Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 29Q 



which the south wind prevailed. This modification of climate gives 

 the peach, the grape, the melon in perfection ; whilst the apple, the 

 pear, plum, cherry, and all the small fruits cannot be " beat." Three 

 winters out of four our stock get their own living. You will see by 

 this that here is a field inviting to enterprise and thrift, where success 

 is sure if energetically followed ; and to crown this comes the North- 

 ern Pacific Railroad through the valley to open us to the world, and 

 soon we expect to hear the snort of the iron horse. I wish to report 

 some of the experiments in the introduction of the improved grain. 

 Irrigation is indispensable to secure a great yield in this climate, 

 though in ordinary seasons a good crop is secured if put in early. 

 My experience begins with oats. I procured eight pounds of white 

 Probastier oats and the same quantity of Norway, and took the pains 

 to drill them. I took about one square rod of each and irrigated at 

 the proper time. The Probastier oat was noted for its numerous 

 branches of shoots, which were tall and strong, with a large head well 

 branched and heavy, many of the stools reaching as high as forty 

 stalks ; one I counted reached fifty, and many of the heads of each 

 stalk had 100 balls each, the most of them with three oats in each 

 ball, making the greatest yield of oats that I ever saw. Taking the 

 average yield of the ground that I irrigate, it was fully 4,000 fold. 

 The oats drew the praise and admiration of all who saw them. The 

 oats that I did not irrigate were cut short by the hot weather that set 

 in just as the heads were forming, hurrying them so fast that they did 

 not mature, and shortened the straw. These stools had from fifteen 

 to thirty straws each, well set, and, if planted in February or March, 

 would have given a great yield, but enough was shown by the trial 

 to prove them a superior oats, and prove valuable to the farmer. 

 Prom the eight pounds I harvested fifteen bushels. I got about the 

 same results from the Norway oats, they confirming their reputation 

 for yied and adaptedness to the soil, etc. Some of them had magnificent 

 sets. I am confident that the Probastier oats will be a success, for 

 its heavy grain and thin hull, and the straw will make excellent feed 

 for stock. My trial with corn proved satisfactory, the Olcott sugar 

 corn yielding fully at the rate of seventy-five bushels. With irrigation, 

 with a rich luscious grain that cannot be equaled by any other corn, 

 and from a patch of ground fifty feet long by twenty feet wide, I 

 harvested three bushels of shelled corn, making at the rateof 120 bush- 

 els per acre ; and from one vine I got 200 pounds of pumpkin of the 

 mammoth variety, and sixty pounds of sweet pumpkins — planted on 

 first day of July, from one vine. Adjourned. 



