216 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 



thinned them later on, transplanting the best of the thinners. My 

 first crop, four acres, planted October 1, 1898, and maturing April 15, 

 was 65,000 pounds. The crop planted in October, 1899, was almost a 

 failure, six acres producing 54,000 pounds. The failure was caused 

 by too much rain falling right on top of the irrigation. Still the crop 

 brought $850. With the next crop, planted Oct. 1; 1900, I woke up to- 

 the fact that it was better and cheaper to plant the seed in a seed-bed 

 and at two months transplant the whole thing. The yield turned out 

 21,000 pounds per acre or 147,000 pounds on seven acres; which sold at 

 2i cents per pound f. o. b, here. Some land not fertilized yielded 

 only 10,000 pounds per acre, but fortunately there was but one acre of 

 such poor quality, and another piece of new land, but without fer- 

 tilizer, yielded 20,000 pounds per acre, and some land that has been 

 fairly well fertilized yielded 31,500 pounds per acre. This last yield 

 at price sold at 2i cents brought $703 per acre, quite a difference in 

 favor of the use of fertilizers. I am, therefore, a first-class crank on 

 fertilization. 



The Bermuda onion is the only variety that has proved a success 

 here. No northern variety will succeed at all here. I have tried 

 them all; the Bermuda matures in 200 days, other varieties require 

 from 220 to 270 days. Onions here, to prove a success, must be de- 

 veloped before the extreme heat of May and June comes on, otherwise 

 they won't keep, and will be more or less rotten in the field. Prices, 

 too, are always better in April and May. We have an ideal onion 

 county; never cold enough to injure them at all, hardly any rain, and 

 a very dry climate 400 feet above sea level. 



I make a specialty of onions, as they are the only crop that can be 

 grown through the winter. If cabbage is at exactly the right stage 

 when the cold comes, it can stand it, but if not, it will surely be killed 

 or seriously injured. This was the case in December last. The first 

 planted came through all right, but the later planted was killed, and 

 there was not a frost since December 15. Onions were not hurt at ail. 

 Besides onions, I raise both sweet and Irish potatoes, grapes, mus- 

 cats, cantaloupes, and vegetables of any kind except beans, for all of 

 which we have a fairly good local market. 



There are a great many beef steers fed on cotton meal and hulls 

 in Texas, and the best manure is obtained from these feed lots. Sixty 

 tons per acre is not too much if put on four or five months before 

 planting tim3, and irrigated so that it will be leached to some extent 

 before onion planting time in December. All farm journals, in giving 

 the farmers advice as to how to usa ferbiliz3rs, tell us to apply so 

 much well-rotted manure, but I want it to leach and rot in the ground 

 where the crop is to grow. Sixty tons of manure on an acre is suffi- 

 cient, in my opinion, for two and perhaps three years. 



