Imperial Valley press., 1908-03-14


 culture a year ago, and pigeon-holed because it was so different from the notorious "alkali report" that some armchair farmer could not believe it, has been printed as a Senate docu- ment thanks to Senator Flint.
 A copy of the report was sent by Senator Flint to The Press. It is document of 56 pages, containing de- scriptions of the valley, the Colorado river, the irrigation system, methods of preparing land and using water, in formation on soil, climate and pro- ducts and the organization of water companies, and brief history of the rivers invasion of the valley. It is a plain report by an engineer, and not in any sense or particular a boom for anything or anybody.
 Engineer Tait has collected and ar ranged vast amount of valuable in formation of the sort desired by re- chalmers of desert land. He has stated the facts concisely and without pre- judice or enthusiasm. The report is just cold blooded compilation of data by scientific investigator, and why the officials of the Department of Agri- culture should have feared that it would be used for advertising pur- poses" is not apparent
 hn for advertising disseminating accurate information about Imperial Valley. It contains the facts which are useful to irrigators and valuable to all persons interested in the recla- nation of arid lands, and there is not line of boom stuff" or ''hot air" in it.
 About three pages of the fifty-six are devoted to the products of I'm perial Valley, the figures being those of 1906. The report says in part:
 Valley Products.
 The leading products of the Imperial Valley are grain, live stock, dairy pro- ducts, and cantaloupeS, while grapes and asparagus and other vegetables may soon rank with the others. Bar ley is the great grain crop. The num- Der of sacks purchased for the grain harvest in 1906 was 500,000, indicat- ing the size of the. crop. Barley is grown also for pasture for live stock and much of it is pastured during the winter and allowed to make a grain crop in the spring The yields of bar ley range from to 20 sacks per acre. Twelve sacks per acre is probably an average. It has sold for 90 cents per sack, making the average return $10.S0 per acre. Many do not consider barley profitable as grain crop alone. Prac- tically all of it is pastured and this is the way to secure the largest return.
 Wheat is grown extensively in the early period of settlement, but it has now practically disappeared, barley being preferred as grain. Oats also are grown successfully, but there has never been large acreage.
 Kafir and Egyptian corn were grown in large quantities when farming was first begun about six years ago; these grew well, but sometimes the grain was entirely taken by birds. It was thought that corn was needed to fatten stock for market, but it has been found that barley is sufficient. In 1906 the area in Kafir and Egyptian corn dwindled down to few hundred acres. Sorghum was also grown in large quantities for feeding stock when the valley was first settled, but other crops have now taken it's place. A few fields of sugar cane have also been grown.
 The valley has over 10000 acres in alfalfa. Most of the alfalfa is pas tured with cattle and hogs, but some of it is cut and sold. There are usual ly eight or nine cuttings every year The yield is from to 10 tons per acre, ton at a cutting. It has sold for $5 per ton in the stack.
 CantaIoupe Crop.
 Cantaloupes were first grown in the valley in 1905 at Brawley. About 560 acres were planted. In 1906 canta- loupes were also grown at El CenUo and Holtville. The total acreage in the valley was 1175, and 113,194 crates were shipped. The average number of crates per acre for the total acre age was 96. The total gross sales amounted to $290,000 and S13O,OO0 was paid to the associations after deduct ing freight, express, and refrigeration charges and commissions. The eX penses of the associations were then deducted and $94,00O was paid the grow CTS. The earliest planting of canta'