242 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Cottonseed Meal as Feed. Sheep soon 

 learn to like cottonseed meal. Some will refuse 

 it at first, as will also some cattle. In the 

 Cornell experiment station bulletin No. 47 is a record 

 of feeding lambs weighing on an average a trifle less 

 than 60 pounds each, from December 8 to April 27 

 inclusive. The ration, for lot 1, for five lambs for a 

 period of 140 days was: Wheat bran 382 pounds, 

 cottonseed meal 191, linseed meal 96, hay 606, 

 corn ensilage 1,166 pounds. The gain was 26.5 

 pounds per head. As most readers are better ac- 

 quainted with the gain in cattle than in sheep, the 

 weights, etc., might be applied to steers. Fifteen of 

 these lambs would equal a 900-pound steer. Since 

 each lamb gained 26.5 pounds, fifteen would have 

 gained 397 pounds. If a steer of 900 pounds be sub- 

 stituted for the fifteen lambs weighing 900 pounds 

 and the total gain be divided by 140, the number of 

 days the lambs were fed, it shows a phenomenal gain 

 of 2.8 pounds per day for the steer. 



running, and it will be observed that the value of the 

 sugar beet crop of this immediate locality would 

 tread close to the heels of the value of the entire 

 wool crop of New Mexico." 



Improving Sorghum. Professors Failyer and 

 Willard began in 1888 a line of work which is of 

 much importance to Kansas farmers, and others, not 

 only in the matter of improving a certain variety, but 

 also in showing the method of improving seed gener- 

 ally. They began experimenting with several hun- 

 dred sorghums, but rejected all but a few of the 

 most promising, after careful trial. The seed of the 

 best stalk, as shown by the per cent of sugar it con- 

 tained, was saved each year and used for seed the 

 next, and so on. By this method, the average per 

 cent of sugar in Kansas Orange sorghum has been 

 increased from 12.62, in 1888, to 17.3 in 1892. Early 

 Amber yielded 13.95 per cent in 1889 and 15.62 in 

 1892. Link's Hybrid yielded 14.01 per cent of 

 sugar in 1888, and 16.4 per cent in 1892. 

 In their report they say "while other causes in- 

 fluence the per cent of sugar in different years, 

 there still remains a large improvement which can 

 be accounted for only by admitting the efficiency of 

 persistent scientific seed selection." 



Experiments in Hog Feeding. An interest 

 ing experiment in hog feeding is in progress at the 

 Union stockyards at Salt Lake with wheat as the diet, 

 the result of which will be given to the interested 

 public from time to time. About thirty days ago a 

 lot of pigs were put on full feed, weighing at the 

 time 71 pounds. For the first twenty -three days they 

 ate an average of four pounds of steamed whole 

 wheat per day and made an average gain of one 

 pound each per day; during seven days they ate five 

 pounds of wheat per day, which had been previously 

 soaked for twelve hours, and they gained nearly two 

 pounds per day, their average weight being 106 

 pounds. The soaked wheat (whole) feed would be 

 continued another week, when a change to chopped 

 wheat and barley, mixed half and half, would be 

 made. 



Beet Sugar The Las Vegas Stock Grower and 

 Farmer says : "The shortage of the European beet 

 sugar crop this year is estimated at 1,200,000 tons. 

 The New Mexico wool crop is worth about $3,000,000 

 to the Territory. Now compare the worth of the en- 

 tire wool crop of New Mexico with the low estimate 

 we have made of the possible result of the sugar beet 

 crop that could be raised here under the changed con- 

 ditions of the grant title settled and irrigated farms 



What Ails the Cheese Industry. Now add 



the reduction of the home demand through making 

 of poor cheese, skim cheese and " filled " cheese, and 

 we can see at once that it is not overproduction that 

 is hurting us, but rather under consumption, says 

 Hoard's Dairyman. What makes it all the more ex- 

 asperating is that the farmers and factorymen are the 

 only ones practically to blame for this condition of 

 things. The farmers are to blame for not standing 

 up like men of common sense, saying: " We will not 

 allow our milk to be made into anything but the best 

 cheese possible. We will not be party to any blind, 

 silly attempt to destroy the demand for cheese." The 

 factory men are to blame for not standing up and to- 

 gether, like men of ordinary sagacity, saying: "We 

 will not be party to any attempt to discourage and 

 eventually destroy our business of cheese making." 

 Here are the two parties who can force out poor 

 cheese and all frauds if they will. They will find 

 that they will need all the consumption they can get 

 to keep up the cheese market of the future. 



Practical Experience. This spring I sowed 

 1-16 of an acre to onions and harvested over seventy- 

 five bushels, averaging about one pound apiece. 

 They were the prize-takers. I also had 1-50 of an 

 acre planted to Little Bartetta and White Queen 

 onions. Off of this piece I harvested thirteen 

 bushels and thirty pounds. I had fourteen bushels 

 of potatoes on 1-16 of an acre. My strawberries 

 made an average of 13,000 quarts to the acre. My 

 beets and celery have not been harvested, but they 

 will be very heavy. 



I irrigate about two acres, and use an old-f ashior ei 

 ten-foot windmill and an ordinary four-inch brass 

 lined cylinder. I have been irrigating for five 

 years in this manner. When I came to the place 

 I now live on, there was but one tree on it that I 

 aid not have to dig up on account of the way they 

 had been set out. I now have a plensant little 

 home, with about thirty-five shade trees, from six 

 inches to a foot in diameter, forty plum trees, 

 twenty-five apple trees, twelve pear trees, fifteen 

 cherry trees, and about fifty gooseberry bushes, 

 and about twenty grape vines. I also have a very 

 fine blue grass lawn and lots of flowers. 



My reservoir is thirty-five feet in diameter, and 

 sodded outside and in, and has a row of weeping 

 willows on the bank and a variety of water plants 

 growing inside. It is well stocked with fish that 

 are so tame they will eat out of my hands. 



All this I have accomplished with very little ex- 

 pense outside of my own work. $100 will coverall 

 money paid out. 



These are luxuries that all farmers, who have an 

 ordinary windmill and water to supply a four-inch 

 pipe, may enjoy. They not only promote health 

 and happiness, but are a source of quite a little 

 income. A. H. MOFFET. 



Preventing Hog Cholera. The Texas Stock- 

 man says: "Our northern exchanges are filled with 

 long articles headed, ' Beware of hog cholera.' The 

 hog cholera scare cuts but little figure with the Texas 

 swine grower. The fact is, that where ordinary san- 

 itary precautions are observed hogs are practically 

 free from disease in this State." 



