The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1888-02-23
Irrigation-Wlll it Pay?

| have been asked more than hundred
times, not alone by our home people here,
| but have some letters from strawberry
growers and market gardeners living 10
Kansas, Illinois and other states, inquiring
about how to irrlgate, what it costs TO
irrigate, and prices obtained for our
vegetables and fruits.
2 see that the irrigating question is be-
ing discussed in The STATESMAN and it is
now on the booming docket of our life;
it is certain to do something that will
bring commerce and a natural boom to
our city.
do not want to make any suggestions
! here what to do, or how it shall be done, l
simply want to show the public that what
have done on small thact of land can also
be done on a large scale. If we can irrigate
all that ground east of the city along the
river for miles, as far as the irrigating
canal can be extended, we can raise such
an enormous quantity of garden stuff of
every description that freight train of
twenty cars can be loaded aud dispatched
from Austin almost every day during nine
months of the year.
l will try to explain how we raise that
stuff in such enormous quantity:
Cabbage is one of our most profitable
crops, and Is always saleable. We plant
10000 late Flat Dutch on one acre of
ground; of the early varieties, like Early
Summer, or Winnigstasdt, we plant much
closer, 900 to $4,000. If well cultivated,
MANFRED and irrigated, every plant will
make a good sized head, if the seed was
of good quality. The price for cabbage
here in Austin, or anywhere in Texas, is
81 per one dozen heads, that makes $500
per acre. If we have some cabbage to
sell day or any time from January to
end of spring the price will be one
third higher. Time required to raise
one crop of cabbages is six months; 1000
good sized cabbage heads make car load
that gives Us two cars of cabbage to an
acre. Now, we have four to five months
longer to raise something else on that
same ground. Tomatoes planted ON the
10Th of July make a good crop before
frost sets in. We can raise nice crop of
snap beans if planted by the first of
August. Turnips, radishes, spinach, let
tuce, caulitower, all can be planted
as second crop. 1 have shown,
and am very modest when l say that we
one acre. A train of 20 cars is the
product from 10 acres; 600 acres will sup
ply 60 trains of 20 cars each. Now, if we
can irrigate 5000 acres, we can load 800
trains of 20 cars each--value, $500 per
car-or the gross sales from 5000 acres
will amount to $2,400,000.
Celery which l raised here i've years
ago would compare favorably, in size
and quality, with any from Michigan.
Forty Thousand stalks of celery can be
planted on one acre, if well cultivated,and
bleached will sell at 10 cents a plant re-
tail, or 80 cents dozen
wholesale, or about $1,000 per
acre. Celery ought never to be planted
sooner than June Is. A crop of peas,
lettuce, spinach, can be raised on the
same ground in the spring, and will be
sold before June. Irish potatoes on good
ground will will yield from 300 to 400
bushels by irrig alton, and eighty bushels
without irrigation.
Beets are very profitable vegetable,
and sell well. We can have cropo beets
ready by the end of May to clean off the
patch, and will average from $500 to
$1,000 per acre; by irrigation every beet
grows to marketable size. One acre of
beets will give at least three
carloads when full grown. Squashes,
cucumbers ard melons are more bulky,
and will hardly pay to ship very far.
Onions and tomatoes are the main and
best paying crops of our gardeners, and,
Judging from the barrels of onions which
can be seen at the stores in Austin, we
find market right here in Texas.
All those vegetables l have named can
be raised the first years, but there are
some Others, like asparagus, which re-
qulre almost three years before it can be
cut for market; but then it is a good paw
ing crop. Pear and apple trees can be
planted out and all those vegetables
raised between them for at least ten years
then SOW the orchard in grass. Here |
can demonstrate that an orchard of pears
or apples are much more profit BILE than
orange raising in Florida or California,
considering the fact that the ground. we
have is cheap, and we have a market be- |
yond any limit.
To work 5000 acres in truck farming |
requires at least 1000 families; they need |
1000 houses, clothing, food; they be D
pay the taxes, they produce more than thew |
consume. Without irrigation we cannot |
help the fruits and plants drying up par
italy, Sometimes entirely. A great many
think we cannot raise these at all, except |
by irrigation, and when farmers and gar
deners have planted their crops, and
worked hard, they expect a return for
their work, and, if that fails, they lose
courage and want to sell out and leave.
The above are facts, and if ANYBODY is
able TO demonstrate it otherwise l will be
greatly obliged for correction.
VIM. RADAM.