THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



In diversified farming by irrigation lies the salvation of agriculture. 



Short, practical articles, notes of experience and observation, are invited from the readers of THE IRRI- 

 GATION AGE who are interested in the promotion of the idea of the small diversified farm providing to the 

 fullest economical extent all of the various articles of food, clothing, etc., required by the family. 



PLYMOUTH INDUSTRIES. 



THE following is a brief extract from the report of 

 the Committee on Industries of Plymouth 

 Colony, and has cost much time and research in 

 order to make it as nearly accurate as a matter of 

 this kind can be. It has been prepared by Mr. J. C. 

 Fortiner and Dr. L. S. Hall, who are well informed in 

 regard to the many practical matters upon which the 

 report is based . 



MARKETS. 



An examination of the shelves of perhaps fifty 

 grocery stores in the Pacific Northwest failed to find 

 on them any canned or preserved fruits, vegetables 

 or meats with the brand of a packer located in that 

 region. Jellies from Omaha, canned goods from Cali- 

 fornia and the Mississippi valley, tomatoes and cat- 

 sup from New Jersey, potato starch from New York 

 and Maine, were found on the shelves of these stores. 



Over $3,500,000 worth of butter, cheese and con- 

 densed milk were imported into the State of Wash- 

 ington alone in 1894, and about as much more into 

 Montana, Idaho and Eastern Oregon. A million 

 dollars worth of condensed milk was shipped from 

 Puget Sound ports in 1894. 



The Pacific Northwest is still importing all of its 

 canned fruits, vegetables and meats, eleven-twelfths 

 of its pork products, large quantities of condensed 

 milk, about half of its butter, and almost all of its 

 cheese. These products are 20 to 25 per cent, higher 

 in price than in the markets of Chicago. 



The demand for these prepared products of the 



farm being already in existence, a colony founded 



with a view of establishing factories to convert the 



products which they raise into the forms required by 



the markets is certain to be prosperous. 



STARCH FACTORY. 



The ordinary white potato for which Greeley is so 

 famous, grows with equal perfection and in equal 

 quantity on all the irrigated lands of the arid region. 

 Responsible parties have informed the writers that 

 they would be willing to plant 1,000 acres in potatoes 

 if a price of 25 cents per bushel could be guaranteed. 

 The establishment of a starch factory wouH enable 

 this to be done, as the price paid by starch factories 

 runs about 30 to 40 cents per bushel. 



A starch factory, with very cheap frame building, 

 could be established on a small scale for $2,500. 

 This would work up the excess crop of a new colony, 

 furnish a market for their small potatoes, and enable 

 them to get a higher price for the selected potatoes. 



EVAPORATORS. 



When the fruit trees are in bearing, especially if 

 the colony went into prune raising, evaporators would 

 be a necessity. Fruit evaporators of a capacity of a 

 ton of dried fruit per day can be built for SI, 000 each. 

 By means of the evaporator the surplus crop above 

 requirements of markets for fresh fruit, and all fruit 



too ripe to ship, can be saved, and net the grower 

 from 1 to 2 cents per pound for fresh fruits. In the 

 case of black raspberries and cherries, about 4 cents 

 per pound of fresh fruit would be netted. 



CANNERIES. 



The industry which will be of the greatest impor- 

 tance to a fruit-raising colony is the canning industry. 

 In the case of a new colony, vegetables would be the 

 first products they would raise. There would be a 

 local market for a large quantity; but if a large 

 colony engaged in their production, the local market 

 would be over-supplied if they all had to be mar- 

 keted fresh, and the market would be liable to be de- 

 pressed to the point of unprofitableness. A cannery 

 would obviate this, and would be needed the first 

 crop year. Two classes of outfits could be used. 

 One would be an outfit especially adapted to the 

 making of jellies, jams, fruit butters, preserves, and 

 the canning of tomatoes and fruits. An outfit of this 

 kind, capable of handling 5,000 cans per day, in a 

 cheap frame building, would cost about $2,500. This 

 method of canning, with a preserving outfit, would add 

 about % of a cent per can to the cost. This outfit 

 would not can peas or corn. The extra cost of outfit 

 to can peas and corn would be $1,200. A factory 

 to can 10,000 cans per day of peas, corn, tomatoes 

 or fruit, in cheap frame shed buildings, would cost 

 about $5,500. If the preserving outfit were desired, it 

 would add $700. This includes power machinery for 

 pitting peaches, apricots and cherries. The cheaper 

 outfit would answer at the founding of a new 

 colony. Recent California writers show that a fruit 

 grower, canning his own fruit, will net 2^ cents per 

 pound at present prices of canned fruits. After the 

 third year a large amount of fruit vinegar could be 

 made from overripe and imperfect fruit, and the pre- 

 serving outfit could be used to good advantage in the 

 manufacture of pickles. 



As cabbage can be produced very cheaply, sour- 

 krout could be made in large quantities. 



PORK PACKING. 



Attention has been called to the home market for 

 pork products. As many as twenty-five hogs have 

 been raised on an acre of alfalfa. With alfalfa and 

 the refuse of the orchard, garden, cannery and cream- 

 ery for feed, with the 25-cent wheat of the Pacific 

 Northwest to finish them on, hogs must be a very 

 profitable product. If fed on alfalfa and wheat, 3,000 

 pounds of pork per acre per annum would be a con- 

 servative estimate; at 4 cents per pound, this would 

 net $120 per acre. A small packing house could be 

 established in connection with other industries, for 

 about $5,000, which would cure all the pork a colony 

 could raise, and thus have the finished pork products 

 for sale to the local market instead of importing 

 them. 



CREAMERY, ETC. 



Until the home markets for butter and cheese are 

 fully supplied, a condensed milk plant is not a neces- 



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