The Topeka state journal., 1902-05-05
KNOWS HOW TO FARM.
How Il. =. Gooden Utilizes Water on
His Place.

His Place.
Shawnee county farmer who lives
near Tecumseh has a practical irrigation
plant which he has used successfully for
number of years. His name is H. E.
Gooden.
Mr.. Gooden has z acres of strawberry
plants alone which he grows by irrigation
He has q. big earrnen reservoir which he
hls by means of a windmill and from
that he has bitches leading all through
that part of his farm which can be irri-
gated from the reservoir. Some of his land
is higher than the reservoir and can not
be irrigated from the plant he now has
by means of bitches.
But Mr.. Goodell is disposed to abandon
the ditch method of irrigation. During the
extremely dry weather last summer he
found that much of the water soaked
away before it reached the plants it was
would find a big stream going down some
gopher hole. In order to conserve the Wa
ter he designed a water cart in which to
haul water, with hose leading down to
within few inches of the ground. He
hauled this cart over the rows of straw
berry plants or whatever he wished to wa
ter allowing the water to 80 directly on
dent in irrigation matters, but Mr. Goodell
says It worked well and only took about
one-tenth OK the water required by the
ditch method and required no more labor
than it did to look after the bitches.
In addition to believing in irrigation, Mr..
GoodeH is a nrm believer in the Campbell
method Of agriculture The Campbell
method is to pioW deep as soon as a crop
Is taken off a field. then use sub-surface
packer and cultivate frequently, but stir
ring only the top of the ground, so as
to keep a dirt mulch In the case of
Strawberries the dirt mulch Is the impor-
tant feature, as 1t conserves the moisture.
Farmers are coming more and more TO
the idea OF shallow but frequent eultlVa-
ton not 50 much for the purpose of keep
ing the weeds down as to keep the top OF
the ground stirred up.
Mr.. GOodeu has q young orchard which
he kept growing thriftily all during the
While the trees in neighboring orchards
made scarcely any growth at all and in
many instances died out. some OF those IN
Mr.. GOodel1s orchard grew so fast that
they split the bark on their trunks.
Mr. Goodells strawberry plans will not
produce much OF crop of berries this
year. comparatively, for the reason that
he pays more attention to raising plants
ton of berries, and the cutting away of
the young plants however, nets him sew
eral hundred dollars a year.
It has only been five years since Mr..
ton of fruit Previous to that, like many
other KaW valley farmers. who farm on a
small scale, potatoes was his staple crop.
One day he loaded ten bus hels of potatoes
on his spring wagon, all the wagon would
hold, and brought them to Topeka. PO-
tatoes were a drug in the market and the
load brought him only $3.50. He noticed
d crate of Strawberries grown by a Law
renee man. in the store where he sold his
potatoes. The merchant told him the crate
was worth 50 so. This gave Mr. Goodell
an idea that fruit was a better crop than
potatoes and ne began to work along that
line, with the result that he has made
more money IN the last five years than he
farming near Tecumseh for the past SC
years.