THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



In diversified farming' by irrig-ationcHes the salvation oftagriaulture. 



THE AGE wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with 

 this object in view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and pic- 

 tures of fields, orchards and farm homes', prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs r 

 Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns hen houses, corn cribs r 

 etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, such as ditch c.eaners and watering troughs. 

 A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help 

 us improve the appearance of THE AGE? 



LAND AND PRODUCTS AN EXHAUS- 

 TIVE ANALYSES. 



No. H. 

 PRODUCTS OF THE SOIL. 



According to promise I will devote this 

 letter largely to the ordinary products of 

 the soil. In may countries the farmers 

 depend on one or two varieties as money 

 producing crops. In the warm climate of 

 the southwest the varieties are greatly en- 

 larged. There they produce all the crops 

 common to the temperate and semi-tropi- 

 cal climates and in her virgin sofl the 

 yield is much larger than in the exhausted 

 soil of the old settled regions. In favored 

 localities out there wheat will average 40 

 bushels to the acre. According to the offi- 

 cial report of the Department of Agricult- 

 ure atWashington the average yield of the 

 older states in the Union runs from 7.9 to 

 21. 5 bushels, or an all round average of 13.4 

 bushels an acre. Oats in the virgin soil 

 of the Southwest will average from 70 to 

 75 bushels and sometimes run as high as 

 90 bushels an acre, which is quite a third 

 more than the yield in the East. Corn 

 yields about the same as oats; barley, rye, 

 peas also yield about a third more in the 

 Southwest than in the East. Potatoes 

 average from 8 to 10 tons to the acre and 

 the whole line of vegetables keep pace 

 with potatoes. Alfalfa averages 6 tons an 

 acre. All tame and wild grasses thrive 

 and yield well. 



Sugar beets excel not only in quantity 

 but in saccharine matter, ranging much 

 higher than in Europe. According to 

 figures at hand the world's total sugar 

 production in 1896 was 7,000,000 tons, of 

 which 60 per cent, was from sugar beets. 

 As an illustration of the rapid growth of 

 the industry we note that in 1887 the 

 United States produced 400,000 pounds ; 

 in 1888 we produced 3.600,000 pounds; in 

 1889, 6,000,000 pounds; in 1890, 8,000.000- 

 pounds; in 1891, 43,000,000 pounds and 

 so on up to the present writing. Last 

 year California alone produced that 

 amount. Nebraska comes next with 

 6,970,780 pounds, and other sugar pro- 

 ducing states follow with smaller lots. 

 In the old world they produce 7 to 8 tons 

 of beets to the acre, but we produce 20 

 tons and often more. In the old world 

 the laud is enormously high in price ; here- 

 in the Southwest it is cheap. There the 

 average is from 7 to 9 per cent saccharine 

 matter; here it is from 17 to 20 per cent. 

 The average price of beet roots here is 

 from $4.50 to $5.00 per ton. 



The Southwest is the home of the- 

 canaigre plant. In Mexico, Texas, New 

 Mexico and Arizona it grows wild, but 

 produces much more and a better article 

 under cultivation. It is in constant de- 

 mand in the markets of Europe and Amer- 

 ica for tanning leather, as it is much 

 better than the barks and other substances' 



