THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



151 



methods which will stand the test of profit and loss. 



When we consider the advantages of farm 

 marketing by motor as compared to the advantages 

 of city gasoline delivery, it is hard to see why the 

 city man beat his country brother to the method. 

 The man in town has better streets and shorter 

 hauls, yet he was first to adopt motor truck delivery. 



But the difference is fast disappearing. Rural 

 competition is increasing and ways and means for 

 increasing the speed and decreasing the cost of de- 

 livery are becoming as popular among the orchards, 

 lettuce fields and poultry farms of the countryside, 

 as they are among the manufacturers, wholesalers 

 and retailers who make their deliveries over brick 

 pavements and asphalt. 



The man who raises berries and fruit soon 

 comes to wonder how he ever managed to stay 

 in business with his old-fashioned methods of de- 

 livery. His motor truck enables him to rise later 

 in the morning and get to market at the customary 

 time. It enables him to gather his tender fruit, such 

 as berries and peaches, in the cool of the day, and 

 get it to market or shipping point the same after- 

 noon. It not only moves him up closer to his cus- 

 tomary market, but puts him within easy striking 

 distance of other markets. 



These conditions apply with equal force to the 

 producer of truck and garden vegetables. The 

 motor truck makes the raiser of radishes, green 

 peas and roasting ears master of his early morn- 

 ing marketing. It lets him get as much sleep as 

 every man deserves, and yet enables him to get 

 into market before it already is glutted. It makes 

 him independent of local buyers, and enables him 

 to go where he can get the best prices and condi- 

 tions. Furthermore, it enables him to get there 

 more easily, quickly and economically. 



Every man who produces milk, cream, butter 

 or cheese to any extent is, or soon will be, the 

 owner of a motor truck. It gives him the power 

 and speed necessary to make quick deliveries in 

 the cool of the day and cover, if necessary, long 

 distances. The motor truck as now built will travel 

 over all kinds of roads in all kinds of weather, and 

 will encounter any hill. The motor truck has be- 

 come an all-year proposition, and one which will 

 relieve the dairyman of the tortures of slow and 

 tiresome delivery. 



The poultry farmer is a natural member of the 

 motor truck club and finds that his business can be 

 handled with alacrity and economy by the aid of 

 gasoline. It enables him to market daily, when 

 desired, and to answer and to fill special orders on 

 short notice. It makes a full-fledged business man 

 out of the otherwise handicapped poultry farmer. 



A farmer need not be an all-fruit, all-vegetable, 

 all-dairy or all-poultry farmer to come in under the 

 classification of those who need specialized de- 

 livery. Being engaged in several lines of specialized 

 farming does not keep a man from being a candi- 

 date for specialized delivery. 



No one need be surprised then to observe an 

 increase in the number of motor trucks purchased 

 for farm use. As the kind of materials marketed 

 change, the means of marketing will differ. The 

 more farmers who become engaged in specialized 

 farming of any sort, the more farmer owners of 

 motor trucks will there be. What is more, 

 motor truck delivery holds as it grows. More than 

 90 per cent of all who take up motor truck delivery 

 keep it up and never go back to the ways of their 

 forefathers. The motor truck builds up the very 

 businesses which demand it, and therefore becomes 

 a self-perpetuating species. 



NATURE LAID FOUNDATIONS FOR BIG PROJECT 



By J. R. MONROF. 



Of San Antonio. Texas 



IN my travels up and down the Rio Grande river 

 of Texas, many people have asked me how and 

 where it is proposed to store the flood waters of the 

 Rio Grande and the creeks running into it. Many 

 such people only come up as high as Mission and 

 see nothing but the great valley extending from 

 the river north for miles, and see no place where 

 water can be stored. 



Let me explain the plan proposed and hope I 

 can do so that any man can easily see how the 

 gravity canal proposed can be constructed and 

 furnish all the water required to irrigate every acre 

 of land subject to irrigation in Cameron, Hidalgo, 

 and Starr counties, Texas. 



It is proposed by international agreement with 

 Mexico to declare the Rio Grande a non-navigable 

 stream and to dam the river somewhere above the 

 town of Roma. We are certain there will be no 

 trouble in making the agreement with Mexico, as 

 that government would be equal if not more in- 

 terested in 'the proposition than ours, as there is as 

 much, and possibly more, land along the river on 

 the Mexican side than ours. 



It is proposed to construct a canal beginning 



at this dam and thence to the Gulf, or so far as 

 may be necessary to reach all the irrigable land, 

 passing somewhere near Raymondville. The water 

 will be flowing in this canal continuously, and pos- 

 sibly, by a system of dams and locks, will be at 

 all times full of water and will be used for two pur- 

 poses : To irrigate the lands north and south of it, 

 and by a system of laterals from it the great basins 

 and canyons in the chain of hills of Starr county 

 will be kept full at all times. 



From these basins and canyons the water will 

 flow into another great canal constructed at the 

 loot of said chain of hills in Starr county and thence 

 on into Hidalgo and Cameron. From this canal all 

 the land between it and the river can be irrigated, 

 and it will be constructed along such a line that the 

 l?nd north of it can be irrigated to the point where 

 the water will meet that flowing from the main 

 canal, the two canals being possibly fifteen or 

 twenty miles apart. Expert engineers can deter- 

 mine by leveling the place where the two canals 

 should run so that the water will reach the land. 



But the question may arise as to whether the 

 quantity of water will be sufficient to irrigate all 



