THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



17 



partly considered, although we had the 

 wind-mill before we thought of the pond, 

 and it has done all the pumping for the 

 stock as well as standing idle part of 

 the time. Although we have not had 

 our pond long enough to have fish large 

 enough to use, yet I think it will pay 

 anyone to make a small pond to irrigate, 

 if for no other purpose, for then they 

 are sure of a good garden every year. 



ALFALFA EXPERIMENTS. 



"Dulletin No. 44 of the Utah Experi- 

 ment Station reports the results of 

 extended feeding experiments on (a) 

 Yield and feeding value of early, medium, 

 and late cuttings of alfalfa; (b) Yield 

 and feeding value of the first, second 

 and third crops; and (c) feeding value 

 as compared with red clover, timothy, 

 mixed hay, and alfalfa mixed with 

 straw. 



The trials (a) and (b) are thus sum- 

 marized by the writer of the bulletin, 

 A. A. Mills: 



1. Steers, fed either the alfalfa with 

 or without grain, made the most rapid 

 gains on the early cut, and the lowest 

 on the late cut, or they stand as follows: 

 Early cut, 100; medium cut, 77; late cut, 

 68. 



2. For both first and second crops, the 

 early cut was first in rate of gain, while 

 for the first crop, the late cut was better 

 than the medium cut, and for the second 

 crop, the medium cut is far the better of 

 the two. 



3. The food eaten per day was slightly 

 the highest for the early cut and low r est 

 for the late cut, standing as 100 for the 

 early cut. 99 for the medium cut, and 85 

 for the late cut. 



4. Pound for pound, the early cut w r as 

 the best, the late cut, second best, and 

 the medium cut poorest. They stand as 

 100 for the early cut; 78 for the medium 

 cut, and 81 for the late cut. 



r>. The early cut yielded the most hay 

 when weighed into the barn, the medium 

 cut coming second and the late cut last. 



fi. The early cut contained the most 

 moisture, and when all are reduced to 

 the same moisture content, 12 per cent, 

 which the hay contained when fed, the 

 yield stands: Early cut, 100; medium 

 cut, 93; late cut, 90. 



7. In amount of beef produced per 

 acre the standing is: Early cut 100; 

 medium cut, 71; and late cut, 71. 



8. In yield of protein, a very valuable 

 nutrient, the standing is: Early cut, 

 100; medium cut, 78, and late cut, 82. 



9. During the two weeks of budding 

 and flowering there appears to be no 

 additional growth; in fact our results 

 show a loss of 82 Ibs. per acre of dry 

 matter during this period. 



HOW FARMERS LIVE IN CUBA. 



I 



F it be the government dictated by 

 Spain, that makes possible the con- 

 ditions in Cuba depicted by Mr. J. Knapp 

 Reeve, one can easily understand the 

 fighting humor in which the Cubans are. 

 But if it be the home government that 

 is chargeable with all or any part of the 

 horrors of rural life on that sunny island 

 we cannot conceive a man insane enough 

 to raise his hand to save such a govern- 

 ment from going straight to the devil. 

 Mr. Reeve says: u Between the condi- 

 tion of the planter and that of all other 

 agriculturists whatever in Cuba the 

 widest difference exists. The laborer 

 has nothing, never has had anything, 

 and is happy in the knowledge that he 

 never will have anything. The small 

 farmer, the owner of a few acres, is the 

 most abjectly poverty-stricken son of 

 the soil that I have ever met. He lives 

 in the poorest habitation known to civi- 

 lized men, a hut made of the bark of the 

 palm tree. Beside it the adobe dwelling 

 of the Mexican is a palace. It has one 

 room, a dirt floor, neither window nor 

 chimney. In this the family live like 

 cattle, subsisting upon the poorest of 

 food, as most that the soil produces 

 must go to pay the taxes. Children run 

 about, guiltless of the knowledge of 

 clothes until six or eight years old. 

 Books, education, the world, are things 

 of which they have never even dreamed. 1 ' 



Professor Troop, of Perdue Univers- 

 ity, Indiana, gives the following as a 

 remedy against apple tree lice (aphis.) 



KEKOSENE EMULSION. 



"This is made by dissolving one-half pound of 

 hard soap in one gallon of hot water, after 

 which add one gallon of kerosene or coaloil and 

 mix thoroughly, by forcing the mixture back 

 into the same vessel by means of a spraying 



