THE IRKIGATION AGE. 



135 



Poultry thrives and is profitable in any 

 California. of the Pacific coast States. The Old Hen 

 is always a valuable aid to civilization 

 and prosperity. 



California's mineral output is about $30,000,000 

 annually. Since gold was discovered there in 1848 the 

 value of that metal mined in that State has amounted 

 to the enormous sum of $1,500,000,000. 



California has a high-class educational system, in- 

 cluding two great universities, the State and Stanford. 

 The State is at Berkeley, near San Francisco, and 

 Stanford is about an hour's ride south, at Palo Alto. 

 Stanford was severely shaken by the earthquake, but 

 the school work was not suspended. 



Owing to the abundance of petroleum in California 

 the crude oil is generally used for fuel by railroads, 

 coastwise steamers, factories and for heating buildings. 

 As California has no coal to speak of, this fuel oil is a 

 very fortunate thing for the State. 



It snows worth while on the lofty peaks of the 

 Sierra Nevada mountains, two miles or more in alti- 

 tude. A record of 697 feet in a season has been made 

 at Summit a depth of about two city blocks. "The 

 Beautiful" also descends liberally on Mount Shasta and 

 the North Coast range. This snow is wealth, too, for 

 it means an abundant and unfailing supply of water 

 for irrigation and electrical power. Little snow falls 

 in San Joaquin valley or on the low levels of southern 

 California, and what does come soon melts. 



When we published the other day the fact that the 

 government had withdrawn 13,500,000 acres af land 

 in Colorado for forest reservations we naturally sup- 

 posed everybody would be satisfied and were assured 

 that no further drafts would be made. We naturally 

 supposed that with one-fifth of the total area of the 

 State taken in this way that Uncle Sam ought to be 

 content ; but it seems not, and the bond has been broken 

 by the further segration this week of 605,600 acres of 

 unalienated lands in western Colorado from all forms of 

 disposal under the public land laws, as an addition to 

 the TTncompahgre forest reserve. The lands include a 

 part of the Uncompahgre plateau as well as some of the 

 San Miguel valley on which a tree can not be found for 

 stretches of many miles. The land extends from a 

 point south of Montrose westward to the boundary of 

 Utah. The Uncompahgre forest reserve now comprises 

 more than a million acres. As the old Ute Indian 

 reservation which occupied the greater part of the 

 western slope contained something less than eleven 

 million acres, it begins to look as if Uncle Sam was try- 

 ing to hedge by segregating more than fourteen million 

 acres for the funny purposes of reforestation, which is 

 developing into a good deal of a farce to those who 

 make a study of such things. Fully twenty-five per cent 

 more land than we took away from the poor old Utes 

 has now been taken away from us by our paternal 

 government, all of which means that we of Colorado are 

 not getting a square deal. We certainly will not be 

 counted in the running after Mr. Roosevelt gets his 

 leasing bill through Congress, for then nothing will be 

 left to the unfortunate settlers who would like to come 

 and help us to populate the State. Field and Farm. 



PROGRESS IN THE GREAT STATE OF TEXAS. 



Every well-informed person knows that Texas is of 

 great territorial area, yet few really grasp its immense 

 scope and vast productive possibilities. 



It is nearly thirty-two times the size of Massachu- 

 setts, almost equal in area to five/such great states as 

 Iowa. v 



Its governor estimated its population on January 

 1, 1907, at 3,600,000, a growth since 1900 of 551,290. 

 That increase exceeds the entire population of Florida 

 or Colorado in 1900 and nearly equals that of Maine. 



And the state is filling up rapidly, from the North 

 mainly. 



The farms, factories and mines of Texas produced 

 for sale last year, at cost prices, an output of fully 

 $700,000,000, enough to build 14,000 miles of railroad 

 costing $50,000 per mile, a line about two-thirds around 

 the globe ! And it is reasonably certain that the state 

 will double that tremendous yield within ten years. 



GREATEST COTTON PRODUCER ON EARTH. 



The cotton suply of the world in 1905-6 was placed 

 at 14,072,000 bales of 500 pounds each. 



Of that quantity the United States grew 11,319,860 

 bales 80 per cent. And of the yield of this country, 

 Texas sold 2,525,000 bales, or about 23 per cent of all 

 harvested in this nation, and over 18 per cent of the 

 total supply of the world. In 1904-5 Texas sold 3,235,- 

 000 bales, over 20 per cent of the world's output. The 

 crop for 1906 was worth over $126,250,000 to the 

 grower. 



In 1900 the census showed Texas as the second 

 state in the union in value of live stock. It produces 

 corn, wheat, oats and the grasses with great success. 



Around the Gulf and in southeast Texas generally 

 truck gardening is growing into a very profitable em- 

 ployment. There all kinds of vegetables are produced 

 in January, February and the spring months for the 

 northern market, and prices are good, of course. Car- 

 loads of strawberries were on the market in January and 

 February from those fields. 



Excellent literature on this subject can be procured 

 from the Southern Pacific Railway company at Houston, 

 Texas, or any of its northern offices. The Rock Island 

 company also has fine descriptive pamphlets concerning 

 the truck farming in the Gulf coast region. 



RICE GROWING IN TEXAS. 



One of the comparatively new industries of Texas, 

 and one that promises to be of great importance is the 

 cultivation of rice. 



The Southern Pacific company also has excellent 

 books on the methods of production and results realized 

 in rice growth. The details are too lengthy for this 

 article. 



But it may be stated in a general way that this 

 promises to be one of the most important' branches of 

 irrigation in this country. Rice is grown in water three 

 or four inches deep, kept standing for about three 

 months. 



It is estimated that at least 2,000,000 acres of land 

 in the state can be thus irrigated. By "slouch" farm- 

 ing, the shiftless, careless variety, the yield is about 

 nine barrels per acre. By careful, diligent work, fifteen 

 or more barrels can be realized jiist as well. 



Japanese in Texas harvest around twenty barrels, 

 and the record has exceeded thirty-six barrels. The 



