TOPICS OF THE TIME. 



see the advantage of providing for irriga- 

 tion, so far as their situation will make it 

 possible, as a protection against temporary 

 drouths. It is decidedly the cheapest 

 policy of crop insurance. 



New Route Not less than three of the 

 To Europe Texas gulf portg have been 



so improved as to admit vessels of deep 

 draft to their wharves. Railways to each 

 of them have direct connection with all 

 the Western States, and the farmers west 

 of the Missouri are anticipating favorable 

 results to flow from this opening for new 

 lines of commerce. It is being demonstrat- 

 ed as entirely practicable to ship corn via 

 the gulf to Europe, and it is likely to create 

 an active competition between the roads 

 running east and those to the south, and 

 all to the advantage of the western farmer. 

 Beef, too, that sells for four cents a pound 

 in Kansas City is worth eleven cents in 

 Liverpool, and one of the live questions 

 n>>w among all those interested in stock 

 raising is whether they cannot secure a 

 portion of the difference between four and 

 eleven, by shipping via the gulf ports. 



It is estimated that within three 

 'Irf vears > possibly within two, there 



will be a million bearing orange 

 trees in the Riverside, and two-thirds as 

 many in the Redlands orchards. This is 

 but one-third the total in Southern Cali- 

 fornia, and as the average product is fully 

 two boxes to the tree, this will mean ten 

 million boxes, or more than 30,000 cars of 

 this fruit to be marketed. The marketing 

 period is from December 1 to June 1, 

 six months, and it will involve the ship- 

 ment of five thousand cars a month during 

 that time. It follows that the present 

 market area must be greatly widened, or 

 that the consumption in the districts al- 

 ready covered must be greatly increased. 

 Such increase is only possible by a lower- 

 ing of the price to consumers, and as the 

 growers cannot well accept much lower 

 than the usual price, the improvement must 

 come through the cheapening of the trans- 

 portation or packing and selling charges. 

 There is none too much time to prepare 

 for it. 



Delayed 

 Emigration. 



It has been the general rule 

 that after a period of com- 

 mercial and financial depression there has 

 been a pronounced movement of the peo- 

 ple to the newer States. That movement, 

 which has been long expected, does not ap- 



pear to materialize, perhaps because we 

 have not reached the turning point. The 

 depression seems to be still on hand. Those 

 who are willing and ready to move, can't, 

 for the lack of means to move with. They 

 cannot sell present holdings. 



Nebraslta The Nebraska Club is or- 

 Enterprfse. gan i zin g a H ome Newspa- 

 per Correspondence Bureau and solicits a 

 thousand writers throughout the State who 

 will send at least one letter a month to 

 their "old-home" papers in the East. 

 Outline letters will be furnished by the club 

 so that there is little work required, except 

 to fill in the blank spaces and add a few 

 items of local news to pull the wool over 

 the eyes of the editor. They modestly 

 expect to reach five million eastern readers 

 and to advertise the attractive features of 

 the State at a nominal cost. Nebraska peo- 

 ple may lack in some things; evidently 

 assurance is not one of them. 



Lifting The farmers of Lincoln coun- 

 Mortgages. t y, Washington found them- 

 selves under a load of mortgages which 

 they could not lift from the product of 

 their farms. They quit the farms and 

 went prospecting in the mountains, found 

 mineral, opened and worked the prospects, 

 made mines of them and paid off the in- 

 debtness due on the lands. They are 

 fortunate in living in proximity to gold 

 mines where such a course is practicable, 

 but it is a suggestion of intimate relation 

 which will sometimes exist between the 

 agricultural and mining industries of the 

 mountain States. If the mines had been 

 developed by others it would have made a 

 market for the products of the farm, so 

 that each would have performed his legiti- 

 mate share, the miner and the farmer. 



J. L. Shawver writes to the 

 Wisconsin Q rari nr e Bulletin a very in- 

 Instttutes. . , . 



teresting commu n i c a 1 1 o n 



with reference to the growth and success 

 of institute work in the Badger State. 

 There were one hundred and five institutes 

 held there during the past year, all under 

 the superintendence of Hon. George 

 McKerrow and conducted by an able corps 

 of five conductors, with assistants, two or 

 three specialists and volunteer local taleut. 

 The influence is plainly apparent in im- 

 proved culture, and farmers everywhere are 

 taking the lively interest which indicates 

 better than anything the real value to 

 them. 



