The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1912-06-11
FEDERAL HELP
! FOR The FARMER
Department Of Agriculture to
Demonstrate IN North
COUNTRY TO Be DIVIDED.

Plans Under Way For Similar Work In
All Sections-co- operation of the
states-LocaI Governments to Do
Most of Experimenting.
Demonstration work on the northern
farms will be started by the depart
ment Of agriculture this summer. This
is the .outgrowth of the work started
In the south by the late DR.. s. A.
Knapp. The demonstration work now
embraces about 10000 southern farms
There has been persistent call for
similar work in the north, and the de-
partment of agriculture has decided to
work out comprehensive plan for the
whole country.
In general way the country will be
divided into five sections. These will
be the north Atlantic, the south At
lantic, the north central, the south
central and the western. These sec
tons will be under section superin-
tendent and an assistant, both of
whom will be as high grade scientific
farmers as the department can pro-
cure. These five main sections of the
country will be divided into districts,
each covering more than one state.
The district work will be under one
federal officer. Under him will come
the state and county superintendent
and agents, who will be state officials.
States to Do the Work.
Z Many of the states have already ar
ranged to cooperate with the federal
government in the demonstration work
and have made appropriations and ar
ranged for the counties to raise funds.
Congress has been so much impressed
by the outlook that 1t appropriated
$4,000 in the house to aid this work,
and when the bill went to the senate
$4,000 more was added. With the
original money this will make about
$250,000 available this year.
The federal government is going to
aim at having as much Of the actual
work as possible done by the states
and counties. The department Of agri-
culture has solved many problems gen.
orally affecting wide regions and will
work on more of the same sort, but
when it comes down to dealing with
state and local conditions the work
will be left to the state and county
officials.
The problem of demonstration farm
ing will be harder and more complicat-
ed in the north than it was In the
south. There 1t was largely case of
introducing diversified farming to make
up for the ravages Of the cotton boil
weevil. But In the north there is al
ready diversified farming, and there
will be the questions of labor, both hui
man and animal; crop rotation, inten-
siVe cultivation and lot of scientific
details such as the department has
been working out for long time, but
has seldom had a chance to try on an
extensive scale under real field condi-
tons.
May Eliminate AlkaI.
One of the important features for ex-
pertinent in the western section is the
elimination of alkali from irrigated
land. Ever since irrigation began to
be practiced In the west there has been
trouble with alkali. In some sections
1t Is worse than others, but the gener-
al experience of farming communities
ts that there is always more or less
trouble with alkaH after a long term
Of irrigation farming.
An important piece Of information
was found by Professor Swingle of
the department in recent visit to
Spain. There he found one section of
the country where irrigation had been
practiced ever since settlement and
where there was no alkaH trouble. The
explanation seemed to be In the fact
that there was a very small supply of
water available for the land to be
worked and the farmers had to stretch
each spoonful of water to the utmost
duty This gave clew to the most
OF the trouble in the west, which seems
TO be simply too much water. The
habit In this country Is to be wasteful
and to go to extremes with everything,
and 1t appears that the use of water In
irrigation is no exception 1t is thought
that by following the line of the Span
iardS In the more economical use OF
water not only can the same amount
or water be made to serve a great deal
more land, but much Of the alkali trou- \
bic can be obviated.