THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



will not tolerate the hoodlum manners 

 learned in their Christian homes, with 

 scarcely even a mild protest of their too 

 indulgent parents. 



WINTER ON THE FARM. 

 A great many people think that winter 

 on the farm is all leisure and no work, 

 but that is all wrong. There is more care 

 in winter than in summer. A farmer to 

 be successful must feed all, or nearly all 

 of his crops at home in order to get the 

 top price for his product, unless he raises 

 wheat altogether, which is rare. Where 

 a farmer has to sell his grain in the fall he 

 is compelled to take the going price, 

 which is at that time always the lowest. 

 He must haul it to market and stand all 

 the waste in handling as well as wearing 

 out his team, and a farmer will never 

 make a success by doing so. To be suc- 

 cessful he must raise or buy enough young 

 stock of a kind that will grow and fatten 

 with proper care and feed, and then Avatch 

 them constantly, early and late, and note 

 the improvement every day. He cannot 

 lie abed mornings even though his stock 

 have a warm, comfortable stable, for as 

 soon as it begins to lighten up, they will 

 be looking for something to eat, and if 

 they do not get it will be restless and un- 

 easy, which will not help to fatten any 

 creature. By watchful care a man will 

 be able to discern the improvement in his 

 stock from day to day, and by keeping 

 track of feed consumed will soon be able 

 to tell if he is making or losing money. A 

 man should never leave his stock alone 

 long at a time for they get lonesome and 

 consequently uneasy, they soon begin to 

 look for their servant and feel more con- 

 tent when they can see him among them 

 or hear him. Some farmers think all 

 they have got to do is to throw the catlle 

 a little feed in the morning and go off to 

 the woods after a load of fuel, or hitch up 

 and go to town and gossip with their 

 neighbors, just so they can get back at 

 night time enough to throw them another 

 feed before going to bed. But it won't 



work. No farmer ever made a success so 

 and never will. Constant, unceasing care 

 is required to make a prosperous farmer, 

 and even more so in the winter than in 

 summer. 



EVAPORATORS. 



The evaporator must come as a means 

 of relief from the extortions of the greedy 

 transportation companies. It is the only 

 salvation now in sight, although canneries 

 may come later and will no doxibt prove a 

 boon. Evaporation permits every fruit 

 grower to become a manufacturer and the 

 railroads will not get the hauling of so 

 much water as in fresh fruits, the most of 

 which are eighty per cent aqueous. One 

 man in Delta county, I. Van Baalen, had 

 a Zimmerman machine operating in his 

 orchard this fall putting up 900 pounds 

 of dried peaches. 



SUGAR BEETS. 



According to a bulletin on the sugar 

 beet issued by the United States depart- 

 ment of agriculture, beets do best after 

 wheat or some other cereal. A good 

 scheme of rotation is, first, wheat then 

 beets ; then clover, one crop of which is 

 cut for hay and the second crop plowed 

 under ; then potatoes, wheat and beets in 

 the order mentioned. By this method, 

 and a judicious use of stall manure and 

 commercial fertilizers, the fertility of th e 

 soil can be maintained and even increased. 

 Beets should follow wheat or other cereal 

 crop, because this crop, being harvested 

 early, leaves the ground ready for late 

 autumn plowing, a prerequisite to success- 

 ful beet culture. 



A PLEA FOR THE FORESTS. 

 New York Tribune : The lumber in- 

 dustry cannot, of course, be abolished. 

 But it is high time such regulations were 

 adopted and rigidly enforced as will pre- 

 vent the utter destruction of forests. 

 That is entirely possible. Not the mere 

 amount of lumber cut, but the amount 



