIGATION AGE, and it is the 

 purpose of the publishers to keep it always in the 

 front rank of journalism. 



A Texas Example. J. W. Stuvenrauch, of 

 Mexia, Texas, writes that he has been irrigating six 

 or eight acres of garden for three years past, and 

 is greatly pleased with the venture. The land is 

 rich, water is plentiful, and he grows two or three 

 crops a year, for which he has sufficient home mar- 

 ket. He is just now selling rutabaga turnips to the 

 stores at the rate of two cents a pound, many single 

 turnips selling for from ten to fifteen cents. He may 

 well say, "Strange, is it not, that three or four turnips 

 should sell for as much as does a bushel of wheat? 1 ' 

 He is not willing to tell how much they have realized 

 off an acre of ground, but with cabbages at five cents 

 a pound, lettuce at five cents a head, and turnips at 



e price named above, it ought to be considerable. 



Hogs on Alfalfa. Gilbert Brothers, of Ford 

 County, Kansas, say "that alfalfa will pasture twenty- 

 five hogs per acre, and it requires but a small amount 

 of grain to put them in fine condition for market. 

 "We have about 2,000 worth of hogs on hand now, 

 and the cost of production has been very light. Have 

 wintered hogs successfully on alfalfa hay and water, 

 but this winter we shall cut everything that we feed 

 to stock of any description, and mix a little ground 

 feed with it. All of our straw and fodder of every 

 kind will be fed in this way, and we think it is safe to 

 say that enough fodder is wasted every year in West- 

 ern Kansas to feed the stock now there." 



Farmer's Bulletin, No. a 3 From the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, is an exhaustive treatise 

 by Prof.W. O. Atwater, of the Wesleyan University, on 

 "Foods: Nutritive Value and Cost." It is announced 

 as the first of a series of popular bulletins on the nu- 

 tritive value and economy of common food materi- 

 als. Application for these Bulletins should be ad- 

 dressed to the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, 

 D. C. They are well worth sending for. 



A Scourge of Wild Horses. R. L. Fulton is 

 authority for the statement that 200,000 wild horses 

 are roaming over the ranges of Nevada. They are 

 causing the ranchers great trouble, and as the law 

 authorizes the shooting of wild stallions the cowboys 

 shoot them on sight. They are being utilized for 

 hog feed, and are estimated to be worth $7 a head for 

 that purpose. They are eating off the grass from the 

 ranges so that cattle and sheep owners are having a 

 deal of trouble by reason of it. 



Eradicate the Russian Pest. Half-way mea- 

 sures will have but little effect in ridding the country 

 of the infliction which it is now experiencing from the 

 Russian thistle, or cactus. Legislation, except it may 

 be to compel united action on the part of farmers, 



land owners and railway companies, will have but 

 little influence. It must be exterminated root and 

 branch. Clear a township and leave a square rod of 

 it on the border, or permit a single plant to roll in 

 from the next county, and the labor will be lost. Its 

 power of reproduction is something phenomenal. 

 The dry plant, breaking away from its roots, rolls 

 across field like the tumble weed, and its trail may be 

 followed for miles if it meets no obstruction. It 

 scatters seeds by millions and they germinate with 

 the slightest opportunity. There must be a relentless 

 and unceasing war of extermination, and when it 

 appears in a neighborhood, the sooner the forces are 

 organized to destroy it the easier will be the task. 



What Boys Should be Taught. An excellent 

 suggestion is contained is an essay recently read by 

 Rev. E. P. Powell before a farmers' institute at Clin- 

 ton, N. Y. He said: 



"And here we are met by the fact that American 

 education was never intended for the agriculturist. 

 It grew out of European education and took its shape 

 from old medieval notions. It put geography, gram- 

 mar and arithmetic to the front, just as a little higher 

 up it placed Latin, Greek and rhetoric. Now on the 

 land we have to deal with something those studies do 

 not touch. We are consumed with bugs and blights 

 and droughts ; we deal with trees and plants, with 

 flowers and fruits and vegetable life in general, with 

 animals and soils, with rocks and water courses. 

 What we want taught to our children is not the geog- 

 raphy of India or even Indiana; but a knowledge of 

 the things under their feet and all about them. 



"They should begin with geology, a knowledge of 

 the soils; and chemistry, a knowledge of waters and 

 minerals. Entomology, botany and zoology are farm 

 studies, and if our young folks can have these they 

 can get not only a living off the land, but will be so 

 much at home on the soil that you cannot induce 

 them to leave it. This will come. We shall see our 

 common schools readjusted so they will stand in gar- 

 dens, and half of each day will be given to the study 

 of things and the other half to books. 1 ' 



The Dairy Cow Sized Up. A cow whose milk 

 will make a pound of butter a day, or 350 pounds in 

 a year, is a very good cow and would yield a profit 

 after paying for a liberal feeding. One which yields 

 300 pounds a year is a good cow and probably a profit- 

 able one; and one that yields 250 pounds a year may 

 pay for her keeping and care, but one that does not 

 yield over 200 pounds a year is a poor cow, and does 

 not do any more than pay for her feed at the average 

 price of butter and of i&t6..Southwettern Farm 

 and Orchard. 



Cost of Alfalfa Hay. The big alfalfa growers 

 of Colorado estimate that they can put up hay at 75 

 to 85 cents per ton. Of course they use the most 

 economical machinery and the hay is stacked on the 

 field so as to avoid a long haul. At this rate the 

 farmers can make a good profit, as alfalfa hay can be 

 sold to cattle feeders at $4.00 per ton in the stack. 

 Exchange. 



It Pays to Feed Wheat. Mr. Lewis Graham, 

 Jackson township, Cass county, Ind., weighed on 

 September 5, twenty-two March pigs, 2,690 pounds. 

 Fed 30 bushels wheat, ground and fed dry in trough. 

 The pigs had run on clover. At the end of fifteen days 

 they weighed 3,235 pounds, making a gain of 545 

 pounds, which at 5 cents per pound is $27.25, or 90.83 

 cents per bushel, less 5 cents per bushel for grinding, 

 nets 85.83 cents per bushel for 46 cent wheat. 



