THE LARGEST SASSAFRAS TREE 233 



to twenty acres, improved with water developed, may be purchased, close in, 

 at $125.00 to $150.00 per acre. 



Cost of wells and pumps: A well, pump and 35 H. P. electric motor, 

 sufficient to successfully irrigate 150 to 200 acres, costs $2,300 to $2,600. The 

 same well costs from $400 to $600 more when driven by a 40 H. P. gasoline 

 engine, a crude oil engine being slightly more expensive than either, which 

 is overcome by a cheaper operating expense. 



Cost of putting water on the ground : Getting right down to brass tacks, 

 in order that a child may understand and computing the cost of 100 or more 

 large and small successful pumping plants, it costs a half cent to pump 1,000 

 gallons of water, a season's irrigation, costing from $3.00 to $9.00 per acre, 

 according to the amount of water required for various crops and the skill 

 of the irrigator. These figures are based on electricity at 3 cents per K. W., 

 engine naphtha at 12 cents, and crude oil at 6 cents per gallon, and with the 

 increasing consumption all of these products are getting cheaper. 



Plowing and irrigation are carried on every week in the year, and in 

 most of the market gardens, vegetables are grown the year 'round. Winter 

 irrigation for spring and summer crops is gaining in favor. 



*From an address at the National Irrigation Congress. 



THE LARGEST SASSAFRAS TREE 



BY ADIOLA GRAY 



'EVERAL months ago the statement was made by the Department of 

 Agriculture that the largest sassafras tree in the world grows in the 

 yard of the First Methodist Church in the city of Atlanta, Ga. According 

 to the reckoning of experts this tree is more than one hundred years old. 

 It is fifty feet high and has a spread of more than forty feet. Printed re- 

 ports conflict as to the size in circumference; one giving it as seven and a 

 half feet, and another as being eleven feet. 



The discovery has recently been made that there is a tree of this species 

 growing on the farm of James M. Jenkins, near Glendale, Hardin Co., Ky., 

 which is much larger. The height and age of this tree have not been reckoned, 

 but it has a circumference of fifteen feet one-half foot above the ground, and 

 is fourteen feet in circumference eight feet above the ground where the first 

 limb is given off. Judging from the great size of this tree it must be even 

 older than the one growing in Atlanta. 



To provide for carrying out an agreement under which South Dakota 

 school lands will be exchanged for National Forest land of equal area and 

 value, President Taft has signed a proclamation which makes it possible for 

 the State to select immediately 60,143 acres of land from the Barney and Sioux 

 National Forests. 



