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Show ARROWHEAD VALLEY The August number of the Arrowhead Arrow-head Magazine, which has just been distributed, contains several articles boosting SouthwesternUtah, especially especial-ly the Escalante Valley, which includes in-cludes all that par' of Utah from Black Rock to Modena, and lying on boih sidc-i; of the Union Pacific railroad. rail-road. After a glowing description of that part of the valley located near Modena, Mo-dena, C. G. Haskell, formerly Senior Irrigation engineer, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and a recognized authority au-thority on underground water says the following flattering things about Milford and vicinity: "Conditions are so much like those near Milford, Utah, that there is no doubt that alfalfa seed can be grown in large amounts over a considerable part of the valley. If the present developments de-velopments continue, the day is not far off when this valley will equal that new and popular seed-growing section south of Milford, Wtah. "Since the valley south and east of Beryl is in many respects a second sec-ond Milford Valley and conditions, such as soil, sub-irrigation, climate and irrigation by pumping are about the same, what has been done near Milford may be taken as an inlica-tiou inlica-tiou of what is to be expected near Beryl. "Alfalfa seed product' ion in the valley south of Milford is only four years old, and then its discovery was somewhat accidental. Some alfaKa land, which was started with a very poor stand in 1917. had lost the canal can-al water right, due to a court decision deci-sion and had been open to range cattle, and ithus eaten close. A neighbor neigh-bor secured permission to keep his cows on this land for keeping np the fences. When he saw that it was going go-ing to make seed, he cut what he could on the best patches between the greasewood brush which had tak en the field and sold $33uO worth of seed. The price received was about 26 cents per pound as it came from thet hresher. Since then his land has been re-brushed and is gradually gradual-ly re-seeding itself. Last year, $9,100 worth of seed was sold from 200 acres, which has a poor stand. The owner says that for several years that part of his field, wh,ere there is a n'and, has made him 10 bushels at 60 pounds to the bushel of alfalfa seed to the acre. "Some new alfalfa, which has been sprouted by water from tells. has begun to produce seed, Mr. C. C. Sloan made 11 bushels of alfalfa seed per acre and Mr. Harold Henrt-rlckson Henrt-rlckson sold $S4.00 worth of seed ner acre from his field. There has been no failure during the four years that seed has ben grown. "A small section along the Beaver River, north of Milford, known as Beaver Bottoms, ha? ed a good seed country for years. Several farmers intha;f section have produced enough seed in one year to pay for their farms. "Alfalfa seed is one of the most exacting of. crops. Soil condition?: are important. There should be a certain mineral content in the soil . therefore there-fore some indications of salts are not bad. The subsoil should not he too porous to prevent the roots from penetrating it or groundwater from rising through it by capillary attraction. attrac-tion. Sub-irrigation helns greatly by giving a uniform supply of moisture. There should no the too nMich rain or thp plant wilil all go to vegetation. vegeta-tion. The humid regions of the V. S. cannot produce alfalfa seed, and even ev-en in the sub-humid pection they have verv many failures. Early, and psneciallv late frosts, are important factors. High altitude is an important impor-tant factor in (bp success' of the cron and some wind, but not hot winds, helps the nollinization. These limiting limit-ing conditions are found ?0' nearlv favorable in all rn-nppf? in southwestern south-western Utah and .are found so favorable favor-able In so few outside place? that the greater part of the alfalfa seed .used in the United States will, in time, be grown in three southwestern southwest-ern counties of Utah. "Too much or too little moisture jare the most frequent causes of fail-; fail-; tire, and where seed is grown by ! .:.ub-irrigation and no irrigaetion is practiced after the plants have started properly, the moisture conditions con-ditions will be. so uniform that failures fail-ures will be very seldom. "In my own case I have purchased land near Milforl, put in a well and I first class pumping plant, bought seed, paid power bill, have done fencing, brushing, plowing, corrugating, corru-gating, bordering and irrigating through the first season for less than a water right usually costs. "PROFITS An 80-acre alfalfa seed farm should according to average aver-age figures given by both the State , and Federal Departments of Agriculture Agri-culture regarding average yields and prices, pay $2000 a year above expenses, ex-penses, if work is hired done at prevailing pre-vailing price. This is 8 per cent on more than $300 land. The above fig-urea fig-urea are based on a yield of five bushels per acre and at a price of 10 cents per pound. If Grimmes Alfalfa is grown the present prices will nearly double the returns of ordinary alfalfa seed. "CATTLE AND SHEEP As more alfalfa is grown, both hay and chaff can be fed to cattle and sheep, which ore raised in the surrounding country. "GENERAL The elevation is 5000 feet. The climate is very healthful. heal-thful. There are a few days warm enough to be uncomfortoble during the summer and there are a few ' cold periods during the winter. The dry climate lowers the effects of heat and cold. The surface soils generally general-ly make good road materials. The main line of the Union Pacific railroad rail-road passes through the valley, connecting Salt "Lake" City and Los Angeles. Recently the railroad has constructed o branch line between Lund and Cedar City. The Columbia Steel Corporotion is preparing to develop de-velop lorge iron deposits at Iron Springi'i. These developments, together to-gether with the advantages to be had from thousonds of tourists who come each year to see some of the wonder sights of America, such as ZIon National Na-tional Park, Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breoks, North Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado and the Kai-bab Kai-bab Forest, will greatly help to develop de-velop the country and offer markets I for what is produced. In addition, Mr. Haskell says: "There are millions of acres of land in various Western States which have but little value because they are not so situated that irrigation water can be secured. The lands of this valley are so situated that water is available to irrigate much of the area, but better still, at least after the second year of irrigation, alfalfa will make hay and seed with no more irrigation for years. Tn this way the land can be planted to alfalfa and after it has once become established, very little water will be used. The cost of irrigation water, that of i pumping and applying it to the land. will thus be eliminated. Also it is not so necessary that the land be so completely leveled and the field ! ditches be kept up as is the case where irrigation is practiced every .season. Sub-irrigation becomes possible pos-sible because the groundwater i?. so near the surface of a parf of the area that alfalfa roots will go down to the ground, which is kept moist hv capillary attraction from the groundwater. While in some cases it mav take more than two seasons to enable the roots to- enter the mois j earth, on some ofthe area, where the j water is near the surface, the land on which alfalfa l". snrouted during j July and August and irrigated dur-jing dur-jing the early part of the next sum- mer. may grow without more Irrigation, Irriga-tion, thus requiring one full irrlga- ting season. "WATER LEVEL The ground water level varies from less than seven, to more than eight feet from the surface. At present prices ot farm products and of power, it will probably no pay to pump where the water is at a greater depth than fifty feet. Sub-irrigation should not be expected where the depth of water Is greater than sixteen feet, although in time the alfalfa roots will penetrate pene-trate deeper into the soil. When the country becomes more settled and prices for farm products Increase and the power rates are lowered, pumping pump-ing may be practiced from greater depths than fifty feet. The greater part of the valley lies too high to be irrigated by pumping at present. The water under this large area, will act as a storage reservoir and flow down to the lower ground as needed. "WELLS Wells for this valley should be sunk through all the water-bearing formation and cased with la.rge casing which has as many openings 1-4 inch wide as possible. Screened graael ishould be placed outside the casing. "WELL CASINGS The most popular pop-ular well acsing is a sixteen-inch galvanized steel or Armco iron,, lap rivited pipe made of sixteen gauge metal. It has a vertical cut one inch long and 141inch wide for every one and one-quarter square inches or 20 per cent of the outside surface of the well casing. Another type of well casing consists con-sists of key-stone-shaped wooden slats nailed together but spaced 1-4-ineh apart by wooden wedges to make a wooden well casing sixteen inches in diameter. This is cheaper than metal, and for the part of the well below the lowest points 1o which the water is to be lowered, it does very well. Some very good wells have been secured with this casing. "COST OF WELLS AND PUMPING PUMP-ING PLANTS The cost of wells and pumping plants which are installed, varies according to the trouble en-counterer en-counterer and what equipment the owner could get cheaply. They would vary in most cases from $800 to $1200. If electric power is supplied and large completely perforated casing cas-ing is used, the cost will be about $1500 per second-feet of water secured." se-cured." INVEST AT MILFORD "I resigned my position three years ago from the Federal Department Depart-ment of Agriculture where I was in charge of groundwater for Irrigation and pumping investigations. After having done agricultural and engineering engi-neering work over the greater part of the country I decided that this offered of-fered the best opportunity I had found .and secured land near Milford. Mil-ford. which I am now developing. |