344 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Spuds Will Make a Man Rich in the Scotts Bluff Country. 



comparison. The Scotts Bluff lands will never make the or- 

 chards of the west slope of Colorado, nor of Washington and 

 Idaho, but there is everything to show that one can make 

 comparison with the famous Greeley district. The regularity 

 of the land in this North Platte is unusual, there being miles 

 of laterals following section lines, thus eliminating much of the 

 waste land common in the districts nearer the mountains. So 

 far as soil is concerned, it is in no way inferior to the Greeley 

 soil and will undoubtedly produce potatoes of as good a qual- 

 ity and in as great a quantity per acre. In this respect it is 

 superior to the Fort Collins, Loveland and Longmont dis- 

 tricts, which grow no spuds. It is also better than the Fort 

 Morgan and Sterling districts in this same respect, growing 

 beets, alfalfa, oats, cabbage, wheat, onions and all vegetables 

 in as great quantity and of as good quality as any other dis- 

 trict, and also growing the potatoes. 



The opportunities for future development seem unlimited. 

 Heretofore the beets have been shipped to Colorado factories, 



The Check Gates of the Tri-State Canal Are as Solid as Steel and Cement Can Make Them. 



made a success of it, all local conditions having been care- 

 fully considered. In Morrill county is the orchard of R. F. 

 Durnal. near Bayard. It has received considerable attention 

 from Nebraska pomologists and is considered a horticultural 

 phenomenon, being the furthest western orchard in Nebraska. 

 It is only nine years old and has born fruit since the fourth 

 year. The trees are set so close that there is only passage- 

 way between limbs, and the ground has a dust mulch, holding 

 moisture to such an extent that irrigation will not be neces- 

 sary this year, and there was but one last year. All kinds of 

 apples raised in Nebraska are grown in this orchard. Mr. 

 Durnal's orchard is on bottom land, hence subject to frost, 

 but the trees are headed low and very little trimming done on 

 the interior of the shrubbery, the trees forming their own pro- 

 tection against frost. The owner says if he were planting an- 

 other orchard he would put it on the table lands, rather than 

 on the bottom. This might require more water, but there 

 would be less danger in the late frosts. 



Naturally, those who have seen the irrigated lands of 

 other states, particularly those of Colorado, are prone to make 



Moonlight on the North Platte River at Scotts Bluff. 



