Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-09-01

Their east. met there Mr.. O. j. Jones, the
original protector of these bitches, who show
ed me copy of Mr.. Greeley's book on farm
ing, plentifully UNDERSIGNED and bearing traces
of frequent reading which had led him to un-
dertake his scheme Of irrigation. 1t is only
two years since the first ditch was dug by men
convinced of the richness of the soil and re-
luctant to abandon their farms on account of
the lack of sufficient rainfall. The work was
found comparatively easy. Above the town
the Arkansas river is about half mile wide,
and small islands aid the work Of dammingup
the constant flow of water. In the early spring
of 1880 the Garden City Irrigation Company
dug ditch eight feet wide, two deep, and
four miles long. About 100 acres were irri-
gated and sweet potatoes and onions were
found to flourish like the typical bay-tree,
while other vegetables and cereals yielded
abundantly. Then the Kansas Irrigation Co.
was chartered, and built ditch now % miles
long, running from point three miles west
of Sherlock where the water is taken direct
ly from the river, to one six miles north of
Garden City. Other companies have follow
ed with their bitches, the largest being the
Great Eastern, in which Senator Plumb is in
terested, which has dug ditch 80 feet wide
and three feet deep running from point six
miles west of Lakn around the northern Dor
der of Sequoyah county, and which will be 60
miles long. From the main bitches along the
upper side of the tract to be irrigated, secon-
Diary bitches are run across the fields and con-
nected by back burrows. The fields are usu-
ally overlooked two or three times after the
crop is planted, each overflow leaving a de-
post Of rich alluvium. The Garden City
company and some Of the others are owned
by the farmers themselves The main ditch
of this company, % miles long, can irrigate
80, 600 acres, and the original cost was S45,-
600. The yearly cost of irrigation for each
farmer is 81 per acre. No difficulty has been
found in leading the water even to the plains
beyond the valley. The fall Of the river is
eight feet to the mile, and of the bitches three
| feet, giving gain of five feet in elevation for
each mile. Altogether between 100, 900 and
100000 acres Of singularly rich ground are
now subject to irrigation.
Last year was the first that the experiment
| of raising crops with irrigation was tried.
Some ten farmers irrigated their vegetables
and crops. The results were given me by
Squire Worrell an old farmer at whose house
l visited some two miles from town. Fol
| lowing is the average of last seasons crops
raised under irrigation Irish potatoes, 40C
bushels an acre sweet potatoes, 600 bushels
onions, 600 bushels cabbages, 1000 head
melons, 5000; turnips 1000 bushels oats
IS bushels; spring wheat 20 to % bushels
an acre. This remarkable success encouraged
the farmers generally to adopt irrigation.
Just north of the town drove through a field
of oats recently harvested and yielding 9(
bushels to the acre, while near by was a mel
on patch crowded with fruit, and little be
yond were fields of heavy grass and corn.
"On Squire Worrell's farm, near grove o.
young cottonwoods, was field after field o
onions, already large as ones fist, the bulb
clustered on the top of the ground in threel
and fours, and the squire smacked his lips Al
he estimated the yield at 800 bushels an acre
and informed me that the cost of raising then
was $35 an acre, and that onions were worth
81 bushel. Beyond some thriving fields o
sweet potatoes was one of the most beautiful
sights a Kansas farm affords-a field of alfal
ia, Chilian clover or lucerne, as it is variousl
called; the leaves of a rich purplsh green
the flowers blue and fragrant, and the plant
spreading in luxuriant jungle that hid tn
ground. 1t yields some 20 tons to the acre
and four or five crops can be cut in a season
1t is worth IS a ton, cures green, and is wei
liked as a food by stock and horses, as wa
shown by the avidity with which our ponie
devoured it. Onions, sweet potatoes and al
falfa are the three crops to which farmers il
this locality are specially devoting Themselves
because they believe them to yield the larges
profits. The figures given are certainly aston
ishing but the farmers whom met are equal
ly enthusiastic and pointed to last years rec
ords and to the crops of this season. whic
speak for themselves"