The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1913-10-31

AT TERRAL
swEET POTATOES BRING $42s AN
ACRE, WHILE ONIONS BRING
NEARLY $500.
USES RED RIVER UNDERTOOK
Or. L. D. Ewing Shows Wonderful
Results Of Intensive Farming on
Plat Of Eight Acres In
Jefferson County.

Siuhy hii6dtcu 5lA u elBnI acre!
ON his farm and has grown garden
crops which have netted startlins
sums. His sweet potatoes brought as
high as $425 an acre, and onions net
ted $3.50 off the same area. DR.. Ewing
though no longer young in years, is
one of the most progressive farmers in
Oklahoma. He took to irrigating two
years ago after drouth almost wiped
out his garden crops. He has expert.
mented with all kinds of crops and has
generally been successful.
DR.. Ewing installed ffteen-horse.
power gasoline engine. He attached
1t to No 2 centrifugal pump with a
two-inch intake and three-inch outlet
capable OF delivering about $50 gal.
Ions minute. His engine has ca
pacity OF 80 barrels a minute when
operating a larger pump. The well is
Il feet deep and there is a four-foot
basin OF water. A galvanized iron
casing six feet in diameter was sunk
into the sandy soil and the sand and
mud pumped out. There is an almost
inexhaustible supply of water, as the
Red river underflow extends several
miles on each side of the river bed
though the bed itself may be perfectly
dry in midsummer. There are about
10000 acres in the Red river valley
In the vicinity of Terral which could
be irrigated, and several farmers and
truck gardeners are preparing to fol-
low DR.. Ewing's example and make
use of the underfow. The lift is from
10 to 25 feet and can easily be handled
by the type Of engine installed by DIR.
Ewing.
So enthusiastic is the physician over
his irrigating scheme that he let's his
engine pump day and night without
stopping more than a few hours in
which to clean out the cylinders or to
allow 1t to cool His engine and pump
cost him about 5000 and he says 1t was
the best investment he ever made.
Last year when his neighbors had no
crops he was selling tomatoes at the
rate of $500 an acre and his sweet po
tatoes were bringing him from $500 to
$500 an acre. He says the outfit has
long ago paid for itself The engine
consumes about three gallons of gaso-
line in a day of ten hours. 1t is so
simple to operate that his twelve-year-
old son is entrusted with its manage
ment.
Thousand Bushels an Acre
On sandy loan land which once had
been the bed of the river DR.. Ewing
last year raised almost 1000 bushels
of sweet potatoes an acre, These he
sold for from so cents to $3.50 a
bushel. Waurika, Ryan and Chick.
asha, Okla, took part Of the crop, as
did Ringgold, Texas.
Onions also proved a success on the
Ewing farm. He sowed Prizetaker
and Spanish onion seed in rows and
thinned them after the plants ap-
peared. His yield was astonishing,
totaling about $500 an acre on part of
the field. He sold the crop for an
average of 81 and $3.50 bushel in
crates to Waurika and Ryan stores,
points a short distance from Terral
One-tenth Of an acre of cantaloupes
which DR.. Ewing irrigated brought in
$65
Summer Wakefield cabbage planted
by DR.. Ewing February 10th yielded
about 10 to IL tons an acre, which sold
for from to 21s cents a pound.
Caulinower grew with astonishing
speed and made crop on a small
scale which was rated at about $500
an acre, Several of the heads weighed
three pounds each, Irish potatoes,
also irrigated, yielded 800 bushels an
acre and sold for $1.25 to $1.6O a
bushel to nearby towns.
Land in the vicinity of Terral is
worth about $50 an acre and some is
quoted for less There are thousands
of fine bottom farms which could east
ly be irrigated with little expense and
labor. Farms that are barely paying
some years could be made to yield
handsome incomes with irrigation to
aid the crops. DR.. Ewing has preached
the doctrine of watering the fields for
years and his demonstration has been
an eye-opener to many.
irrigation inexpensive.
The expense Of irrigating is COM
paratively little. If the engine is OPP
Grated ten hours 1t will consume about
five gallons of gasoline, which costs
about 20 cents gallon. 1t takes from
one and half to two days to irrigate
an acre on the Ewing farm with the
bikes and bitches in use. Much water
is lost in the sand during transmission.
DR.. Ewing says that he intends to in
stall another pumping device which
will require an engine of only four
horsepower and which will bring the
water from depth of thirty feet to
the surface in buckets. He thinks ten
acres can be irrigated every ten or
twelve days at an expense of about
so cents day for gasoline. This
would be 50 an acre, which is low
when compared with the cost of irri-
cation in an up-to-date irrigation coun-
frv