Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-27
Irrigation in Truck Farming.

Irrigation in Truck Farmiug.
Mr.. Charles II. Shinn writes from
California to the American Garden about
truck farming in that state under irriga
ton. He SAYS twenty years ago there
was near Alameda creek q tract OF
sandy land considered entirely too
poor for anything. Finally some
| Italian gardeners took charge of five
acres of this land at what was looked
| upon Us extremely high rent, put it
| under system of irrigation, and It is
now making them rich. OF course they
fertilize highly, for the land is naturally
too thin to grow anything without fer
| tilizers. They resort to stable or lot
! manure exclusively. Every foot of their
! land IS brought into use through every
! day ct the year. There are five men en-
! gagged on those FIVE acres-two OF them
| nave families. The quantity of truck
| that the little tract produces
under irrigation, iudicious mauuring and
| correct management is so enormous as to
| be something entirely surprising to all
| persons who take notice of it. Just
across the lane Is q twenty acre tract of
rather better land that is farmed By an
! old style agriculturist in the old style
way. He gels one crop year, and
makes no calculations for anything
more. When his one crop is off he
stops for the season aud waits till
tine lime for putting in the next Sc ason 8
crop rolls around. This SEASON he had
in his twenty acres $3.50 worth of hay,
above expenses, or not mare than the
annual rental value of The adjacent five
acre tract worked by the Italians. The
twenty acres don't support him. W hiie
within plain sight are five acres support
ing and muking rich five men with two
families, nnd being all the land they
want.
The Italians raise on their fve-acre
tract endive, ieeks, kohl rabi, spinach,
asparagus. green peas. snap beans, Gu
cumbers, lettuce. artichokes, toma-
toes, satisfy, celery, caulitlower,
Brussel's SPROUTS, cabbage, Irish
potatoes, sweet potatoes, rhu-
bard, onions, turnips, radishes,
mustard, okra, parsley and kale, and
they so manage as to have some of these
crops growing and coming on all the
time. There is never Il day in the year
when they do not h We an abundance of
something ready for market. Before
one crop is off another suited 10
the season is started on the same ground
Precisely the same kind of hing might
be done at Fort Worth, or anywhere else
in Texas, for that matter, under irriga-
ton, high manuring aud correct man.
acement. There is not one article men,
toned IN the foregoing list that We might
not raise equally rs successfully here
as il can be raised in California.
There are fortunes waiting the men
who put the first gardens under
correct system of irrigation, AMI
manage them correctly, in the neighbor-
hood of our large cities, as Fort Worth,
for instance. Ii would mt take many of
such gardens to promptly put a stop to
our shipment OF truck from California,
Kansas aud Missouri.
Mr.. Shinn goes on 20 state that under |
Il compile te irrigation system the truck
farming business has of late wears devel- !
oped 10 immense proportions in Califor-
ma, and yet, from the present outlook,
the industry may be considered as only
in its infancy. Some of the best valley |
tracts are now being devoted to truck, |
aud being regarded as entirely more |
profitable than they would be in the |
most salable fruits. the state was !
amply supplied through the past
season from them, anu in addition to this |
The railroads carried 80 900 900 pounds |
of vegetables out of California. A truck |
farmer near Oroville has lately printed u |
statement of his operations. He en-
plOys fourteen men on forty acres of land
planted to fruits aud vegetables His |
crop for 1889 was: Peaches, so tons;
apples, II tons; pears. tons; april
cots. 10 tons; nec;arnes, 10 tons;
pluDs, 4 tons; backberries, 10 tons;
raspberres, l'a tons; Strawberries,
, :, tons; grapes, 20 tons: ounces, 81,
tons; cherries, tons; Irish potatoes, 30
tons: onions, - tons: cabbage, 20 tons:
cauliiiower, ] ? tons; carrots, ) tons;
Ueets, tons; sweet potatoes, tons,
100 tons; uskmeIon, %
tons; cucumUers, > tons; English peas,
3 tons: snap beans, tons: turnips, {.
tons: rutabasas, tons: green corn, 10
tons; squashes aud pumpkins, tons:
40 tons: green peppers and
Okra, = ton; lettuce. spinach, rad
shes, celery, asparagus and artichokes,
10 tons in all.
There is not thing in this last emu
unless. it should be cherries
and prunes (and we ara not sure about
them), that We might not raise in Texas,
under proper Irrigation and proper man
lgement, with just the same success rs
|
forria farmer at OroviIle. OF
Course there will be people ready
% bnik over peaches. apples, etc.
IN the plea that the Texas climate is not
to such fruits. Under existing
arrangements We are willing to admit il,
II part, but not so under proper irriga-
ion. 1t is not the climate, as we apply
he term, that cuts off our fruits, but de-
ic,eucy in the regular watar suDplv |
he dry part of our seasons our fruit
rees become dormant, and then.
= hen our fall rains come on.
hey awake to cir spring,
IS it were. In other words, they start
nto new growth, and remain eappv and
ender through the winter, consequently
Then even n slight freeze catches them
this condition they are damaged. 1t
about the same as would be
reaze in May or June for
more northern latitudes But moro