OUR CROPS 67 



supply is assured, a report of yields to the 

 acre of corn can be more accurately rendered. 

 At present the yield varies too much with 

 each year. Most vegetables grow with vigour, 

 though, to be strictly impartial, not to greater 

 size or in greater luxuriance than elsewhere. 

 There are some, such as the potato, which 

 need special care in irrigating. Onions and 

 sweet potatoes are, perhaps, the champion 

 vegetable crops, tomatoes merely being as 

 luscious as they are in most parts of the 

 United States, and as plentiful which, how- 

 ever, to the English idea means a good deal. 

 Carloads of canned tomatoes are shipped from 

 this place in the early winter. The famous 

 Georgia water-melon has yet, it is asserted, 

 to find its peer ; but its prototype, exhibited 

 at a recent territorial fair as grown in the 

 Territory, was a tolerable specimen, weighing 

 71 pounds 4 ounces. 



Small fruits with the exception of straw- 

 berries, which succeed admirably are a trifle 

 discouraging. Having had no experience 

 with small fruits in this climate, I can only 

 speculate on the causes for failure. Neigh- 

 bours an elderly couple without children 



52 



