114 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



"Frederick Haynes Newell, who has recently 

 been removed from his position as Director of the 

 United States Reclamation Service, is in my judg- 

 ment one of the two or three most useful public 

 servants of his generation. 



".Mr. Newell not only created the United States 

 Reclamation Service after the passage of the Recla- 

 mation bill in 1902, but by years of patient investi- 

 gation beforehand he laid the foundations of exact 

 knowledge upon which the Reclamation Service 

 was built and aroused the public sentiment which 

 made it possible. 



"Mr. Newell has not succeeded in being popu- 

 lar with that portion of the people of the West who 

 want more from the government than they ought 

 to get, and this is to his credit. No efficient guard- 

 ian of the public welfare can be popular with the 

 grabbers or the crooks. 



"Mr. Newell's removal is a blow not only to 

 the efficiency of the Reclamation Service, but to 

 good administration through the government serv- 

 ice, and especially to the morale of the government 

 servants themselves. If a man with Newell's rec- 

 ord can be treated as Newell has been treated the 

 incentive to unselfish public service cannot but be 

 lessened and weakened, and the whole government 

 machinery must suffer, and in this case has suf- 

 fered, accordingly. 



"In conclusion I repeat that Frederick Haynes 

 Newell is one of the two or three most valuable and 

 most effective public servants of his time, and that 

 his removal from office, however concealed under 

 the name of administrative changes, is inexcusable, 

 and that it constitutes a serious blow not only to 

 the Reclamation Service but to the efficiency and 

 integrity of the government service everywhere. 



"GlFFORD PlNCIIOT." 



A UTAH BOY POTATO CHAMPION'S OWN STORY 



J 



By HOWARD DALTON 



Total 



AFIF TEEN- YEA R-OLD 

 member of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture's and 

 Utah's Agricultural College 

 Potato Club has raised a 

 crop of potatoes rained at 

 $i8/.ll on one-half acre. His 

 net profits were $141.0!. This 

 is the best record of all the 

 Utah potato club boys for 

 1914. The boy's own story of 

 how he made this record, de- 

 spite the fact that the year 

 zvas not quite so good for po- 

 tato production as usual, is 

 worth reading. Here it is: 



In the early spring of 

 1914 I bought my seed po- 

 tatoes at Burley, Idaho. I 

 purchased the Idaho Rural potatoes. They were not 

 especially selected seed, therefore I was very care- 

 ful in preparing the seed for planting. I was 

 anxious that every seed piece had one or two per- 

 fect eyes on it. I then treated the seed with a 

 formaldehyde solution (one pint to 30 gallons 

 water). This treatment consisted in soaking the 

 seed (before cutting) for two hours in the pre- 

 scribed solution. The purpose of the treatment 

 was to kill any scab germs appearing on the sur- 

 face of the potatoes. Other than this there was no 

 treatment given. 



From March 20 to March 30 I prepared my 

 land. I covered the ground with barn-yard manure, 

 using 8 tons of wet manure to the half acre. I 

 plowed the land 12 inches deep, using four horses 

 for the work. I immediately followed the plow 

 with a spring-tooth harrow. I harrowed it three 

 different times. I did the plowing in the forenoon 

 and followed with the harrow in the afternoon. I 

 did this to conserve the moisture and mellow the 

 soil. After harrowing, I pulverized the clods by 

 dragging up the soil with a square framed timber. 



HERE is Howard Dalton's itemized 

 cost and profit account on his rec- 

 ord-breaking one-half acre of potatoes: 



Value of crop $187.77 



COST 



Value of manure $ 2.00 



Spreading manure 4.00 



Spreading manure 4.00 



Plowing 1.00 



Harrowing six times 1.50 



Leveling 1.00 



Cost of seed, 450 Ibs 5.20 



Planting seed 2.00 



Cultivating two times 1.00 



Irrigating three times 1.50 



Weeding once 1.50 



Harvesting 18.00 



Rent on land 8.00 



$ 46.70 



Profits $141.07 



I tried in every way to 

 be particular about every 

 phase of cultivation as I fig- 

 ured that the secret of my 

 success was good cultiva- 

 tion. 



Five days later, on April 

 5, I again went over the land 

 with a spring-tooth harrow. 

 The following week I again 

 went over it with a spiked- 

 tooth harrow, which kept 

 the soil moist and mellow. 

 Just before planting I went 

 over it again with the 

 square timber in order to 

 make it perfectly level. 



On April 18 I planted 

 the seed in plowed furrows 

 4 inches deep and the rows 

 30 inches apart, the seed 

 being dropped about 12 inches apart in the rows. 

 The seed was then covered about 4 inches deep with 

 a small hand plow. As soon as the little plants ap- 

 peared above the ground I began my work on the 

 field. I at once freed the field of weeds by giving 

 it a thorough harrowing with a spiked-tooth har- 

 row. This I did May 5 and repeated the same 

 treatment on May 12. On May 26 I used the hand 

 cultivator drawn by one horse, giving them a thor- 

 ough cultivation with this implement, after which 

 I cultivated them once with the hand hoe, cleaning 

 out all of the weeds. 



During all the time I was working in my po- 

 tatoes I watched their growth very carefully, as I 

 was warned about the appearance of plant diseases 

 and insect enemies which might appear to injure 

 the plants. Fortunately, as far as I was able to de- 

 tect, neither plant diseases nor insect enemies ap- 

 peared, as the growing plants had such a strong, 

 thrifty appearance. 



Up to June 15 the plants had grown rapidly 

 and gave a strong, vigorous appearance. Soon after 

 this date they began to blossom and on June 25 I 



