20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



is just as good as those I had when I was a boy, — full-fla- 

 vored, sweet and round, small in size. 



I heard the Gibraltar onion could not be grown this side of 

 Texas, so of course I tried it. It matured in September, and 

 our yield was 1,035 bushels to the acre. It is a tremendous 

 onion, with a very big neck, and far sweeter than any onion 

 I have ever tasted. Many things we thought we couldn't 

 grow until we planted the seed, and then we found they did 

 very nicely. 



Sometimes we try things that are of no value, but some are 

 extremely valuable. The Savoy cabbage is harder to raise 

 than others, but it brings a great deal more money. You can 

 grow a poor potato, like the Irish Cobbler, or you can get one 

 that is just as good as the old Early Rose, and get whatever 

 price you choose for it. For me, I prefer a potato like the 

 Quick Lunch, for we got $2.50 a bushel for them this year. 

 You see we got them the first of July, and nobody else got 

 potatoes until the first of September. For three years I got 

 cauliflower into the ISTew York market ahead of Maryland. 



I once attended a meeting in Chicago that was all west. 

 The spellbinders got up and praised their country, and the cry 

 was that they must pull out from under the domination of the 

 east. The man who did the best came from Texas, the most 

 Godforsaken spot on earth, and you would have thought it 

 was the Garden of Eden, Avith the snakes left out. Why, I 

 have cut the spineless cactus in Texas long before Burbank 

 invented it, to get water for myself and my horse, — or rather 

 for my horse and myself, for when you lose your horse down 

 there, you are gone, you can't get out. That was in 1893, so 

 I don't believe Burbank created it in 1907. Man can help 

 along, he can cross animals and plants and improve them, but 

 not create anything, — never, never ! They pay $30 an acre 

 for irrigation in the west, and our boys are going out there to 

 take up that land. They can do better here, if they will re- 

 member to keep the soil sweet with lime, and gTow green 

 crops to furnish the hninus that we lack. The finest crop of 

 cabbages I ever raised was on $1.20 worth of clover seed, but 

 I had a hard time to prevent that clover from being cut for 



