70 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



brain food because it has more phosphoric 

 acid in easily digested shape than other 

 fruits. It excites the action of the liver, 

 promotes sound and healthy sleep, and 

 thoroughly disinfects the mouth. This is 

 not all. The apple helps the kidney secre- 

 tions and prevents calculus growths, while 

 it obviates indigestion and is one of the 

 best preventives known of diseases of the 

 throat. Everybody should be familiar with 

 such knowledge. 



COLORADO FOR SUGAR BEETS. 

 Colorado is the one grand place of all 

 others for the successful production of the 

 sugar beet says the Denver Field and 

 Farm, and the sooner investment people 

 learn this fact the better it will be for us 

 in securing manufacturing establishments, 

 for many years past, in fact since the early 

 introduction of the sugar beet, it has been 

 noticed that beets cultivated at a certain 

 latitude above sea level, in diluvian soil, 

 are richer and better suited for sugar ex- 

 traction than the valley or alhivian soils. 

 Experiments of Dr. Hanamam de Lobositz 

 and others, have demonstrated this fact 

 beyond cavil, the argument being that the 

 roots thus have more air, more direct sun's 

 rays, and, furthermore, do not absorb the 

 same percentage of those mineral elements 

 which subsequently become difficult to 

 handle in beet-sugar extraction. 



SUGAR PRODUCTION. 



The production of beet-sugar in this 

 country in 1896 was only 40,000 tons, but 

 Americans paid for foreign beet-sugar last 

 year $138,000,000. Europe has 1,440 beet 

 sugar factories, against seven in the Uni- 

 ted States. Europe produced 4,130,000 

 tons of beet sugar in 1896, and the world's 

 total produc-ion of beet and cane sugar 

 was 6,670,000 tons, of which the United 

 States yielded 315,000 tons (beet-sugar, 

 40,000 tons,) Though producing of beet 

 and cane sugar only 315,000 tons the Uni- 

 ted States in 1896 consumed 1.960,080 

 tons, paying other countries, principally 

 Germany, cash for 1,645,086 tons of sugar. 



The average crop of beets is fifteen 



tons to the acre, giving a value of $75, less 

 $5 for cost of production. A low average 

 of sugar would be 12 per cent to the ton 

 of beets, and this runs above 15 per cent. 

 These figures are gleaned from the exper- 

 ience of the seven American factories 

 one at Watsonville, Cal. ; one at Chino 

 Valley, Cal.; Alvarado. Cal.; Norfolk, 

 Neb.; Grand Island, Neb.; Eddy, N. M., 

 Lehi, Utah; and Chicago Heights. Fac- 

 tories are projected at Rome, N. Y.; Me- 

 nominee Falls. Wis. ; Alamitos, Cal., and 

 at Salinas City, Cal. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH COTTON. 

 The following five varieties of cotton, of 

 the forty-two varities tested at the Texas 

 Experiment Station, made the largest mon- 

 ey value per acre; Texas Oak, $35.56; 

 Jones Improved, $34.89; Cochran's Pro- 

 lific, $34.88; VVelborn's Pet, $34.42; Dick- 

 son's Early Chester, $33.72. The five va- 

 rieties that made the largest yield of seed 

 cotton per acre were Dickson's Early Clus- 

 ter 1346; Peerless, 1223; Cochran's Pro- 

 lific, 1216; Texas Oak, 1196; Welborn's 

 Pet, 1195 pounds. Full particulars of 

 these and other tests with both cotton and 

 corn, are published in a recent bulletin of 

 Texas Experiment Station. Every farmer 

 should write for a copy, if his name is not 

 already on the station mail list. 



EARLY POTATOES. 



Early potatoes are the most profitable, 

 and the gain of a few days may make a 

 great difference in the value of a crop. 

 At the Kansas Agricultural College the 

 following experiments were made during 

 the past season. On Feb. 23, four of the 

 common green house seed flats were filled 

 with even sized tubers, placed on end with 

 the "seed end" or apex up, and were filled 

 around with sand, leaving the upper fourth 

 of the tubers exposed. Forty-four tubers 

 filled a flat and one flat each of the varie- 

 ties, White Ohio, Beauty of Hebron, Early 

 Harvest and Carman No. 1, was prepared. 

 These flats were set under a bench in a 

 cool propagating house where they received 



