Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-10-11
IRRIGATION PAYs-rHE PROOF.


Belknap and Pecan streets, Fort
Worth. The plat of ground worked
by him is only 12x44 feet in size,
lying east and west. II is devoted to vege-
tables, with the exception Of single row
Of grapes alang ore side. The vegetables
are planted in rows lying the long way of
the Plat, and irrigated by running water
from common city by Grant through shall
low bitches between the rows. 1t would
NOT do to call tie experiment perfect one,
by any means, Is not near the stipulated
quantity Of water for full irrigation has
been given al any time during the season,
and yet the little plat has supplied more
vegetables al along than Mr.. Aiayfield's
family could use.
Early in the seas IL the plat WAS planted
TO tomatoes, Irish potatoes, okra, bush
beans, running beans, onions, turnips and
various other vegetables, and from that
tune on to the present different crops have
s-en made to lap upon each other right
along. The running beans planted in
spring are still thrifty and entirely full of
fruit. One row of ol5ra was planted. but
the yield was so enormous that Mr.. May
field found no need of more than q single
hill, so he removed all but one hill, which
IS now literally loaded with young and
tender pods. From a single hill of COM
mon spreading okra planted on this plat
Mr.. Mayfeld gathered 40 pods.
The latest crop was planted on the 10th
OF August last, and consisted OF bush beans
and turnips. At this writing October y
the beans are carrying a fine crop, and the
plants are rs full Of young beans and bios
SONS as plants could possibly be. The
plants are more than knee high, and are
the very perfection of luxuriance and
thrift. The turnips have large and succu-
lent leaves, and many of them measure
more than two feet across the tops of the
plant.
The grapevine row already referred to is
composed of several varieties, and now in
full and luxuriant foliage. All fruited well,
and some OF the late varieties in the row
still have on 4 good crop of fruit.
Any persons entertaining doubts as to the
possibility of making irrigation pay in this
region would certainly have those doubts
promptly removed by calling at the corner
Of Belkuap and Pecan and taking view of
what it is doing in Mr.. AIayfelds little ex-
pertinent there. Half 4 dozen acres now
Carrying such crop rs is carried by tits
lite plat would be quite q fortune 10 its
owner at this season of the year when we
are shipping all our snap beans from distant
regions, al our Irish potatoes from Utah or
California, and so on to the extent of al
most everything we are using in the truck
line
l; is no uncommon thing to hear people
assert that our stiff prairie soils of Texas
could never be made TO work to irrigation.
The soil must be an open volcanic soil, they
say, TO let the water through. Mr.. May
fields experiment has shown this TO be de-
cidedly a mistake, for lus operations have
been conducted on the ordinary stiff, wayy
aud hmy highlands Of the grand prairie
formation. Every foot of well-Grained and
tillable land of the grand prairie region-the
land surfacing the great Fort Worth
Waco artesian area-would respond to irri-
cation as well as would any other land on
the face of the globe.
As shown by us last week, 5000 would
hefray the expense OF completing an arte-
SIAN well like the natatoriLm well at Fort
Worth, anywhere in the neighborhood of
Fort Worth, and possibly anywhere in the
Fort Worth Waco artesiau area, extending
from near Red river above US to Laredo on
the Rio Grande. Each well of this charac-
ter would irrigate 200 acres of land, and
keep i luxnriant crop growing upon it
without break from late frost in spring to
early frost in fall, and yet we leave those
lands lying in idleness through fully two
thirds OF the cropping season, if we except
their occupancy by deep tap-root crop or
two. lndeep, we have but one crop that
runs through the season Cotton, and that
crop is often more or less injured by sum
mar drouths. As the result of this we pour
out of the state, for the actual necessaries
OF life, more money than all the crops we
now grow bring in. And these necessaiies
Of life might just as well be grown to full
supply within our own territory, with an
immense surplus for shipping out to other
less favored regions.
l. don't take long for reasonable man.
even though his reasoning powers may be
entirely below the ordinary, TO see that we
are '.wilfulv aad feloniously'' depriving
ourselves Of ! most important source Of
revenue; but for what are We doing it,
This is i question that will call for deep
Thinking. Surely ii cannot be for the nero
privilege OF cmpJying our lean purses into
the flush Golfers of other regions, no more
favored by nature than is our own! No
woader there are many among US con-
startly complaining of hard times.
But the bugtcar Of an existing danger of
over-production usually pops up at about
this stage OF the argument. Nonsense!
There can be 10 over-production of pro-
vision products, the kind of products that
are usually raised by irrigation. If we cam
not eat or feed all we produce there are
others ready to pay for il and eat it or feed
l. for Us. Great plants may stop spinning,
or smelling, or forging, or coming silver,
etc, but our more than 10000 coo little
plants with dependent millions in other
countriesl engaged in working provision
products, must work on necessarily. There
can be no suspension in thai quarter
-
THE BEST SHEEP FoRUS.
Mr.. Stephen Powers, n man well known