The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1915-12-03

! told Early I'd be in today. | don t
like to drive off and leave you. but
it'll take me a good hour and a half
to- make it, I've got between four
and FIVE tons on here Keep my paper
Homing; I'll get round to you one of
these days" He was already 100
yards away, yelling back and smiling
like the man in the MOON We look
ed at our note book and here Is what
we had jotted down while he was
hitching up the team.
Ansel Rupe: Beets, Is acres, 1S
to 20 tons, will plant 80 next year;
wheat, 2S acres, 25 to 40 bushels,
rabbits took five acres, watered two
and three times; hogs, 140; hay, 200
tons; fed sheep on land last four
years, will do it some more; has two
wells, gasoline pump; will plant trees
for windbreak, been using warm side
of hill, is great protection from
wind; says to thin beets as soon as
out of ground, cultivate quick, do it
again, don't water till obliged to,
neighbors watered too soon damage
crop; sowed wheat on alfalfa land
and raised wheat and alfalfa seed ga
lore. We went into the granary and
examined it. 1t looked like a gold
mine, for wherever one scooped up
a handful of wheat the rich yellow al
falfa seed would run through his
fingers. Rupe said he was saving it
for winters job with the tanning
mill, separating the two kinds of seed
gold We called it.
AS we looked around the place
some of the kiddies were topping
beets, others were "shooing" the
band of hogs back, another was driv-
ing the sheep away from the potatoes.
A queer contrivance stood on end at
the edge of hill half a mile away
and we asked Mrs. Rupe what is was.
She explained that it was G. A. Lines
pumping plant where he pumped
water from the canal into a flume
that conveyed it into his bitches to
water his desert. He used a traction
engine to pillow during the day and at
night he hitched it to the pump and
made it irrigate. The engineer slept
by it so if it cried for anything dur
ing the night he could wait on it.
We got into our little old rig and
drove away thinking about the diff
ference in people and the puzzles of
this world. Here were the Rupees,
children of the desert, working like
a lot of ball players bound to win;
within a mile were other families,
careful, thoughtful, studious, hard
workers, best of citizens, doing their
level best to get ahead, and had just
confessed that the crops were not
good this year. One man recited
his lineup of crops and each one pan
ned out badly, owing, he thought, to
a mistake in irrigating. Fifty-four
sheep had bloated and died during
the year in spite of the fact that he
had kept them right on the fields all
the time, and to add to the puzzle
they had all done their bloating on
windy days. Another man in speak
ing of his beet crop summed it up
this way. Il contracted to raise five
acres planted three, tended two and
will never raise another one There
goes my last load" And they were
l..
His wheat had made from 16 to rs
bushels per acre; he could raise 20
acres of alfalfa seed with the same
abor that is required for an acre of
Deets, and can get about 300 pounds
Der acre, worth $45. If he raised
only half that much it would be more
than the other crops. Yet
he Rupees a mile away boosted of
$50 to 500 on acre from beets and
we're going to feed sheep on the beet
ground and try to increase the profits
next year on a larger acreage.
We asked one of the thoughtful
leighbors what he thought about en-
young men in the middle
west to come to Idaho to farm. and
he said it was problem. Some of
hose who had already come had lost
Ill they had and failed. Some of the
cutters will fail anyW here he said
Will go back and work for wages all
heir lives and be buried in the pot
ers' field. The fellows who take
heir place on the desert will farm
)y other methods, will ride in fine
smoke good cigars and
celebrate the day they tackled the
enterprise. We thought he was right.
There was a streak of smoke on the
lorizon, train whistled going to-
ward Blackfoot. We looked at our
I'D watch, and We knew that Rupe
lad made it with his load of beets.
But how was that four-horse team
O get back? Why, one of the little
2upes could drive the team home.
t was institute week and there was
10 school, and you can't keep Rupe
rom doing things. 1t has been II
ears since they got that job cook
ng on the desert, and dad driving
team, and we repeat it, If there
we're 100 Rupees to the mile down
he canal for 40 miles that corner
f the county would be swimming in