100 



THE IRRIGATION AGL. 



curate, for the reason that the system for 

 collecting facts is imperfect, in that it 

 does not provide a penalty for neglect on 

 the part of assessors to furnish a portion 

 of the information desired. 



GRAFTING. 



As an example of how far grafting may 

 be carried on and how successful one may 

 be in grafting one plant upon another very 

 different one, the Literary Digest of recent 

 date gives a picture of a tomato vine grafted 

 onto the stem of a potato. This experi- 

 ment was successfully performed by a 

 Frenchman named Balbet, proving that 

 even vegetables of short life may be 

 grafted if they belong to the same family, 

 as do these two vegetables. "The water- 

 gorged tissue of the potato thus serve as a 

 reservoir for the tomato in case of dry 

 weather." 



The curious part of grafting, to my mind 

 is, that while a certain plant or tree may 

 be grafted on to another with perfect re- 

 sults, it is often impossible to transpose 

 the two and have any success at all. As 

 an example of this the pear-tree may be 

 grafted upon the apple and grow and 

 thrive for years, while the apple will not 

 succeed upon the pear. Old as the art of 

 grafting is and it is probably as old as 

 nature itself, as natural grafts are often 

 seen in the woods the explanation of this 

 fact has never been found. 



GRAY WOLVES. 



The stockmen of Western Nebraska, 

 South Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming are 

 having a vast amount of trouble with gray 

 wolves, which are very numerous, and so 

 destructive to cattle that they intend to 

 have a convention to talk the matter over 

 and see if some plan cannot be devised for 

 ridding the country of the pests. In 

 Western Nebraska they are particularly 

 numerous, and stockmen have tried poison, 

 the cowboys carry revolvers and shoot 

 wolves when seen, and while in this way it, 

 is estimated that about 10,000 wolves are 



annually destroyed in the region embiaced 

 by the ranges in Nebraska, the ranchman 

 still lose about 9 per cent of their herds 

 each year by wolves. The losses are in- 

 creasing yearly and the stockmen say that 

 the gray wolf is becoming as great a curse 

 to Northwestern Nebraska as the jack- 

 rabbit is to Australia. Coyotes are num- 

 erous, but are so small that they cannot 

 succeed in overpowering the cattle and 

 dragging them down, but get in their work 

 if they find the cattle lying down from any 

 cause, when the little coyetes will pounce 

 upon them and soon eat them, hide and all. 



POTATO BLIGHT. 



The potato crop of the past year in com- 

 parison with that of 1895-1896 is very 

 much smaller and prices are correspond- 

 ingly higher. In the years mentioned the 

 crop was simply enormous and supply 

 greatly exceeded demand, so that in some 

 states potatoes sold for from 10 to 25 

 cents per bushel, while now they bring 

 from 50 to 75 cents. 



The cause of this shortage inea 



measure due to disease known as blight, 

 which causes the potato to rot. In this 

 connection Bulletin 140, issued by the 

 Cornell University Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station at Ithaca, N. Y., gives valu- 

 able information as to the treatment of 

 this disease, based upon experiments tried 

 there. Notwithstanding that this has 

 been an "off" year for potatoes, the experi- 

 ment station succeeded in raising one of 

 the best crops grown in three years, and 

 that, too, without the lavish use of fertil- 

 izers, which some consider so necessary. 

 No fertilizer had been applied for four 

 years, but great pains were taken in pre- 

 paring the ground, planting the seed and 

 tending it afterward. The soil was plowed 

 early and harrowed frequently; the finest, 

 most perfect potatoes were selected and 

 cut in large pieces, instead of merely cut- 

 ting out the eye and plantingthat as many 

 farmers do, each piece containing one or 

 two strong buds. The rows were wide 

 and deep, and five or six days after plant- 



