374 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



tongued" opponent of the policies which he now stands 

 for, yet deliberately conceals the real cause of his change 

 of opinion, if indeed he has changed it in fact, which is 

 doubtful. 



To say that Mr. Pinchot did not approve the article 

 is to offend common sense. There is no room for doubt 

 that he not only approved it, but that he prompted it 

 and furnished the pictures and data as to his birth, 

 history and exploits with which the article is filled. 



The cause is weak that requires such actions, and 

 it is an insult to the American people that any public 

 officer should resort to such means to create public senti- 

 ment in his favor in order to obscure the methods he 

 has adopted to annoy the settler and miner who happens 

 to be in or near a forest reserve. 



The report of the Secretary referred to consists of 

 fifty-seven pages, and shows some 1,400 appearances of 

 forest supervisors, inspectors, etc., at numerous meetings 

 throughout the United States, some to discuss "forest 

 business," but principally to address the public, or to 

 attend meetings of stock growers, and boost Mr. Pinchot 

 and misrepresent the real issues between his policy and 

 those who are interested in forest reserves. 



The expense to the Forest Service for this exploita- 

 tion is given as $19,424.00. 



Mr. Pinchot has been advertised in various maga- 

 zine articles as the "Man who saved the nation" and 

 credited with being the author of forest preservation, 

 etc., when the fact is that forest protection was first 

 agitated by western men years before Mr. Pinchot got 

 into the limelight, or made up his mind to save his 

 country, or had opportunity to do so. In proof of this 

 it is only necessary to refer to the fact that the first act 

 authorizing the setting apart of forest reserves was 

 passed March 3, 1891, and that President Roosevelt in 

 his letter of July 14, 1908, to Mrs. Cleveland, announc- 

 ing that he had changed the name of the San Jacinto 

 forest to Cleveland forest, in honor of her deceased 

 husband, said : 



"President Cleveland was one of the first to recog- 

 nize the need of forest preservation." 



To Mr. Pinchot, however, does belong the honor of 

 boosting his Bureau of Forestry through lecturers, 

 whose expenses are paid out of public money, and' by 

 adopting such oppressive rules of administration as to 

 cause opposition to him personally from those who are 

 and always have been in favor of reasonable forest 

 preservation. 



The whole controversy between the Forest Service 

 and the people of the West is over a few indefensible 

 and unnecessary regulations, all of which could be 

 eliminated if Mr. Pinchot would for one day take up 

 with those having personal and practical knowledge of 

 forest conditions in the West, and act fairly and rea- 

 sonably in view of the facts and the needs of the people 

 concerned. 



Why does he not do this instead of having his 

 employes, through the magazines, give him credit for 

 "making two blades of grass grow where one grew be- 

 fore" is incomprehensible to those who would like to 

 see men and farms grow, as well as grass and trees 

 both in sensible harmony and with injustice to neither. 



If he would do this, his employes could give more 

 attention to their duties and less to "educating" the 

 people of the West (the most of whom do not require 

 it), at government expense. 



(To be continued.) 



LOMPOC VALLEY, CALIFORNIA. 



BY A. L. TAYLOE. 



In no place in the United States are the successful 

 results of intensified fanning so forcibly demonstrated 

 as in Lompoc Valley in the western part of Santa Bar- 

 bara County, California. 



The opportunities here awaiting the scientific small 

 farmer are perhaps without parallel in any other part 

 of the West. The startling statements which follow 

 were obtained by the writer from a score or more farm- 

 ers in the valley, but to give the account of each one 

 respectively would require a volumn. Lack of space 

 demands brevity, so the facts will be applied to the 

 valley in general, and the names of the individuals 

 fiom whom they were obtained and who stand sponsor 

 for their truthfulness will hereafter be given as refer- 

 ences to our readers. 



The various soils of the valley are adobe, black 

 loam, sandy and sediment. The heavy soils are best 

 adapted to mustard, barley, onions and beans, although 

 barley, beans and potatoes do remarkably well on the 

 sandy soils. The sediment and lighter soils are better 

 suited to fruit culture. 



In 1907 a tract of ten acres yielded two hundred 

 and sixty-two sacks of yellow danver onions per acre. 

 They were contracted for at planting time at one cent 

 per pound and immediately after harvest were sold for 

 two cents per pound. There are several other instances 

 where as high as two hundred sacks per acre were pro- 

 duced. There are one hundred pounds to the sack and 

 the average yield is about one hundred and fifty sacks 

 to the acre. The market price of onions varies from 

 50c to $2 per hundred weight. Of course, there are 

 sometimes crop failures which are invariably due to 

 planting in soil not adapted to the product or a bad 

 season, the latter being very rare. 



Whether success or failure attends the effort, onions 

 are the most expensive crop raised, save for the cost 

 of sacks and handling. The average cost of production 

 is about $35 per acre. 



Lompoc Valley is the only place in the United 

 States where mustard is produced in merchantable 

 quantities and from whence it is shipped to the Euro- 

 pean markets. A sack of mustard weights 90 pounds 

 and last year the largest yield was thirty-eight sacks 

 to the acre. The average yield was about sixteen sacks, 

 which was larger than the average yield for several years 

 past. It is one of the cheapest crops to produce, but 

 it so impoverishes the soil that it should not be raised 

 more than one year in three. The cost of production 

 per acre is about $15. 



Barley is one of the heavy yielding products of the 

 valley. Upon the ranch of Mr. James Cantlay as high 

 as ninety-four bushels of barley per acre have been har- 

 vested. This is the largest yiehi known. Forty bushels 

 per acre, however, is not looked upon as an exception- 

 ally large yield. When the yield is not twenty bushels 

 or better it is usually cut for hay. Hay brings from 

 $5 to $10 per ton and produces from a half to four 

 tons to the acre. 



Beans are an enormously profitable crop. Last year 

 twenty-one tons of the variety "Kentucky Wonder" 

 were taken from eighteen and one-half acres. More 

 small white beans are raised than any other commer- 



