The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1907-12-05
OF AGRICULTURE
IN sAoEBRUsH STATE

CA. ]. Wells in the Goldfeld Review. }
1t has been delayed by conditions;
the miner has had the center of the
stage-has it yet, and will have it, per.
haps, while he goes on looting ma.
lures treasure vaults, but meantime
his Support will com from the man
who raises "spuds'' and beans. and
provides butter and mutton, and when.
a hundred years hence, the last ore
shoot is worked out, and the last ore
shipment made, the farmer will change
places with the miner and play in the
li%melight. We mean to say that the
farmer abides. He is the one factor
in building the state, without which
the state is not builded. He is the
bottom industry of society and, like
Tennyson s brook, he "goes on for
ever.'
Speaking generally, today is the far
mer's day. He never engaged atten-
ton as he does today; he never had 50
many working for him as today; the
machinery of a whole department Of
the government is now behind him, ami
all the science at the command of that
department is for him, studying bugs
and sprays, fertilizers and food r~ations,
proteids for his hens and temperatures
for the cream from his cows. As a re-
suit, the farmer has given us a national
surplus and changed the nation from
a borrower to a lender. Every sunset
during the past five years has rendered
an increase, according to the figures of
the secretary of agriculture, of "$3,
400, 900 in the values of the farms of
this country''-a most surprising daily
gain
1t is an old story, the struggle be
tween the city and the country-farm
life or city life-the town and the
crowds or the country and it's freedom,
but two or three things will keep the
farmer in the fields. Necessity will,
temperament will. the desire for indie
pendence will. Many a man is born
as John Burroughs said of himself,
with a large farmer in him, and will
not have success save IN a farm. Then
the simple life will keep many faith
full to the traditions of the farming
folk-the natural life, close to Mother
Earth, the love for trees and flowers,
for fruit growing and stock raising,
and freedom from the conventions and
complexities of society in the city.
Then, too, the country offers the most
independent life. The farmer has no
bosses. He is a nan on his own land,
and not one of a crowd. The bees work
for him, the hens cackle over his eggs.
the COW gives her milk to him, the
sheep it's fleece, and the collie that
tends the flock will defend him against
the world-without price. As long as
life yields such a harvest of satisfac-
tion as the farmer finds, the farms will
not be neglected. If he wins less in
the country, he wants less; if he does
not strike it rich.' as the p~rospector
does sometimes. he avoids his main
disappointments and the end are bal
anced about as well.
But the farmers life in Nevada. Is
Nevada an agricultural state? Ger
tainly. Any state is that has soil and
a growing climate and men to till the
ground Nevada will yet base its pros
perity upon its farms, the state com
mission of 1898 reported after pains
taking and systematic inquiry that -,e-
vada had 5000, 900 acres of rich soil
which could be irrigated from her riv-
ers and her artesian supplies. If these
figures are reduced one-half, there is
still ample basis for sustaining a per
manent agricultural population. Colo
a do and Utah have each an agricul-
tural prosperity which no citizen is
ashamed of, though it is based upon
an estimated cultivated area of only
about 1000, 900 acres.
The government has shown its faith
in the soil and climate of the Silver
State, and the great Truckee- Carson
irrigation plant, costing $4,000, 900,
makes possible an era of small farms.
at a moderate cost per acre for water.
In the extreme southern counties
the altitude is low, and the warm
breath of the Gulf of California comes
through the canyons of the Colorado
river, and here the fig, the olive, the
promegratate, the almond, the Persian
walnut, and in sheltered places even
oranges may be produced.
The climate covers a wide range.
and the fruits, cereals, vegetables and
grasses of the temperate zone and the
more delicate fruits of the semi-tropics
can be grown In suitable locations,
the apple will be a great money-maker.
and there is a fortune for a man who
will find the apple belt and judiciously
select the kinds to grow.
Htic ait SOHuC tHiHSo W icd1l
about farming in Nevada, but the ex
perts of the reclamation service and
the trained men of the state ~univer-
sity, whose experiment farm is devised
in the interests of the developing ag-
riculture, will help to solve any prob
lens growing out of the soil or the eli
mate, or both. But farming is not a
new thing in Nevada. We look to see
it change the rugged face of nature,
and the dry land become fruitful fields.
In the undeveloped condition of these
resources of the state the advantage
of the farmer is that he can buy "des.
ert' and sell garden And while
there are Goldfelds in the hills, there
will be markets for the farmer; and
together the man with the pick and
"the man with the hoe will make
the potential greatness of today become