THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



221 



So was he as Presicent. He performed 

 with dignity, conscientiousness, and cour- 

 age all the duties which devolved upon 

 him. All he did was done in strict ac- 

 cordance with his convictions. 



At the close of his term he withdrew 

 from the field of political activity and gave 

 himself up to the law. The Venezuelan 

 boundary dispute was one of the important 

 cases in which he took part. He was 

 counsel for the republic before the arbi- 

 tration tribunal which met at Paris. He 

 took little part in the discussion of politi- 

 cal questions until the controversy arose 

 as to the constitutional statis of our insular 

 possessions. His convictions compelled 

 him to differ from the policy of his party 

 and he was too sincere a man to hide his 

 views. As he was an admirable constitu- 

 tional lawyer the public listened respect- 

 fully to his arguments even when it did 

 not agree with them. The general ex- 

 pressions of sorrow which his death has 

 called forth show in what high esteem he 

 was held. 



The country has lost a man who served 

 it well in war and in peace, to whose name 

 no scandal attached, and whose sincerity 

 never was questioned. 



Rice Prof. Elmond Mead and Prof. 



Culture Frank Bond, experts in the 



Department of Agriculture, are making a 

 tour of Texas and Louisiana in the inter- 

 est of rice culture. In an interview in the 

 Houston Post, Prof. Mead said: 



"About four years ago congress made 

 an appropriation for the study of irriga- 

 tion and created the position of expert in 

 that line, adding it to the agricultural de- 

 partment. For three years thereafter the 

 expert studied irrigation in the arid reg- 

 ions, where crops are never grown to any 

 extent, save by the assistance of irriga- 

 tion. 



"Last} ear the department took up the 

 investigations in the humid and sub-humid 

 territory, and taught the farmers in Mis- 



souri, New Jersey and Wisconsin to make 

 several blades of grass grow where none 

 had grown before. Every place the agri- 

 cultural department has assisted in this 

 matter has been benefited. 



"We have decided to see what assist- 

 anco we can render the rice growers of 

 Texas and Louisiana, and Prof. Bond is 

 here for that purpose. He will spend 

 most of the summer here investigating the 

 system you have of cultivating crops of all 

 sorts, especially rice. Prof. Bond will 

 study the question in all its phases. The 

 canals, the flow of water, the expense, the 

 sort of machinery, etc., will all be thor- 

 oughly tested and a bulletin issued by the 

 government upon that subject. 



"I know of no place that needs expert 

 service of this sort more than does this 

 territory. It is a country of wonderful 

 possibilities. Rice culture as carried on 

 here is far ahead of the little portions of 

 South Carolina which grow it There 

 they cultivate it by hand, and from the 

 time the seeds are sown until the cereal is 

 reaped and threshed and bagged the most 

 primitive methods are used. It is cut with 

 a hand sickle and sown and hauled off with 

 an ox, shod with raw-hide shoes the 

 shoes are to keep the ox from getting lost 

 in the mud. As carried on there it is not 

 profitable at all. 



"Prof. Bond will investigate the quan- 

 tity of water it requires to irrigate an 

 acre. We find that there is a great dif- 

 ference of opinion on this score. Some 

 use, for instance, six gallons a minute, 

 while others use thirteen, and so on. 

 This will be tested. He will measure the 

 losses by evaporation. The bulletin which 

 will be issued by the government will 

 give all the results of these experiments. 

 Also the complete rice district of the 

 Southwest, the value of the crop, the 

 money invested and other things relative 

 thereto." 



