Imperial press and farmer., 1902-05-24
FarminO on the Desert.


 has recently returned to San Diego from the Imperial country, as follows:
 Judge Mossholder, Allen Jones, G. R. Mossh older and Miss Ethel Moss holder, have returned from trip to the Imperial country, and are enthu- siastic in their praises of the coun- try.
 Judge Mossholder says that the change since his last visit has been wonderful. Canals are being extended in every direction. People who have claims there are moving in and taking possession. He says that people who have not visited that section of the desert can hardly conceive of the changes. Great fields of wheat, barley and rye are to be seen on every hand. In order to convince some of the Skept- ical people he has brought home number of sheaves of wheat; also a number of pictures of wheat fields. In some of them the wheat reaches to the shoulders of the people in the picture.
 H. McKuSick makes as good show ing. He has a quarter section, 160 acres, nearly all sown to grain. Sixty acres of it is wheat, while consider able portion is devoted to barley.
 Van Horns Crop.
 MT. Van Horn, whose land is west of the McKusick farm, has an inter- esting record. He went there last July and sowed number of acres to millet or hungarian hay. Last fall he harvested three tons of hay to the acre. He found ready market at $8.5O per ton. He had ten acres which made this yield and this gave him $25.50 per acre.
 After harvesting the hay crop MT. Van Horn sowed the same land to bar ley and has just harvested three tons per acre of barley. The barley was being stacked when Judge MosshOlder's party passed through. Barley is sell ing every day in the week at $15 per ton. Thus the yield per acre was $7O5O. When he sowed his barley MT. Van Horn sowed also alfalfa, and now the ground is covered with heavy carpet of alfalfa, two or three inches high. In it's present condition it would make admirable pasturing. Thus in less than year two excellent crops have been secured and third one is we'll under way. The water cost him $1.25 per acre, while the land was government land and was free.
 Judge Mossholder has traded 80 acres of the south half of his section, water stock being the consideration, and he has arranged with MT. Van Horn to SOW the other 80 acres to sorghum.
 Water Is Plenty.
 Judge MOSshOlder says that the wa ter company places no limit on the amount of water used for irrigation purposes. They will flood an acre of ground foot deep for fifty cents. Water is running to waste and may as we'll be used As an inducement to farming on the lands the land com pany employs men on the irrigating canals and ditches. A man with two teams gets $64O per day, half being paid in cash and half in water stock. The cash is used for groceries and pro- visions, while water stock is pretty near as good as money Farmers can find work with the company when they have no work for themselves.
 The Surveying Party.
 Judge Mossholder had talk with Engineer Richards at Jacumba. The camp was between Mountain Springs and Coyote Wells. The report had reached there of a two-foot rise in the water of the Colorado River. The work of the surveyors when the Moss holder party left them, was to correct the survey levels from hetWeen Ia