Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-23

| Irrigation IN Truck Farming.
Mr.. Charles H. Shiun writes from
| California to the American Garden about
| truck farming in that state under irriga-
ton. He saws twenty years ago there
| was near Alameda creek tract of
sandy land considered entirely too
! poor for anything. Finally some
| Italian gardeners took charge o; five
acres of this land At what was looked
upon as extremely high rent, put it
! under system of irrigation, and 1t is
| row making them rich. OF course they
| fertilze highly, tor 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 of the year. There are five men en-
gagged on those five acres-two of them
| have families. The quantity of truck
that the little tract produces
under irrigation, Judicious mauurng and
| correct management is SO enormous rs to
be something entirely surprising to all
persons who take notice of it. Just
across the lane Is Il twenty acre tract of
rather better land that is farmed by an
old style agrculturist in the old style
way. He gets one crop year, and
makes no calculations for anything
more. When his ore crop is off he
stops for the season and waits till
She time for putting in the next season g
crop rolls around. This season he had
in his twenty acres $50 worth of hay,
above expenses, or not more than the
ennua! rental value Of the adjacent five
acre tract worked by the Italians. The
-
within plain sight are five acres support
ing AMI making rich five men with two
families, ana being all the land they
WaCt
The Italians raise on their fve-acre
tract eudive, leeks, kohl rabi, spinach,
asparagus, green peas, snap beans, Gu
cumbers, lettuce. artichokes, toma-
toes, satisfy, celery, caulifiower,
Brnssell's SPROUTS. cabbage, Irish
potatoes, sweet potatoes, rhu-
bard, onions, turnips, radishes,
mustard, okra, parsley and kale, and
they so manage US 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 b we an abundance of
something ready fer market. Before
one crop Is off another suited TO
the season is started on the same ground.
Precisely the same kind of hing ruight
DE done ut Fort Worth, or anywhere else
in Texas, for that matter, under irriga-
tion, high mnnuring aud correct man
acement. There is not one article men,
toned in the foregoing list that we might
not raise equally as successfully here
as it can be raised in California.
There are fortunes waiting the men
who put the frst gardens under
Il correct system of irrigation, AMI
manage them correctly, i'll the neighbour
hood OF our large cities, as Fort Worth,
for instance. II would mt take many of
such gardens TO promptly put stop to
our shipment OF truck from California,
Kansas and Missouri.
Mr.. Shinn goes on TO state that under
n complete irrigation system the truck
farming business has OF late years devel-
oped To immense proportions in Califor-
un, 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 and in addition to this
the railroads carried 80, coo 600 pounds
OF vegetables out of California. truck
farmer near Oroville has lately printed
statement of his operations. He en-
ploys fourteen men on forty acres Of land
planted TO fruits and vegetables. His
crop for 1889 was: Peaches, so tons;
apples, II tons; pears. tons; april
cots. 10 tons; reciarines, 10 tons;
plums, tons; black berries, 10 tons;
raspberries. - tons; stra ~berres,
2l9 tons; grapes, 20 tons; ounces, 2l5
tons; cherries. tons; Irish potatoes, 81
tons; onions, % tons; cabbage, 20 tons:
caullilower, IL tons; carrots, . tons;
beets, tous; sweet potatoes, tons,
wutermelons, 100 tons; musk melon, %
tons; cucumuers, 2I tons; English peas,
3 tons; snap beans, 4 tons: turuips,
tons: rutabsgas, . tons; green corn, 10
tous; squashes aud pumpkins, tons;
tomatoes, 10 tons; green peppers aud
okrs, = IL ton; lettuce, spinach, rad
i>hes, celery, asparagus and artichokes,
10 tons in all.
There is no. thing in this last emu
meration, unless il should be cherries
and prunes (and We are not sure about
them) that we might not raise in Texas,
under proper irrigation and proper man
agemeut, with just the same success Us
rewards the efforts OF the Cal
lorna farmer ct UroviIle. OF
course there will be people ready
10 ba!k over peaches, apples, etc.
on the plea tina. the Texas climate is not
congenial to such fruits. Under existing
arrangements We are willing to admit il,
in part, but not so under proper Irriga-
ton. 1t is not the climate, as we apply
the term, that cuts off our fruits but de-
iiciency in the regular water supply. In
the dry part of our seasons our fruit |
trees become dormant, and then,
when our fall rains come on,
they awake to ter spring,
as It were. In other words, they start |
into new growth, and remain sappy and |
tender through the winter, consequently |
when even slight freeze catches them |
IN this condition they are damaged. 1t |
Is about the same as would be a |
freeze in May or June for |
more northern ATTITUDES. But, were |