Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-08-29

! CTS per acre ~ NOT uuCpilhlVhi "i'u Wv
bushels not rare.
! Utah barley is considered superior
to any other produced In the country.
| 1t is thin skinned very heavy ana
! weighs over 80 pounds To the bushel'
| Southern counties produce an average
of 81 bushels per acre.
The sugar beet has produced as high
az SO tons per acre. The average pro
| ductiou OF beets por ucre in Utah IS
/ over u tons that of Germany, 10 to II
| tons, OF Nebraska, S tons. About 30
| 600 acres are devoted TO sugar boets.
| The product Is $4,000 tons OF sugar pcr
year Lehi, ogden. Logan, and Gar
land have sugar factories The plant
Mt Leh was the FIRST In the inter-
mountain region. installed while the
beet sugar industry in America was
yet in its infancy.
Sugar making machinery was pur-
chased In the sos In Europe and
hauled from the Mississippi to salt
Lake. only partial success was at
tanned with this plant. The modern
factories are among the largest in the
United states; they declare regular
dividends and employ an army of labor.
Whole communities cultivate the sugar
beet; to its growth the soil seems pc
Culiarly adapted.
The extraction of sugar from the
pulp of the beet is a triumph of chem
lCdl SCltiCt. l uC DcSl pup dlitI los
ing its sugar, becomes food for cattle
and sheep; molasses is another by
product.
Among other forage plants, clover,
timothy, and red top hay. are largely
grown, easily cured and of excellent
quality. The native bunch grasses OF
the hills are likewise very nutritious.
Utah beats the world for potatoes,
said the late Secretary Rusk.
The Utah uOtatO is famous for size
and quality, the yield running from 100
to sou bushels to the acre. Other vegc-
tables bear a similar reputation.
Owing to the almost continuous ac-
ton of the sunshine in the growing
gcason. Utah fruits ripen superior in
sweetness, firmness beauty, and fine
flavor The peach especially thrives
on light. gravelly or loamy soil. Many
of the towns are buried in masses of
pink peach blossoms in June. Apricots,
cherries, nectarines, apples, pears,
pluns. prunes. and all the small fruits
thrive, In the extreme south. figs,
romegranates. cotton and tropical pro-
duets, along with peaches apples, mel
Uns, grapes, etc. extraordinary as to
size, quality, and total yield, show what
the horticulture of those regions will be
when railroads reach them.
The biennial report OF the state board
of horticulture shows the status of the
INDUSTRY anu may ne ODlhllleQ by VIII
Ing to the secretary.
THE TWO PROBLEMS.
For successful arid farming. two
problems are To be solved: First. 80
catch all the rain of winter; second,
to keep II from evaporatng during the
summer. The first object is attained by
deep blowing in the fall. In this way
about 81 per cent Of the winter mois-
tute may be retained till spring Then
the land should he narrowed SO as to
form thick, fine mulch of pulveriZed
soil at the surface, TO prevent evap-
Grafton the narrowing should be re
ueatod not long after every rainfall.
No weeds should be permitted to grow,
since they consume the soil moisture.
soil is composed of rock grains of all
sizes. 1T must be made less like Il solid
substance and more like sponge
TILED with spaces between the grains,
50 that II has plenty of capillary tubes
in which moisture can be held
HOW MOISTURE Is LOST.
Soil moisture is lost in two ways:
% the free water percolates or sinks
downward until 1t is lost to the roots
Of the plants. OF (2) the water is lifted
by capillary attraction to the surface
of the soil. and escapes into the air by
evaporation In the arid west. little
of the soil water Is lost by sinking.
ARID FARMING.
That 1t Is possible. in the semi-arid
re Sions. to mature good crops without
irrigation, was discovered thro'lSh 90
serNation in Utah as cary as 1860. At
Il npts were made In the early fiftics,
but without much success, 10 grow
dry wheat" on portions Of farms pre-
viously irrigated. About i've years
later the farmers at Bear River city, !
iinding that their lands had been |
spoiled by the accumulation of salts |
from irrigating with the waters of Ma |
lad river, secured a crop from new |
sagebrush land without water. Father |
Layton had similar success ON the sand |
ridge south Of ogden. By the early |
eighties the fact that certain lands |
could be made productive without ir-
ttaton, was quite generally accepted, 1
md . years later the practice was |
ventured upon In central
md southern Utah. Dry farming has
loW become an industry or great
promise. In Utah alone ,nere must be
nom 10 to 20 million acres of dry
and that may thus be reclaimed.
Practical proof of the methods that
make dry farming profitable I'm each
new section Is Ike the discovery of
arge areas of virgin soil before un-
Grown yet located at our very doors.
I is also known that the use of TOO
much water teaches or washes away
litrates and potash from the soil.
caVing 1t poor. while the water car
.yins these various minerals then
lows down 70 the lower lands, maxi
ms them alkaline and unfit for good
N ming. Less water greater service,
ma no injury to lower lands is now
he aim