The Richfield recorder. (Richfield, Idaho) 1909-1931, 1909-09-16

er.
On the Settlers Reclamation {
Operating Company farms, adioinin,
the town of Jerome the first thresh
n On the north side of the Snak,
river for a hundred miles, started
work on Thursday 1t is a Case
steel steamer, with wind stacker and
everything worthy of starting a great
aew industry. It's first field Of grain
vas 40 acres of oats, adjoining town
mated from the partial completion
If the job, would yield close to so
bushels to the acre It's all oats,
90, the regular heavy stuff such as
he fastener never saw or heard OF
Weighing IS pounds to the bushel.
The grain was grown on land clear
ID last spring, and put into cutiva-
lion for the first time The Settl-
ers company is starting farming op-
,rations on a great scale; having
close to 1000 acres to be put into
erop for ten years. The quantities
1f potatoes, alfalfa, red clover, and
grain that the company is preparing
0 harvest this year, would surprise
my one who might have visited the
'cetion four months ago, some of
ne land was put into crop only SO
lays ago. yet very creditable pota-
,oes and other crops are oeing grown
sven there. Their operations viii be
4 revelation to most new comers,
Who are not prepared to see the best
Of western methods brought to so
lew a land, on so large a scale. But
he painstaking care given to the de-
.ail work on the big farms, shows a
.eaE farming genius on the part OF
he managers.
It has been said that alfalfa win
positively never seed the first year,
specially on new, raw soil It has
oeen dinned into the ears of all who
would hear, that alfalfa needs to be
noculated in this country for the
growth of bacteria that makes it
Weld the best. But the crops of al
falfa raised all through this section,
the very first year, and the fine de-
gelopment Of seed pods on the plants
that are dead sure not older than
Way or June, shows that the state (
nent is not true in any particular.
The great crops of alfalfa seed rails I
d in the Hagerman Valley last year,
where some of the farmers netted
$125 per acre, and would have re-
ceived twice that had they held the
seed for the ordinary retail price in
the spring, shows that this is the
greatest alfalfa producing country
in the West When seed grows
from the first years planting up on
The uplands at Jerome, as the Lead
or and Prof Guilford found it grow
ing, it is safe to say that the alfalfa
ieed growing area of Idaho isn't lin
ted to the Snake river valley pro-
per, but that it extends all around
lere, and that it promises a crop
hat Will make gold mines and rail-
'oad stocks look sick. It is not
)it bad placer ground that will pay t
1925 net per acre, and then the &
sround is ruined forever, for min &
ng or any other purpose, but the al |
alta seed grower ca j get that much {
his year, and next year, and the year {
fter that, and SO on until he gets r
ired of riches and becomes a tramp t
or sheer ennui. q
Some of the smaller tracts of po- &
atoes on the experimental farm are b
to yield not less than 400 D
ushels per acre. Tl IS too, is on land a
leared of sage brush only last spring +
our months ago. A number of vari- r.
ties Of potatoes are being grown to
est all the better varieties and de- 3
what is best adapted to
lis section. Oats and wheat are be-
lg tested in the same way. The Dick c,
owe, or Dicklow wheat, and the Big q
our oats, are among the winners r,
Jerome has forty miles Of street p
'es, all set out last spring ana ear 81
summer. Most of them are grow u
g finey, only about per een- have =,
( d, despite the hard conditions for
Ie first year Mr Guilfor dset out =
ternate, avenues of NAPLES and in : {.
ms, the trees SO feet apart with
arolina poplars, in between, max /!
g the trees as they now stand, 25 II
ct apart. The popIars, which are II
It so long-lived as the others, are /
be cut eventually, and leave the |
aples and elms so feet apart, which
none too far for a good shade
)rk elms and hard mapes were
nong Mr. Guilford's first choice II
r permanent trees, because of their
rdiness, and their perfect symme- III
Y and dense shade; but the trees Il
uid not be secured last spring. II
Tho con1nanv has dono q ,ncnu- ~