THE IRRIGATION A GE. 



359 



estimate almost exactly what the results 

 will be. The farmer is released from all 

 the anxiety contingent upon climatic and 

 other accidents. 



"I believe the time is near when irri- 

 gation will be introduced into Eastern 

 Nebraska. Even where the rainfall is 

 practically certain, irrigation makes the 

 yield more certain, and from 15 to 50 per 

 cent, larger. I find a good deal more 

 alfalfa this year than last through 

 Nebraska. Many of the fields in which 

 the winter wheat was destroyed have been 

 put in alfalfa, especially in the valleys. 

 Farmers through Nebraska are paying a 

 good deal more attention to haying gener- 

 ally this year than ever before. They 

 realize that they have not been getting as 

 much out of this phase of farming as they 

 might. This year they are putting a 

 finer quality of hay on the market than in 

 the past. They are paying more attention 

 to the 'first cut.' something they have 

 practically ignored in the past. Why. the 

 South Omaha stock yards are today, and 

 have been for years, buying practically all 

 their hay from Kansas farmers, when they 

 would really prefer to purchase it in 

 Nebraska, for obvious and economic 

 reasons. 



''The company has been forced- to this, 

 because the Nebraska farmer in the past 

 has failed to prepare the quality of hay 

 the yards find it necessray to feed. The 

 management uses a fine quality which 

 Kansas farmers produce by cutting their 

 hay early, making two cuts of the crop. 

 The first cut is short, tender and juicy. 

 It takes a good deal of it to make a ton, 

 but it brings 15 per cent, tetter money 

 than the Nebraska farmers can hope to 

 get for their heavy grass, which they will 

 not cut until it is long and heavy and 

 weighs many more tons to the acre than 

 the short stuff. Of course, there is more 

 work attached to utilizing the first cut of 

 short grass, but it pays well. The 

 Nebraska farmer could easily sell the 

 South Omaha stock yards every pound of 

 grass they use if they would cultivate the 

 short light cut. better known as No. 1 

 upland. The Nebraska farmers are being 

 educated to this sort of thing this year, 

 and the indications are that in u short 

 time the thousands of tons of In y being 



shipped from Kansas into Nebraska will 

 be forced out of the home market by the 

 Nebraska hay. The stock yards people 

 have tried to tell the Nebraska farmers 

 something about this subject in the past, 

 but they do not seem to have grasped the 

 situation. If they do cultivate this light 

 short, cut grass crop it will mean the dis- 

 tribution of thousands of dollars in the 

 state which is annually sent out of the 

 state for the hay now. Ordinarily, the 

 Nebraska farmer lets his hay alone until 

 it becomes very heavy, and one cut is 

 sufficient to secure it all. He saves a 

 little time by this method, but he gets a 

 coarse quality of hay that stock will not 

 grow fat on, and which is not nutritious. 

 I am told by many farmers that they will 

 try the new plan in the future, and put the 

 short, light cut on the market early. 



"The farmers in the irrigated sections 

 are this year experimenting with sugar 

 beets, and the indications are that the 

 plan will work well. I find Nebraska 

 farmers giving a good deal of attention to 

 stock feeding this year. The corn crop 

 will probably be about 300,000,000 bushels, 

 and if it is the number of cattle fed in 

 Nebraska this fall will be something 

 enormous. There are today more than 

 1,000,000 cattle in this state, and as many 

 more hogs and sheep.'' 



AGAINST STATE CESSION. 

 In discussing the question of irrigating 

 the arid lands of the West, which ques- 

 tion has coine prominently to the front 

 during the past few years, the only im- 

 portant difference of opinion arises from 

 the sinallminority, who urge that these lands 

 should be ceded by the Federal Govern- 

 ment to the States and Territories in 

 which they are located. A leading advo- 

 cate of this policy in the West is Mr. 

 Murphy, the energetic and enterprising 

 Governor of Arizona. We have taken 

 strong ground against such policy, which 

 we believe would prove disastrous to those 

 who are looking for homes in the West, 

 although it would doubtless serve to 

 tnrich a few speculators. As showing 

 the danger of entrusting the handling of 

 such public plunder to State Legislatures. 



