Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-06-01
RanCherS Discussed
Methods at Talent

Fridays session of the institute at
Talent proved very interesting and
profitable.
Professor Lewis and other speakers
expected were not able to be present
at the morning session, and Professor
Allen, who has been making extern
sive Investigations of irrigation prob
lens from way up in Canada to down
into Mexico. gave very interesting
and valuable talk on thet subject.
Professor Allen spent the dry year
of 1908 in the Rogue River Valley
and is therefore well posted on local
conditions. He stated that he be-
lieved the product of the valley could
be increased from so to 80 per cent
by irrigation. He also expressed the
belief that the reduction in the
amount of cultivation necessary to
keep the soil moist would more than
pay the maintenance charge and that
the farmer and fruit grower would
find that water was we'll worth all
that it cost and then great deal
more. He said, however, that the up
keep charge of $3.50 per acre per
year as mentioned in the Jackson
county booklet seemed large to him;
that 81 was usually the maximum,
the charges running from that figure
down to 40 cents per acre. He was
not personally acquainted with the
irrigation propositions in this county
and could not speak from knowledge
but the amount looked large. With
irrigation would have to come drain
age to take care of the surplus water.
/ He also spoke on the economical use
of water, saying that the less that
could be used and full crop raised,
the better. not only because it was
better for the land. but left the water
for some other landowner who needed
it,
Professor Reimer followed and
stated that it was crime to permit
the water to go to waste that did in
the Rogue River Valley. He declared
that it was impossible for farmers to
make profit on the high-priced land
without water and stated that water
was the solution of many of the prob
lens of the Rogue River Valley farm
er and orchardist.
Professor Reimer also talked on
vetches and showed a number of sam
pies. The so-called Oregon vetch
(sand vetch or ''vicia sativia') which
has made the Willamette Valley FAM
Gus, he declared a failure in the
Rogue River Valley. while the hairy
vetch ("yicia villosa") was a decided
success. He showed plants raised on
the same field, planted the same day
and given the same culture, to prove
1t. He also showed the woolly pod
ded vetch and the purple yetch, which
are importations from abroad. and
which did well, but the seed is un-
available at the present time for Or
dinary culture. The United States
government is trying, however. to in
duce vetch raisers in various parts
of the country to raise the seed of
these varieties for the market. He
stated that the bitter vetch, which
proved so good in the Sacramento
Valley, was the very poorest of all the
varieties tried out at the Talent ex-
pertinent station.
Immediately after the noon recess
r. w. Elden of Central Point talked |
on the value of sweet clover. He be- |
gan by warning farmers against buy
ing the seed of the annual sweet clo-
yer as 1t is worthless and grows as
weed in the California wheat fields |
Inscriptions farmers and dealers re-
clean 1t after the seed Is cleaned out
of the wheat and sell 1t as sweet clo-
yer, the ignorant supposing they are
getting the biennial. &c.
Mr. Elden is an ardent champion of
sweet clover, declaring that 1t will
grow on the most barren hills in the
valley. 1t secures its sustenance al
most entirely from the air. and he
showed plants three and four feet
high, one of which he found growing !
in a brick wall at the abandoned
bs!ck yard at Tolo. the seed having
lodged in the mortar two feet above
ground. Another plant shown was
one Of good stand growing in the
brick pavement in the old kiln. Sweet