THE IRRIGATION AGE. 225 



who possesses the largest pile of manure; in another, a story of Esqui- 

 maux life, it is fish-hooks. In London it is gold. The farmer in the 

 arid or semi arid regions, will by and by learn that with him it is water. 

 Then he will conserve and use water with higher skill and intelligence. 

 There is no region in which, little as he may think of it, water is not of 

 supreme value to the agriculturist, nor where oy increasing its supply 

 to the soil during the growing season, he may not only make certain his 

 crop, but vastly increase the amount and value of his product. I have 

 dwelt, however, so fully upon this topic in my paper on Supplemental 

 Irrigation, before this body at its last meeting, that I 'pass it now with 

 the mere statement that irrigation will pay and pay well anywhere, even 

 in the best of the so-called humid regions. How much more essential 

 therefore where rainfall is uncertain or irregular. 



It is a fact worth noting that much valuable moisture precipitates 

 during the fall, winter and spring months when it cannot be utilized or- 

 dinarily. Is there not some crop with which we can utilize this? I owe 

 a valuable lesson in this to Mr. J. W. Orr. one of your delegates and 

 former member of the Board of Trustees at Kankakee, where most of 

 my work in agriculture and dairying was done. He suggested the sow- 

 ing uf rye on corn ground immediately on the removal of the corn; not 

 with any intention of growing a rye crop, but for use as a fall and winter 

 pasture, and as a fertilizing mulch when ploughing under in the spring. 

 I was immensely pleased with the result as will any one be who tries it. 

 Let enough rye mature each year to furnish seed for the next fall's 

 sowing. 



It will be seen from the figures given that roughly speaking as an 

 average in the region mentioned about three-tenths of the years may be 

 termed unfruitful. This varies much as I am aware from east to west, 

 the ratio being more favorable in the most eastern portions where it is 

 less, than in the western portions where it is more. I have struck what 

 I believe is a fair average on a full crop basis. In other words, we will 

 say that the farmer is constantly in danger, (as he is in varying degree 

 in nearly all other regions) of losing his crop or having it reduced in 

 amount below his reasonable expectations. But the average fruitful- 

 ness stands the same from year to year. Now is there not some means 

 by which he can adjust his consumption to the average fruitfulness rather 

 than to one which is fitful and irregular in the extreme? I answer yes, 

 and suggest the use of the silo and that he engage more largely in stock 

 raising, dairying, etc. I am hardly telling any one here anything new 

 when I speak of the silo. I am merely making a plea for its more ex- 

 tended use and on behalf of its peculiar adaptability to the region in 

 question. The silo is merely a kind of house in which, and a method 

 by which forage plants may be preserved in a green and succulent state 

 for an indefinite period. I know of one silo, and have myself constructed 

 one, from which ensilage was taken after three years storage and was 

 found to' be juicy, sweet and nutritious. The Germans have used 



