The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1922-09-07

clover and other plants, whose roots
| fill the soil with plant food, and with
| livestock and intensive farming they
will lift the mortgages and erect
modern buildings to house purebred
creatures that sell for high prices.
In five years from now it will be
much in evidence--in ten years 1t
will be the wonder of those who are
now leaving the farms in disgust. A
lot of people from the Mississippi
/ valley will come in and do 1t for us
4 and pocket the money.
| Old Settler Talks
Charles Lyon lives east of Basalt
and was one of the early settlers
| there. He remarked about the hard
times and said they are not hard as
compared with the days of early set
Element when they were not only
without money, but had but little
food. He recalled the days when
Basalt was not on the map and there
was only what was called Cedar
Point Store" and settlers were so
hard put that boiled wheat was
often their food, with jack rabbits
and rutta bagas, potatoes and car
rots when they could get them. Now
they all have an abundance of food
and the hard times are manifested
merely in the lack of money. He
recalls a season when they had
boiled wheat and squash for their
diet for a good while, not as fad,
but the only things they had to eat.
Mr.. Lyon said they used to have a
simple canal government that was
effective and inexpensive. He said
that in 1907 they paid the water
master $3.50 for the year and the
secretary $3.50, and everybody
seemed to have good water service.
In recent years they have four or
/ five water masters and couple OF
ditch walkers and there is much dis
satisfaction. The cost of the water
service has mounted tremendously
for the total and it has gone up for
the individual. The old theory was
that as more lands were put under
cultivation they would pay their
proportion of the assessments for
the upkeep of the ditch, but it works
out the other way just like the taxes
THE more people there are to pay
it, the higher it is for the individual,
and in their canal east of Basalt
they receive. less water. He says
/ they used to clean out the obstruc-
lions in he canal once year and get
a large volume of water, but now
the willows and weeds grow up
along the ditch banks each year and
the silt settles among them and 1t
fills up solid and narrows the canal
and cuts down it's capacity, but this
Is not cleaned OUT and yet the cost
of upkeep keeps increasing. He
says that when he talks to the Of
ficers of the ditch company about
these things they tell him they have
greater efficiency under the present
high cost. He says it doesn't con-
vince him, merely to have less water
at higher cost.
| Mr.. Lyon has retired from farm
ing in the field. He just takes care
of five-acre tract about his home
and has plenty of garden truck and
variety of fruits in abundance. He
has very nice apples and has been
giving away a good many of the
yellow transparents, they perish SO
quickly after ripening If they are
not used. He had some apple trees
that did not bear we'll, and some
body advised getting iron rust into
the ground, and he drove a lot OF
spikes in about the roots and the
response was neavy crop of fruit.
The theory is that apple trees re-
quire a great deal of iron and any
rusty irons in the ground keep set
ting free the materials which the
tree seeks thru it's root system.
Tells How to Save Money
| F. S. Robson lives west of Goshen
and has Just about conquered a
sandy farm that was rolling and
would not take water. He has done
| a great deal of grading and advises
that farmers adopt the idea OF
diversified crops and quit rebelling
against it. He recommends the
large garden with liberal amount
of beans, peas, onions, sweet corn
squash, beets and other vegetables
and all kinds of berries, coupled
with willingness to put them ur
for winter use. People live well
when they give attention to these
things, and If they do not have
enough of them they should enlarge
the garden tract until they do. II
row of beans is not enough they
can easily plant two rows or q
dozen. He says he has always raised
tract of soup beans each year and
| finds them perfectly safe and pro.
fitable crop. Beans can generally
be sold at profit that is greater
than the profit from potatoes, but II
one does not care to sell beans he
should have few bushels for home
consumption and put them into
more steady use as people do pota.
toes. Mr.. Robson says that If peo-
pie do not have enough raspberries
and canned apples and strawberry
preserves to supply them, the thing
to do is to enlarge the tract until
they do. There is no use In just
having taste of these things when
there might just as well be abun.
dance thruout the year.
| Mr.. Rabson says that nearly all Of
nc b,v our Gordon cnndc ut a seed