The daily sentinel., 1914-01-02
ABOUT HOME FOLKS
and
ABOUT HOME DOINGS

Mrs. Minnie Tuffley, of the Apple
ton section, two weeks ago wrote al
article for The Sentinel in which sh'
discussed the drainage and seepag,
questions, urging the adoption o
certain measures to prevent the us,
OF SO much water on our lands
Among other things she said that tn,
matter of drainage such as had beer
accomplished by E. H. Craven al
Copeco was a personal matter ant
could not be taken up by number
because they could not afford it.
In this she is mistaken as tn,
drainage laws passed by the last two
sessions of our Legislature have pro
vided a way by which drainage dis
tricts can be organized similar to oul
irrigation districts and the cost Of
the work met by the issuance oi
bonds running long time and at low
rates of interest. The amendment
adopted last winter provided that ths
expense can be taxed Just in accor.
dance with the amount of benefit re.
ceived. All lands in section car
be taken into district and the high.
er lands need not pay only so much
as it receives benefit and not just
equal to the low lands.
i This will eventually be the method
employed to drain the lands and IL is
row successfully in operation in the
| San Luis Valley where there are
three drainage districts and a great
deal of work has been accomplished.
There has also been a large amount
of successful work done in Montrose
county. Mr.. Miller, the drainage ex-
pert has done good work on the ex-
perimental tract east of the city but
IL could be easier and much more
cheaply done II we had a drainage
district in that section. Au expert
ment before the work was begun
developed the fact that wheat seed
would not sprout in the soil and
now there is good stand of winter
wheat on that land. Mr.. Miller says
that 1t was even a harder piece OF
land than he had expected and if
that can be made productive then
there is no land in this valley be-
yond salvation.
There is probably no other section
ir the state which needs drainage SO
in that county seventeen years ago
and one of my former Iowa friends
who had located there in, telling of
its advantages said that it did not
need much water as they were bless
ed with what he called "sub-irriga-
tion.' 1t Is not now called a bless
ing and the drainage laws were
passed by the efforts mainly of the
legislators from that section of the
state. In time our drainage bonds
will be as readily sold as is our ir-
rigation bonds and we shall reclaim
large tracts of valuable land. 1t
has been done with wonderful sue
cess in northwest Iowa where the
lands are very much more level and
difficult to drain.
Harry Sage. a successful fruit
grower of the Fruitvale section,
brought in n small box OF Jonathan
apples to the Grand Valley National
bank to show his method of keeping
them. They were wrapped in oil
paper such as is used on California
oranges and were as firm and hard
as when they were taken from the
tree; they had no sign of the stor-
age taste that comes with almost ev-
cry apple kept several months in any
kind of storage and were also free
from any signs of withering.
By the way, Mr.. Sage is one of
those growers who are making big
success of the business and has new
er had a complete failure during the
seven years he has been engaged in
1t. He was fireman for Denver &
Rio Grande Railway and had never
had any experience with orchard
work. He has made his orchard a
close study and always has had clean
and perfect fruit. His trees are his
pets and as as closely watched as his
fire in the locomotive.
The Sage orchard has quite a his
tory. In 1896 we had in the valley a
terrific rain storm lasting several
days when great streams of water
flowed through the city west OF the
new high school building. The big
ditch bank broke north of the Sage
land and the water flooded it with
sand and silt foot or two. The
owner thought he was ruined and
brought suit against the Big Ditch
for damages, but was defeated after
the case went to the supreme court.
Later l think he sold out pretty
cheaply. That orchard has never
had real poor crop since that time
and in the light of the developments
being made by the expert chemists
/ am wondering If that silt was not
as good as n thorough application
of fertilizer? The fruit is principal
ly apples-Jonathan. Rome Beauty
and Geniton. However, the fact
that business management is given
TO the orchard is mainly responsible
/ for the excellent fruit crops. If
am not mistaken Mr.. Sage did pretty
we'll last year because he had his
crop marketed long before the most
OF us and II was sold before the ap-
pie market took the big slump.
Another orchard which shows the
result of personal and intelligent