1HL IRRIGATION AGE. 



165 



practically no corn of the crop of 1900 to 

 select from. In twenty-six counties in 

 central Kansas nearly a half million 

 bushels of seed corn will be needed. This 

 amount will be increased should the win- 

 ter wheat crop be injured to any great ex- 

 tent, as the acreage to corn will be larger 

 than is now anticipated. 



Much of the success of the 1902 corn 

 crop depends on the seed. Farmers will 

 be more painstaking than ever before in 

 selecting seed, as good returns cannot be 

 expected if an inferior quality is sown. 

 In buying common corn of no distinct 

 variety, as well as in buying the standard 

 varieties from seed corn growers, some 

 record-breaking prices are likely to be 

 paid before the end of the planting season. 

 Drovers' Journal. 



THE RETURN OF THE HORSE. 



Secretary Wilson has given some inter- 

 esting statistics on this subject. In 1868 

 the total number of horses in the country 

 was 5,756,940. They were valued at 

 $432,696,226. In 1892 the number had 

 increased to 15,498,140, and the valuation 

 to $1,007,500,636. In 1893 there were a 

 million more horses in the country, but 

 the value had declined, and this continued 

 in number as well as in valuation until 

 1897, when there were 14.364,667 horses, 

 with a value of $452,647,396, which showed 

 a shrinkage in value of more than 50 per 

 cent in five years. These were the years 

 when the trolley car and the bicycle were 

 crowding the horse, and his practical dis- 

 appearance was predicted. But in 1898 

 the horse began to rally. The number of 

 horses that year in the country was smaller 

 than for any of the eight previous, but 

 the value had increased to $478,362,407, 



In 1899, while the number was pretty 

 nearly the same, the value increased to 

 $511,074,813, and in 1900, while the 

 number of horses was about 200,000 less, 

 the valuation advanced to $603,969,442. 

 Secretary Wilson is among those who love 



the horse, and takes an optimistic view of 

 the horse's future. "No horseman," he 

 declares, "has ever lost his love for the 

 horse. The man who loves an automobile 

 is not the man who loves and breeds horses, 

 so that gallant animal will be with us 

 throughout the ages." 



A LESSON FOR ROCKY FORD. 



In the American Agriculturist prize 

 sugar beet competition, there were three 

 growers of Rocky Ford, Colo., each of 

 whom raised over thirty-five tons of beets 

 per acre. 



This is not to be dismissed by the 

 reader as "one of those newspaper big 

 crop yields," because there are given the 

 names, methods of cultivation, etc., all 

 sworn to before a magistrate. 



No grower in any other state reached 

 the thirty-ton mark. Why should the 

 growers of one single section so strikingly 

 exceed all others? Up to a certain point 

 all the competitors pursued the same plan 

 of heavy manuring and intensive cultiva- 

 tion. 



The Rocky Ford growers went a step 

 farther and gave their beet fields the irri- 

 gation common to that famous district. 

 The premium crop of over thirty-seven 

 tons had the water turned on twice. It 

 would have been irrigated once more but 

 for the coming of rain. The Gripe Belt. 



. ..! 



IMPORTANCE OF THE RICE 



INDUSTRY. 



The coming rice crop in Louisiana and 

 Texas will amount to about 3,000,000 

 sacks, and next year Texas will more than 

 double her acreage, which should then 

 yield fully 2,000,000 sacks in that state 

 alone. Bice planting in Louisiana will 

 also be on a more extended scale, the 

 most of which will be along the rirer, as 

 rice irrigated from -the Mississippi is of 

 much finer quality than that grown in the 

 southwestern part of Louisiana and Texas. 

 At present there are about thirty-five 



