THE IKEIGATION AGE. 



335 



good one, well equipped with modern rolling stock, and it 

 is busy. I was informed that the road increased its business 

 300 per cent last year, which was principally due to the pro- 

 duction of farm crops on Idaho irrigated lands. 



The week before my visit to Twin Falls a carload of 

 strawberries was shipped to Wichita, Kan. It was an experi- 

 ment. The day I left Twin Falls a telegram was received 

 stating that the berries sold for $2.40 per crate. After de- 

 ducting the freight and selling expenses, the net returns to 

 the growers was $1.74 per crate, a very satisfactory price to 

 the growers. 



The growing of strawberries in the Twin Falls section 

 as a garden product has been tried out satisfactorily every 

 year, but this is the first time that berries have been 

 produced in quantities sufficient to ship by the carload. 



The climate is especially adapted to growing fruit. Dry 

 weather at blossoming time is the rule and this permits per- 

 fect pollination. Absence of rain during the growing season 

 insures clean fruit, while the dry atmosphere prevents the 

 development of fungus diseases which have proved so de- 

 structive in the east. 



While I was driving amongst the farms alfalfa stacks 

 were growing by the hundreds like mushrooms. Last year 

 the farmers cut so much alfalfa they were afraid of having 

 a surplus left on their hands. Buyers heard of this difficulty 

 and shipped out so much that the horses and cattle at Twin 

 Falls were placed on short rations last spring. This year 

 the farmers are planning to feed more stock and keep a 

 better supply of alfalfa hay at home. 



Hundreds of apple orchards in the Twin Falls country 

 are just coming into bearing. I walked through these 

 orchards day after day, noting the thrifty growth and the 

 formation of young apples on trees that were old enough 

 to bear. In almost every instance the trees averaging ten 

 feet in height were well set with fruit. None of these 

 orchards were more than six years old. 



A good many apple orchards are planted with the trees 

 30 feet apart each way, with peach trees between in the rows, 

 thus spacing the trees 15 feet apart one way and 30 feet 

 apart the other way. The wide rows are planted between 

 with corn, potatoes or beans. There is room for seven rows 

 of potatoes. The yield is usually very satisfactory, while the 

 quality is the very best. Idaho potatoes made a record last 

 winter in Chicago, the quality being superior to any other 

 potato on the market. The price of Idaho potatoes in Chicago 

 last winter was about 2 cents a pound. 



Farmers in Idaho told me of yields ranging from 300 

 bushels to 500 bushels per acre when planted as a field 

 crop. Orchard planting never covered the whole" ground, as 

 space had to be left for cultivating and irrigating the trees, 

 but in many instances potatoes in the orchard paid for all 

 the expense of caring for the trees, besides leaving a hand- 

 some profit. 



Easy payments have made it possible for men of limited 

 means to buy land. I found a number of men who had used 

 almost their last dollar in making their first payment and 

 moving to the land. In such cases they managed to grow a 

 crop of some kind, the women looking after the garden and 

 the men securing employment in the neighborhood. By close 

 economy they managed to get through the first year with a 

 store of good health, energy and determination which 

 counted splendidly toward the second season. In every such 

 case where the families stuck and worked they have won 

 out and are now living in plenty. 



At the time of my visit cherries of the sour varieties 

 were just ripening, the most popular being the English 

 Morello and Early Richmond. The trees were loaded, al- 

 though some of them had been planted but three years. 



It reminded me of the sour cherries of New England that 

 every farm wife puts up in glass jars for winter use, and the 

 taste of pickled cherries on those farm tables carried my 

 memory back to the days when I was always hungry for 

 such delicacies. 



My prediction is that fruit canneries will soon be a 

 commercial enterprise of great importance. There are good 

 business openings along this line. 



The growing of alfalfa in such abundance is turning the 

 attention of farmers to dairying. Every morning cream 

 wagons may be seen on their way to the creameries. On 

 general principles, if alfalfa be worth $7 per ton to sell, it 

 is worth $14 to feed to dairy cows. Getting the cash each 

 month is also a great advantage. 



Alfalfa meal mills are being built so that much of the 

 alfalfa crop will be shipped this year in this condensed 



form. Alfalfa meal is worth as much as wheat bran. Chemi- 

 cal analysis shows the composition to be about the same and 

 feeding tests clinch the proof. From $28 to $36 per ton is 

 paid for Idaho alfalfa meal in eastern markets. 



In the Twin Falls country alfalfa is cut when the first 

 blossoms appear, when the full quota of sap is in the plant 

 and before the stalks get woody. Every day is hay weather, 

 so there is no waiting for the clouds to clear away. Alfalfa 

 hay, cured under such conditions, goes to the grinder looking 

 as green as when it stood growing in the field. Alfalfa 

 meal made from such alfalfa is worth several dollars per ton 

 more than the ordinary and eastern feeders are finding it out. 



Sometimes the new settler in his hurry to get started sows 

 alfalfa wihout carefully preparing the ground. In such cases 

 the alfalfa is plowed under after it has grown a year or 

 two and the land is again seeded to oats. I have seen photo- 

 graphs showing oats as high as men standing in the grain 

 when grown on alfalfa ground. The reason for this is that 

 the alfalfa plant collects nitrogen from the air and deposits 

 a surplus in the soil. Nitrogen is the driver in plant growth. 

 It is the most expensive fertilizer and the most elusive. It 

 is the first element to escape from barnyard manure and 

 commercial fertilizers. Farmers who grow alfalfa never worry 

 about the nitrogen problem. 



Alfalfa is the only farm crop that can be grown ex- 

 tensively that will return large profits and improve the soil 

 at the same time. 



Every farmer in the Twin Falls country feels happy and 

 secure in the splendid water supply that runs continually 

 in many of the ditches ready at any time to be turned into 

 the farm corrugations to water the trees and general crops. 



1912 BUDGET FOR DENVER & RIO GRANDE 

 RAILROAD. 



Vice- President Brown of the Denver & Rio Grande Rail- 

 road has just given out particulars regarding the 1912 budget. 



The gross expenditures will approximate six million dol- 

 lars, of which two and one-half millions will be spent for 

 equipment and the balance on double track and improve- 

 ment of terminal facilities. 



During the past week orders for sixteen Mallet com- 

 pound locomotives of the articulated type were given the 

 American Locomotive Works of Schenectady, N. Y., and the 

 Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia received an 

 order for fourteen Mikado type freight locomotives. An 

 additional order for six passenger locomotives will be placed 

 within a few days and also a contract for seven hundred 

 box cars, three hundred and fifty coal cars, one hundred 

 stock cars, and fifty cabooses. 



A contract for nine miles of second track between Castle 

 Gate and Kyune, Utah, has been given the Kilpatrick Bros., 

 of Beatrice, Neb. With this stretch completed, Denver S 

 Rio Grande will have a continuous double track line from 

 Helper to Tucker, Utah, a distance of thirty-three and two- 

 tenths miles. Ten thousand tons of eight-five pound steel 

 rail will be used in relaying track at various points during 

 the coming summer. A large sum of money has been ap- 

 propriated for improving terminal and junction point facilities 

 and much side track will be added during the present summer. 



Surveyors are at work permanently locating a new 2 

 per cent line to take the place of the present 4 per cent 

 grade on the west side of Soldier Summit in Utah. Bids for 

 this work have not yet been asked for, but on completion 

 of the survey, it is anticipated that they will be. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Chicago. July 23, 1912. 

 To the Editor, IRRIGATION AGE, Chicago, 111. 



Dear Sir : I have looked through the library for a de- 

 scription of the Skinner system of irrigation, and do not find 

 any. If there is such a system I would thank you very much 

 for a description or citation where it can be found, as I am 

 interested in sub-irrigation, and oblige, 



Yours very truly, 



CHARLES CARROLL. 



Arc any of our readers familiar with either the Skinner 

 or any other system of sub-irrigation. If so, will they kindly 

 communicate with the Irrigation Age, giving such informa- 

 tion as may assist Mr. Carroll. 



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