Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-12-14
why We Advocate Irrigation.

crop and make il everything that q croI
In its line could possibly be.
Why We Advocate Irrigation.
Persons at distance who see THE
GAZETTE, and who know little of Texas
might jump TO the conclusion from read
ing the much we are saying from time &c
Time, in favor OF irrigation. that, in our
opinion, irrigation Is az absolute neoes-
sity for the Lone Star state. ANY such
jump would be simply a jump entirely
wide OF the mark. We'd like to see lots
of irrigation in Texas, not from any
thought that Texas couldn't always
stand at the very top of the ordinary ag-
ricultural pot without it, but because we
/ wish TO see her as far in the lead of all
/ other states. agriculturally, as she now
stands in point of natural advantages,
and this is certainly saying a very great
/ deal. In word, it is our am bitlou that
/ Texas should make the fullest possible
/ use of all her natural gifts. We say
Texas is great, and the claim is well
founded in every respect, but too many
! persons, because of our comparative
acknowledgement as yet in the interior,
decide that we refer to her size. In that
respect the position taken is a correct
one, of course, but it does not at all rep
resent what we are after. Cut Texas up
into Rhode Islands, il you please, for
the sake of getting ut clear uC1er-
standing of the case. and still, If we
take the fullest advantage OF everything
that Il benetcenc Creator hes placed
within OR easy reach each Rhode Island
OF the association will yet stand out con-
spicuously before the world as "Great
Texas
No, irrigation is not Mt all crying
necessity in Texas agr!culture-it simply
offers 81 great advantage. We have
within our borders scarcely an acre of
land that might not, under proper man.
asement, be made to produce big crop
of some kind or other in each season,
without regard to the natural rainfall.
OF course some judgement must be ex-
ercised as to the kind of crop to put in
with 4 view to meeting possible emer-
Eencies. The past season, as the reader
well knows, has been a season of ex-
treme drouth, and Northern Texas is
understood to have suffered her full
share from its effects. yet we'll venture
to say that we can show, within less than
two miles of the Fort Worth courthouse
this year, all without irrigation, a bet
ter yield OF the tleecy staple than has
been made by any other field of like
acreage outside the state of Texas. We
car Furthermore point out large corn
fields within the same circle, and say as
much for them, after which we can
throw in Us still within the same circle,
500 or 600 acres of meadow lands which
have this year, and without irrigation,
yielded In frst-class hay double the
quantity yielded by q like acreage in any
or the so-cnlled hay states above the old
line OF Mason aud Dixon.
So, you see, our advocacy of irrigation
for Texas is born of no strait so far as
relates to agriculture on the old plans,
but rather of the full conviction that |
while we are able 20 do what the people !
of most other states would consider !
more than really wei! without it, we |
could do far better with It. An agrl-
cultural people. no matter how we'll they !
may be doing, owe il TO themselves TO |
get from their lands all that those lands
can be made to yield. That's business. |
Irrigation would enable us 10 20 largely |
and probably into such u diversity OF |
crops rs we can not now safely venture |
upon Irrigation would secure to us all |
auVaDtageS iOT euteTlDS eAteusNeiy INTO
the production of fruits and vegetables,
IA character OF production not now cut
ting any particular figure upon our list
az articles of commerce. Other less IA
yored regions are beating us in that par
ticular line, and irrigation alone is the
enabling them to do it. IT.
rigatiou would make oil our crops sure
and heavy, and would assist US to keep
So me profita 5le product. growing up TO
the very best there is in ii the whole year
round. Under q good system of irriga-
ton there would be no call for lands ly-
Ing idle half the season at least. They
could be pushed all the time, and the
reasonable man planning for big money
TO himself in agriculture must he able to
see the need Of such pushing. A large
and valuable farm running on half time
is precisely On O par with a large factory /
running on half time. The owner is not
out much while the factory is not run
ming, for there are no hands to be paid
and no materials for working to be pur-
chased, but " here is any income during
that time. The taxes must be paid Gil
the same, and since men don't live for
ever in this void the time lost to profit
in his short allotment ough: to be con-
sdered as amounting to something in
dollars ana cents. we well know that
the farmer has a better way of getting
around that kind of thing TO the soothing
Of his soul than has the manufacturer,
but is 1t not just possible that those
are based upon imperfect in
formatioD3 He says his fallow lands are
i'm proving in quality-how? There
never was greater humbug Haunted in
the face OF intelligence than that fall
theory. Where does the
come from? Scientists are
now pretty well united in the opinion
that plants do not feed from the air.
Their leaves are simply their digestive
organs, and the food those leaves digest
must be taken up from the soil. II the
land gets better by lying idle that bet
tered condition can come only of the
fact that crop Of worthless weeds left
upon it has given Il more humus than IL
would have secured had crop been
grown and removed. All that the weeds
contain had TO come directly from the
,oiI--not on atom could have come from
any other source. They call il "resting
the soil - but under growth OF weeds |