Pueblo chieftain., 1921-01-31
FARMING WORK
BEING DONE
ALL THE Way

Somehow it is hard to get agricul-
There are no news papers in this re-
gion that receive farming information
from the wide, level counties beyond
the Kansas line, consequently many
of us are inclined to assume that
progress along that portion of the
Santa Fe trail is slow and that our
upper Arkansas valley is in measure
cut off from the east by the great
American desert"
Now we find that instead of this
there is a continuous line of GOOD
farming country the whole GOO miles
from Pueblo to Kansas City, as
sketched in The Earth by A. H. Berg.
who writes:
am farming 457 acres of land near
Lakin, Kearny county, Kansas, which
| bought several years ago. l studied
land for years before buying. travelling
in many states, and want to go on
record as saying that right here in
Finney and Kearny counties we have
the best farming country 1 have ever
seen.
My farm is located in the Arkansas
river valley of Kansas two miles east
of Lakin. The soil is what might be
described as made land-loose for
nation, containing as high as SIS per
cent lime. The soil and subsoil are OF
much the same character. Beneath
there is a deep bed of gravel in which
| is flowing n stream of water. lhis
underf'ow moves about a foot an hour
The soil is the kind that alfalfa, sugar
beets and other tap root plants thrive
in so well. So we have wonderful al
falta and sugar beet land.
Our country has a growing season OF
10 days. We have a rainfall OF ~
inches per year. Our rainfall Is not
ha
farm crops, altho over four-tifths of It
occurs during the growing perloo.
When there is a lack of moisture we
are able to irrigate our lands.
l have two systems of irrigation on
my farm-water from the river, car
ricd to the land by n system OF ditches
and a system of pumping the water
from wells sunk in the underhow de-
scribed My pump system is consuuG-
ted as follows: I have a No. 10 centrI
fuCal pump driven by electricity. II
has a Pinch suction and a 10-inch
DISCHARGE. The pump is connected TO
| a pipe u inches in size that draws tne
water from n series of twelve Weiis
driven into the undernow. These wells
are set in a row 30 feet apart ana are
"a feet deep and stand Il rect In wa
ter. Tho pump throws S,opo Sahons
| of water per minute.
| This is enough water to cover one
| acre a foot deep in less than 100 min
utes and an acre Is feet deep in "
hours This much water would sup
plv a city OF So 900 people. The water
| is pumped directly into the Irritation
bitches and spread over the land at
n cost of about 10 cents per acre Tor
each irrigation. This expense of %
cents per acre is th.- cost OF the cleo
| tricity.
At Garden City is located one of tho
largest beet sugar factories In tne
United States with capacity of 125
tons of granulated sugar each "a
hours The electricity is generated at
the sugar mill. We also use this cleo
| tric power in our homee
We can spread six inches OF water
over our land irrtgating our crops
without any damage and 1t surely
makes them smile and grow. On ac-
count of our soil being made land
the water rapidly soaks in and in n
| few hours it is all gone from sight.
The thoro soaking of the soil from an
irrigation really is effective.
We have land that is yet in the nat
ural prairie which will make the finest
of irrigated lands and can be bought
for $50 uer acre on good terms. Few
improved farms are changing hands.
There are good opportunities here
for the man who prefers to rent. Crop
rentals are onc-half the alfalfa, one
third the grain, one-fourth sugar beets
and melon seeds.
We got 10 cents a pound for water
melon seeds, 40 cents for cantaloupc
produces one-third of all tho canta-