PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. 



RESULTS IN PECOS VALLEY. 



The Pecos Valley has made substantial 

 progress this year, and is today as tangible 

 a proof of what irrigation can accomplish 

 in an arid waste as any irrigated district 

 in America. Not only has the land been 

 thoroughly reclaimed from its original 

 state of barren desolation through the in- 

 strumentality of irrigation, but it has 

 been made to give wonderful results and 

 develop a fertility that cannot be excelled 

 anywhere. 



The enormous peach crop this year is 

 proof of this. The yield was so large that 

 not above one-half will be harvested. The 

 fruit ripened in the big orchards faster 

 than it could be handled and tons and 

 tons have gone to waste. The size at- 

 tained by some varieties seems almost in- 

 credible and many "Albertas" weighed a 

 full pound and measured twelve inches 

 around and possessed an anequalled flavor. 

 A number of cars were shipped east, some 

 as far north as St. Paul, Minn. 



This immense crop of fine fruit will do 

 the valley more good, spread broadcast 

 over the country as this has been, than all 

 the advertisements that could be given it. 



T p to August 1st the Irrigation Co. 

 supplied the farmers with about two acre 

 feet of wateron the average. This was dis- 

 tributed over 9, QUO acres of land. Last 

 year the number of acres irrigated was 

 8,881. Of the 9,000 acres irrigated this 

 year, 4,000 are in alfalfa, 3,000 in forage 

 crops, such as cane, Egyptian corn and 

 grass, and 2,000 in orchards. 



The two great lakes belonging to the 



Irrigation Co., Lake Avaion and Lake 



McMillan, are both at high water mark, 



and have been so all summer. 



The alfalfa yield this season will be 



fully up to that of any former year, about 

 five tons to the acre and some of the fields 

 will stand five cuttings. 



The climate this bummer has been very 

 pleasant, the hot days being very few and 

 far between and the mercury at night has 

 not gone over 60 with an average of 55. 

 Last winter, that is between the 13th of 

 December. '99 and the 13th of March, 

 1900 the daily average wag just 55 above 

 and for the nights the mercury seldom 

 fell below 42. . 



GEO. H. HUTCHINS. 



IRRIGATED RICE FIELDS. 



The most productive rice lands are 

 always irrigated. Over a hundred thou- 

 sand acres of rice are irrigated iu Louisiana, 

 and the mrthod employed by the planters 

 place them at the head of the world in rice 

 culture. Their advantage lies iu irrigating 

 in such manner that they can cut their 

 crops by machine instead of by the ordi- 

 nary method uf the hanu sickle. Rice 

 irrigation contemplates a complete flooding 

 of the field and leaving the roots under 

 water, rice being an equatic plant. This 

 being the case the only way left for har- 

 vesting is for the negroes to wade into the 

 marsh and cut the grain by hand. The 

 Louisiana planters, however, lay their 

 fields off in plates and throw up furrows 

 around them, forming little walls or levees. 

 Then at the proper time the water is 

 turned in and rice grows. When the grain 

 is justabout matured, these minature walls 

 are broken down, and the water run off. 



After several days the ground is dry and 

 firm enough to allow horses and machines 

 to go upon it and harvest it as they would 

 wheat or other grains. This places the 

 rice crop of Louisiana abreast of these 

 other crops, whereas under the old method 

 it is a hundred years to the rear. What 

 would next year's wheat crop be if its har- 

 vest were dependent upon sickles? And 

 yet with the exception of these Louisiana 

 fields, the rice crop of the South is today 

 irrigated and cut as it was a century before 

 Brigham Young's followers laid out theii 

 first ditch in the wilds of Utah. 



