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Show Desert Farm Experiment About midway between Mack and Grand Junction, Colorado, is Fruita and near Fruita is aj farm of 3,000 acres. This farm as attracted attention from far and near- T. W- Ross, a writer for the Technical World Magazine Maga-zine published in Chicago, has written a valuable article about the ranch and the young man who started it The article will be read with so much interest that it is reproduced in the Free Press and is as follows : Drive fourteen dry, drab miles from Fruita, near Colorado's western boundary. Mile after mile you cross deadly dull' prairie, prai-rie, where the hum of the grasshopper grass-hopper is sweet music, because it tells of some sort of life- As you rise over the crest of a hill, there, in the near distance, lies a painted ranch on the painted desert. It looks like a mirage, so strange is it, after what you have passed th rough-But rough-But there before you f.rc the young orchards, the oat fields, the up-to-date bungalow and farm buildings. --Tiyrt'syoung Bob Lazear's three-thousand-acre experimental experiment-al farm," j'our friends explains to your questioning and statements state-ments to the effect that it looks too real to be real- "Lazcar is a young Chicago chap who grew' tired of club life in the city and wanted to get out and investigate this 'country life' business for himself. He's been out of college two years and is only twenty-four years old" Lazcar never had been on a, farm and didn't know a field of clover from a sugar-beet patch. I He went to Colorado after he! graduated from the engineering school at the University of! Michigan. He took a tix mojiths course in the Colorado Agricul-! tural CV!ie?c- - th?r. v-- J " Weten Colorado. r'roo tool-Up tool-Up one-up-1 - "-ty-acre das-.flr--'"-" uid lived on it nine months to prove up on it. . Then he turned system Tanner- His father, a wealthy CiV;-jroan, CiV;-jroan, headed a indicate tucl look up u ree tho.and acres surrounding sur-rounding the youth's claim- The entire tract, backed by shining clay hills and surrounded by nothing but the desert of which it was a part, 'was growing nothing noth-ing but sagebrush, prairie dogs, and ravenous jackrabbits. The young tenderfoot was given full j swing and a bank account a ' husky one, at that- His father I and associates are gambling a I iamy large sum of money, say one hundred thousand doll ; that Bob Lazear can beat the desert, and not only make the farm pay, but pay well. If it pays expenses for the next four or five years until the apple trees begin to bear the backers will be satisfied- The irrigation was a particularly particu-larly knotty problem. Streams were too far away for pumping and Wells-were out of the question- Back of the broad acres of the Garmesa Orchards for that is what the farm is called there is a range of low mountains moun-tains sunbaked hills they appear ap-pear in contrast to their near neighbors of the Rockies. The snows fall deep there and engi neers told Lazcar that a small watershed had been formed there by Nature- Here was devised a unique irrigation system. A res- j ervoir was constructed, first. for! a capacity of two thousand acre-! feet and then the dam was ra?s-i ed to make the capacity twice the original- Here the melting1 snows and rainfall collected. But the addition to the dam failed to hold and more than half .the water was lost last summer, causing considerable damage to crops and grief to the young ranchman. The dam 13 now being be-ing repaired witlv reinfoicod concrete and no further trouble is fipected from this quarter- j Willi his irrigation problem settled, the question of water for drinking purposes wt-.s uppermost. upper-most. Hauling was too expensive expen-sive and a well was out of the question- A modern distilling plant was installed at a cost of fifteen hundred dollars ar.d the murky irrigation waters were turned into absolutely pure water. wa-ter. Records are kept of the cost of fuel and labor and the amount of water- Already, the system has proved a relatively ap boon to. the ranch. During the summer months, when the horses are doing maximum labor they get distilled water and the milk cows get it at all times The ranch is fourteen miles from the nearest town Fruita. The road was nothing more ihvJi a bumpy trail, although the right of way was fairly level- Lazear built a new road, making several cutolTs that saved considerable distance and some bad climbs for the horses. Good roads is one of the youth's hobbies, because be-cause his books show that bad roads cost more- Therefore, in his business, as far as possible, bad roads must go. The Gar-mea Gar-mea farm is to be a fruit ranch with about half the acreage in apple and pear trees, which Lazcar La-zcar found would thrive best in his climate and would bring the highest returns- Old fruit growers grow-ers scoired at the idea of even planting trees, let alone developing devel-oping them into paying propositions. proposi-tions. He went to experts- He told them of his soil, baked by the sun of centuries. They told him to use dynamite- He did, exploding explod-ing a half-stick of the powder in each tree hole, which loosened loosen-ed the ground for z e-1- f eet around, forming - natural moisture mois-ture resci-vaT and gave he root I fibers 'f thpyoung trees a chance f 4.-.d. The nitvj.gcn in the ! powder served, as a fyix-uuzcr,- j later . experiments proved. A ifew trees were planted without Jihe explosive and-they failed to 'make half the showing- that their moie modern rivals did- The trees grew and flourished in the hot sun, despite the fact that they had no artificial irrigation after June first, owing to the breaking of the dam. But the soil was kept loosened around the trees in the most approved dry-fanning method- These trees made a better growth during dur-ing the first year, than many of the new orchards in the Grand Valley that had plenty of irrigation. But for proper fruit growing, the climate must be right- The expert horticulturists told Lazear La-zear that apples and pears would grow if treated well enough, but that frost conditions would determine deter-mine the future of the ranch as a paying fruit growing locality. local-ity. Lazear wanted to know' about weather conditions, so he installed a weather bureau on his farm- It is as completely equipped as any government station sta-tion and it cost fifteen hundred 'dollars, but Lazcar says he has the satisfaction of knowing that his records will show that under normal conditions his location is an ideal one for fruit growing. Frost come early in the spring and late in the autumn, his rec ords show-Oats, show-Oats, hay, and sugar beets were planted last season. To obtain ob-tain the best results he got government gov-ernment expert advice about the J best seed- This he purchased, 'although it cost him twice or three times as much as the ordinary or-dinary ?ced. Grimes alfalfa was; grown along side of a tract plant- j cd with ordinary seed- Both tracts received the same treat-; mci:t. The better seeds with-j stod the drought better, made' twice the growth, and the seed j v.T.s ii fty per cent heavier- From ' .!:: of the better r.lfaU-i patch, a much larger plot will; be planted for seed purposes next j year and in the yer following the one hundred a: re .3 of alfalfa will be planted with this. By this method there will be alfalfa adapted to his conditions- It will take time, but it will be worth money. A daily record is kept of every horse, the kind and quantity of its feed, its weight, and the kind of work- The same with the cattle, cat-tle, with additional records for milk production. He knows, after af-ter a few weeks, what brings results re-sults and when the animal itself is below standard Like every well-managed farm, the Garmesa place has large poultry pens in connection. Only pure-stock hens arc bred- Every hen has a number on her leg and in the bookkeeping system. The nests are provided with traps and when a hen lays an egg she is held captive until released and her number taken- So Madame Hen must keep the pace. Records Rec-ords of her feed and her eggs are kept and if she fails to deliver de-liver the eggs she goes to the dinner table- Lazear feels that it will be severa years before his plan has been worked out, but also ber lieves that when the time comes, he will have a ranch that will bring results in cash. In two years he hopes to have the farm paying expenses with the staple crops, while waiting for the fruit trees to grow-Whenever grow-Whenever he gets a knotty problem, he goes to the state or government experts in that particular par-ticular problem. "Do I like it out here? You bet I do feel that," and he extended ex-tended a bronzed arm-Swinging arm-Swinging a golf club never produced biceps like those, nor did the tennis court brinp ntan like his, J3.vr Vrieaance give an ai??cfite like the one he demonstrated- |