The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-10

older portions OF the country VIII be as
/ careful to irrigate their land as they are 10
| pillow it now. 1t is true that the average
| farmer outside of the arid region of the
| United States maintains that he needs no
| irrigation to raise crop, but scientific ir-
| rigationists answer that this average
farmer for the lack of irrigation at the
proper time now gets full crop only once
| In five years, whereas, If he overcame
drought as factor in crop failure, he
would, If he otherwise farmed WELL get a
full crop every year, barring the possibility
| OF loss through hail storms, early or late
| frosts or floods. The states of the Missis-
sippi valley with a full crop ought to raise
forty bushels of wheat to the acre, while
the average yield in the United States is
but twelve bushels.
There are places in the United States
where the yield has been S0-fold, as in
Utah; 1i3-fold, as in Montana, near Hell
ena, in 1876; or so to 65-fold, as in the ir-
rigated parts of Texas. The average yield
of potatoes in the United States is 1872
bushels per acre, but in the state of Colo
RADIO yield Of 1 600 bushels has been OBJ
tanned. The average yield of onions is
100 TO 10 bushels, but in the Pecos valley
| 800 to 1000 bushels have been produced.
Oats range from 20 bushels to 30 bushels,
and other crops in proportion.
This tremendous difference in the yield
of the same product points to some gross
error in the agricultural methods OF the
country, and the scientific irrigationist
claims that where the farmer, with the
application of manures, cannot grow
such crops as were grown when
the land was young, he is to blame
chiefly because by removing all the
timber he removed the natural hu-
Nudity, changing the climate from
humid one to one alternating between ex-
cessive rainfall and excessive dryness.
After the timber is removed the rains
every year sweep off the richest natural
fertilizers TO the various creeks and rivers,
and the farmer blowing after every rain
furnishes more fertilizers for the next food
TO carry off. In this way the land becomes
poorer every year, until the value of the
crop is almost equalled by the cost of
artificial fertilizers put upon the
land. Wells springs, creeks and ponds
hold in solution or suspense great quanti-
ties OF valuable fertilizing salts which
should supply food and drink to the
plants under cultivation.
ATexas civil engineer, Mr.. T. III. Bomar,
estimates that the total amount of solid
matter deposited on an acre in one years
irrigation will be more than thirteen tons.
As this solid matter is composed of val
uable plant food, principally lime and
gypsum, its great value as a fertilizer can
be readily seen, and its commercial value
calculated. A ton of compost, with these
ingredients as a base, would be dirt cheap
at $40, but irrigation companies give the
thirteen tons every year for the 81 paid per
annum for the water rent. This natural
fertilizer is applied a thousand times more
easily and is more readily assimilated than
the manures and artificial fertilizers on the
farms of the Eastern states"
The advantage of irrigation to even an
Eastern farmer in the nominally non-arid
region is that it leaves nothing to chance;
the irrigator loses nothing by rain, but en-
u,
for in an irrigated country the oldest farm
is the richest and brings the highest price,
while in the rest of the United States the
older the farm the less its value. On the
other hand the Eastern farmer who de-
ponds upon rainfall exclusively can
not always get it when he needs
1t; when 1t comes il robs his
Ian @E u
and consequently, compared with irrigated
land, it produces weak plants and he gets
small crops. In some of the oldest agri-
cultural countries of Europe enormous
crops are raised today from lands that for
at least two centuries have been under
cultivation, and with scientific irrigation
East as well as West the average Weld of
crops to the acre could be vastly increased.
The irrigating farmer loses no time wait
ing for rains TO enable him to plough, he
raises two or three crops on the same land
while the rainfall farmer raises only one,
and that often a small crop, in the same
time.
Some farmers in Louisiana and Florida,
where the rainfall is from fifty-four to sixty
inches year, are beginning to irrigate
extensively, and they find it profitable;
and some fruit growers in Massachusetts,
and New Jersey are also beginning to
learn that irrigation pays. When the
practice of these exceptional Eastern
farmers becomes universal, there will be
saved to agriculture millions of dollars in
the fertilizers held in solution and suspen-
sion that are annually swept into the At
lantic and the Gulf of Mexico. and other
millions that are annually expended for
artificial fertilizers.