Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1900-02-07
arm Notes.
A CENSUS OF FLoRICULTURE.

A CENSUS OF HORTICULTURE.
Washington, D. C-Owing to the un-
usual intelligence of florists as a class,
and the fact that the statistics of their
business which the Census Office re-
quireS, relate almost entirely to the
year 1889, plan has been formed for
taking an early census of Horticulture
by mail, on special schedules, and to
tabulate and publish the returns there
of early, while other branches of the
great work of enumeration are in pro-
greSs.
There are approximately 1o.5oO flo
rists in the United States. The names
and addresses of a majority of them
have been secured ami classified by the
Division of Agriculture in the Census
Office, and each known proprietor will
soon receive a copy of the special
schedule devoted to this interest. 1t
will be accompanied by list ESQ far
as ascertained) of all the florists in his
section, to be by him corrected added
to and returned to the department for
use in making the record complete and
reliable.
This special schedule is not elaborate
or complicated. 1t may be flied out
easily and quickly by any florist who
keeps reasonably accurate sun Of his
business. 1t asks for the 1899 acreage
crop or variety of plants and flowers;
the total area of square feet under
glass and the area of each crop or va
riety of flower or plant raised there
under; the number of persons employed
and the total wages paid to them; the
amount expended for catalogues. pos
tage and fertilizers respectively, and
the gross receipts from the sales in
each subdivision of the business.
No private individuals will be per-
! mitted to have access to the sched-
ules after they have been filled out and
returned, nor will the names of per-
sons or firms giving information be
published in the census report. Fig
ures only will be used and published.
| and the entire process and record of
gathering information will be conf
Dental.
AS the law requires the regular emu
merators to obtain certain information
as to tenure, value, etc, during their
, visits in June, the next census of fiori-
culture, if the florists themselves shall
be prompt and conscientious in filling
out and returning the special schedules
soon to be sent to them, will be the
most perfect in history.
They will be put to no expense, as the
| necessary stationery, with envelopes
properly franked, will be provided for
I their use.
Washington. D. C.-The preliminary
work of the Census Office in collecting
/ data relative to the arid and sub-hu-
mid regions shows that during the past
ten years vast areas have been re-
+ claimed by irrigation both by ditching
from running streams and drilling for
I Subterranean waters.
Where only few years ago the sage
brush struggled for existence in the
midst of a waste of alkali and sand,
to-day are fields of waving grain and
| blossoming orange-groves. Hundreds
of miles of canals and bitches have been
constructed; hundreds of wells have
been sunk. and thousands of acres of
land have been cultivated in zones
where once the desolation of Sahara
reigned.
Moistened by fresh waters and fer
tiliZed by the rich silt of the swift
Wssfes mouasain and dssolate fFfff!es:
Southwest, have become as fertile as
the famous Valley of the Nile, and send
forth crops of endless variety and ex-
ceedng abundance.
Irrigation is intensive farming. Where
the water supply is ample, it is sure
farming. There are no failures, and
crops are enormous. The experienced
irrigator is like the trained engineer
with his hand on the lever. The move
ments of his hand regulate the amount
of water supplied to his fields as those
of the engineer control his engine.
In most of the irrigable sections of
! the West, fertilizers have never been
used although the land has been con-
stantly cultivated for over two centu-
J ries. In many sections fields may be
seen which have yielded successive
! crops of wheat for forty years and show
/ no diminution of productive strength.
! Wonderful progress is shown in the
! methods of constructing canals, dams
| and pumping machinery, and in the
| manner of distributing water. Modern
| inventions in machinery have greatly
| lessened the time, labor and cost of
| construction and management and
| made possible many gigantic enter
| prises of land reclamation and water
utilization.
Mountains have been tunneled and
whole rivers have been lifted from
| their beds and spread over the valleys
precisely as wanted. High up in the
ranges and on the elevated plateaus
immense storage reservoirs have been
constructed to impound the flood-wa-
| tiers of the streams so that the thirsty
! land below shall not suffer during the
| long rainless summer.
AS the successful solution Of the
! problem of conservation of flood waters
means the reclamation of millions of
| acres of public land, the people natur-
ally ask the Government to promote
measures having this end in view. To
| this demand the Government responds.
Lands containing excellent reservoir
| sites have been set aside and a thor
! ough study of the sources and perma-
nence of the water supply of arid re-
gions has been made to enable Con-
gress to legisate with intelligence upon
this important subject.
In aid of this work the Twelfth Cen
sus will endeavor comprehensively to
show the present condition and values
of Agriculture in the arid and sub-hu-
mid regions. the length, irrigable eX-
and cost of the various canals.
wells and bitches: the character, vol
ume and constancy of water supply;
systems employed in distribution;
amount paid for water and the crops;
acreage, and yield of irrigated farms.
This effort will be successful If those
interested in irrigation shall heartily
cooperate with the Census Office and
it's agents.
Within a brief period the main sched-
ules for taking the census of irrigation
! will be distributed, and Director Mer-
riam requests that all recipients pre-
pare properly to fill them out and to
return them promptly.
The thousands of shocks of corn on
the ground on the farms along the
lines of the railroads are evidences of
the enormous waste of corn fodder that
annually occurs. Some of this wet,
frosted and dry material is thrown into
the barnyard for the cattle to pick
over, thus exposing the animals to the
, cold. There is considerable labor de-
voted to corn fodder before it is put
in shock and such labor is thrown away
because the fodder is left in the fields
to be injured. The use of the fodder
when it is in good condition would per-
NIT of the sale Of hay, and thus in
crease the revenue.
In a warm climate fruit Is sufficient
to sustain life but UP in the Arctic re-
gions oil and fat are essential In the
feeding of live stock the temperature