Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-06-09
FRUIT ORCHARD
IS CULTIVATED
ON DRY QUARTER
Eddy County Man Shows What
Can Be Accomplished by
Hard Work Without Irriga-
ton Outside ArteSlan Belt,

ESPECIAL coaafapohpeNce TO MORNING JOURNAL
Artcsia, n. NJ, June S.--About six
miles southwest of Artesia is one of
the Illustrations OF what can be done
in New Mexico If man will but APP
ply himself to his work. 1t is the
quarter section homestead of j. Il.
Bowman, entirely outside of the ar
tesian belt, and taken up" long be-
fore any thought OF irrlgating the
desert by pumping had entered the
mind of John c. Keys. Ii is as near a
dry farm as anything can be in this
section. There Is a small pumping
plant over a shallow well on the place,
but this consists of a stroke pump
and a 2-horsepower gasoline engine,
and is used only as a last resort to
irrigate the orchard and growing
crops. II is used more often TO water
the garden stuff, which is planted
close to the pump house so the wa
ter will not be carried far, but near
ly all of the growth on the place has
been made without what we term
irrigation" The water necessary
was supplied by rainfall, handled In
an intelligent manner.
There are apples, peaches, aprlcots,
pears, corn, beans, peas,
asparagus, sudan grass and other
crops on the forty acres actually
farmed by Mr., Bowman. Everything
is clean and well kept. Chickens. pigs
and cows so to help make the profits
from the farm. With all of the hard
work necessary to reclaim home
from the dry land Mr. Bowman has
found time 20 plant roses. and keep
them alive and Towering. one side of
the cottage is nearly covered with
crimson ramblers.
Splendid Peaches.
The best part of the orchard con-
sists of 400 peach trees, years old.
They are trimmed low, after the Cali
fornia method, and have not been
since 1913, yet expert fruit
men estimate the crop from the 400
rees at not less than 900 bushels, !
md some claim that as high as zoe !
bushels of first-class fruit will be
aiken from the little orchard. AL |
hough nearly two years has passed |
'ince water was pumped on the land, |
here is over six feet of moisture in |
he ground in the orchard.
Mr.. Bowman's method of farming
imply consists of saving what he
;ets. There is never a drop of water
Toes to waste on his place. when he
pumps from the surface well the
water is carried to different places
n pipes, and applied directly where
t will do the most good. There is 1
many a man in the Pecos valley who
wastes more water on twenty acres
very year than Bowman uses on his
orty. When 1t rains he likewise saves
IL of it, He plows, and harrows until
he top is covered with a dust mulch
efficient to hold the moisture in the
round. And he is now working out
new irrigation scheme, whereby he
an use the drainage from the 100
ores of idle land to irrigate the forty
ores he has in cultivation.
Two main bitches will be made
cross the bare one-twenty, leading
o different parts of the cultivated
orty, which is on the northeast cor
er of the homestead, and is the low
st part of the land. Into each of these
lrge bitches will be run small later
Is and into these laterals still small
r ones, until the entire system will
nuch resemble system of irrigat-
ne bitches set up backwards. BY
means of these bitches the natural
ainfall on the uncultivated land will I
e conveyed TO the cultivated part of
he land and there stored in tanks
4 the ground by Mr. Bowman's care
al methods of moisture conserva-