I94 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



Sugar beets, sugar cane, cotton, and will be obtained for this class of 



tobacco can doubtless be produced here products. 



successfully, and other products of the Grapes will undoubtedly do well 



soil would thrive and produce in greater here, as the writer saw one vineyard 



of seedless Sultanas which was said to 

 have been planted in the spring of 

 1902, and was in first-class condition 

 and bearing. 



The date palm will undoubtedly thrive 

 better here than elsewhere in the United 

 States, and Professor Swingle, of the 

 United States Department of Agricult- 

 ure, is the authority for the statement 

 that the " Deglet Noor," the celebrated 

 dessert date that retails in this country 



abundance than on irrigated lands else- 

 where in California. 



The writer found wheat and barley to 

 be the principal crops at present. These 

 are taken from the ground in the early 

 summer, and the ground is again planted 

 to maize, sorghum, or millet, all of 

 which will make good crops before the 

 close of the season. 



The average yield of grain in the val- 

 ley is very high, and that of wheat 

 is said to be forty 

 bushels to the acre, 

 while barley is said 

 to yield as much as 

 fifty bushels per acre, 

 and the writer was 

 informed by growers 

 that they found a 

 ready market for both 

 of these crops in Cali- 

 fornia and Arizona. 

 The annual yield of 

 wheat and barley has 

 been from $25 to $30 

 to the acre, to say 

 nothing of the second 

 crop which these 

 lands will produce. 



Alfalfa is also one 

 of the great crops of 

 the valley, and I was 

 surprised to find so 

 small an acreage de- 

 voted to this great 

 Western crop, when I learned from those for fifty cents a pound, will prove a 

 raising it that the returns were so large. paying venture in the Imperial Valley. 

 Alfalfa is here cut from four to eight The government has already established 



TWO YEARS AND FOUR MONTHS PRIOR TO TAKING THIS PHOTO 

 THERE WAS NEITHER WATKR, TREE, NOR MAN AT THIS POINT. 



times a year, and a reasonable estimate 

 is from one to two tons of cured hay per 

 acre at each cutting. A field yielding 

 six cuttings per year and one and a half 

 tons at each cutting means nine tons 



an experimental farm at Heber, Cali- 

 fornia, about ten miles south of the 

 town of Imperial. 



Sugar beets and rice have both been 

 grown in an experimental way and are 



annually. This alfalfa hay has a ready found to grow successfully, while early 



sale at from $9 to $12 per ton. 



The writer is of the opinion that this 

 is destined to become a fruit country 

 also, as all kinds of fruit grown here 

 will ripen several weeks in advance of 

 the same varieties grown in the coast 

 valleys of southern California, and 



vegetables grown here will practically 

 have the whole United States for a 

 market. 



The valley is reached by the Imperial 

 Branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad, 

 which was built in from Old Beach on 

 the main line to handle the freight and 



hence good prices and ready markets passenger traffic of the valley. 



