SOME PRESS BULLETINS. 
5 
common mistake is to plant a larger area than can be watered from the 
well. Better begin with only a few square rods and extend the area 
as experience dictates. 
In case you cannot irrigate from a well, select a small patch of 
ground upon which you can turn the flood water from the prairie by 
means of furrows. If you can make a small reservoir above the patch, 
do it. The reservoir may hold a few barrels of water until you have 
time to direct it to the plants which need it. Cultivate thoroughly and 
keep all weeds down. 
Besides the small truck, a good patch should be planted to Mexi¬ 
can beans, early cow peas, watermelons, muskmelons, stock melons, 
pumpkins, - squashes, popcorn, sweetcorn and potatoes. These will 
sometimes bring good crops without irrigation. Enough should be 
planted so that a plentiful supply of winter food for the family will 
be assured. Stock melons are very productive, and if stored in sod 
buildings, above ground, they will furnish green food for the niilch 
cows during winter. I have grown stock melons at the rate of 20 tons 
per acre. I have kept ordinary watermelons until the last of Novem¬ 
ber by packing them in hay and storing them in a room where they kept 
cool but did not freeze. There are varieties of winter watermelons 
and muskmelons which are good from Christmas until March. 
By planting the following seven varieties of sweetcorn on the 
same day—and often near the last of May—I have had roasting ears 
from July 26th until September 26th. The varieties were: Cory, 
Black Mexican, Perry’s Hybrid, Stowell’s Evergreen, Country Gen¬ 
tleman, Mammoth Evergreen, and Egyptian. The large varieties may 
be dried for winter use or allowed to ripen to be used parched. Parched 
sweetcorn is a luxury, but one which is within the reach of the poorest 
settler. White Pearl and Queen's Golden popcorn have done well for 
me, and my family have had many meals consisting only of whipped 
cream and popcorn. 
Potatoes, squashes and pumpkins may be grown successfully by 
keeping up a constantly successful fight against potato beetles and 
squash bugs. This means to battle almost daily with the pests from 
the time the potatoes are up until the middle of August, and from the 
time the squash plants are up until the squashes are ripe. To describe 
methods of fighting these pests would require volumes, but we advise 
you to use your ingenuity in killing them. I preferred to kill them with 
clubs. 
Grasshoppers are the worst enemies to field crops, but by keeping 
plenty of poultry, the grasshoppers will be kept down. 
To produce crops of any kind may require an amount of labor 
which seems enormously out of proportion to the market value of the 
produce, but we assume that people who have settled here desire to 
build up homes and they have come here because they failed to get’ 
homes elsewhere. It may be a comforting thing to remember that you 
may not be 'working any harder here while trying to establish inde¬ 
pendence than you would be if working by the day for some one for 
just enough wages to support yourselves. 
