The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-05-21
Annual Publication Of the Agri-
cultural Department Contains
Much of Interest.
Californians Pronounce Oil Won
derfully EAioacious Agent in
i.tt Road Building.
Irrigated Lands Thruout the Coun-
try More Than Pay Their Orig
ss. inal Cost Annually.

Washington D. c., May 21.-The annual
official publication OF the department of
agriculture known as the Year Book will
be printed about June 10. Mr.. James
w. Abbott, special agent for the Rocky
Mountain & Pacific coast division, In a
special report makes a review of the use
of mineral oil in road Improvement which
he says has beer a great success in Cali
fornta. He says:
THE growth of oil in popular favor
In southern California, has been steady and
rapid. Many Of those who have had most
experience with 1t, have come to regard
its use in dry region as the most i'm
portant discovery ever made in road max
Ing Quite considerable number of peo-
pie have said to the writer: We could not
60 back to the old conditions; If we had
to give UP our oiled roads we would move
away
Mr.. Abbott thinks that oil can be used
to advantage at any place in the United
States where the roads become very dry
and dusty and where water can be kept
out of their foundations in the winter so
that they will remain firm and not give
way beneath the oiled surface in the
spring. The reliance must, he said, be
upon an oil with an asphalt base.
Forest Planting.
MIR. William Hall discusses the practic-
ability of forest planting in the United
SLdCSS. he says. pldiLiiS 10 llot
practicable in those regions which are
cut away. Broadly speaking, this includes
in the south the hardwood region OF the
southern Appalachians and the pine belt
from Virginia to Texas In the northeast
1t includes the spruce forests In New
York, Vermont, New Hampshire and
Maine; it includes also sections elsewhere
as in the Allegheny mountains. In the
west it includes the heavily timbered por-
tions of California, Oregon and Washing
ton, and smaller sections elsewhere.
In other parts of the United States
than those named above there are some
other sections in which the supply of tim
Der is wanting or is becoming insufficient
to meet the demand, and In which nationa
reproduction is not sufficient to insure q
second crop
W. H. Beale, Of the office of experiment
stations, has an article in which he says
agricultural experiment stations are nov
in operation in every state and territory
of the United States, including Alaska.
Hawaii and Porto Rico, and steps arr
being taken under governrn ent auspices
to establish agencies fort agricultural in.
yestigation In the Philippine islands
There are sixty such stations, employing
nearly 1000 trained scientific and practica
men in their-work.
in 1902 was S1,32S,s BAT Of which sum $3.50,
900 came from the federal goyernmen
and $60s84 from state appropriations ant
other sources. During the fourteen year
of their existence as a national enterprise
there has been expended In their main
tenance about s14 600, 900 Of which 10000,
900 came from the national treasury AM
about 1000, 600 from state sources
Irrigated Lands.
b In an article on irrigation, Edward A
Beals, Of the weather bureau, says tina
there are more than 100000 acres of ir
rigated land in the United States TIL
total cost Of the irrigation systems Of tn
United States is 1914, 2s9, s01 and the valu
of the irrigated crops for the single, yea
of 1899 was ss4, 433,43s. or 30 per cen
greater than the cost Of the plants. TIL
numbers of irrigators was 102,819, whic
gives nearly seventy one acres to tn
farm.