OCR Text |
Show COUNTY AGENT MAKEHEPORT Much Accomplished During Past Four Months; Recommendations Rec-ommendations for Future The annual report of the extension exten-sion work in Washington county has recently been completed by County Agricultural Agent Walter F. Smith, covering the period from July 25, 1928, to December 1, 1928, a period pe-riod of four months. The work done by Mr. Smith in the short time he has been here is very creditable, and in his recommendations rec-ommendations for the coming year is found some sound advice, which by all means should be carried out We print herewith the county agent's summary together with the outlook and recommendations for 1929: Summary Began work in county on July 25, 1928. Held meetings in all the com-, - - y w Aib unities during July gust. Effected community organization to help with extension work. Held project leaders' training school on August 24, at Dixie College. Col-lege. Visited each town and assisted each project leader in putting out bait and dusting for insects. Conducted a survey of dairy condition con-dition in the county. Took soil and grain samples for analysis. Started commercial fertilizer for experiments. Assisted in sinking surface wells. Visited two hundred orchards and farms. Held six demonstration meetings on the peach tree bore. Assisted several fanners in rrur ing poison bait for rodent con" Assisted three towns in mt plans for beautification of hi grounds. Secured prices on cotton seed cak for stock men. ' Assisted in vaccination of 138 -head of cattle for hemorrliagic septicemia. sep-ticemia. Held several meetings and made many visits in the interest of dairy herd improvement. Assisted in importing three pure bred cows, three pure bred calves, and one pure bred sire. Assisted with plans for the construction con-struction of a trench silo and secured se-cured a co-operator. Organized a turkey producers cooperative co-operative organization. Secured the sorvices of a Nevada turkey grower to tour the county and give us some ideas on turkey growing. Secured the services of the Utah Poultry Producers Cooperative Association Asso-ciation to market the turkey crop. OuUook and Recommendations Washington county has been a livestock producing county since early days. At one time almost every ev-ery man owned cattle or sheep that ran on the public domain. But adverse ad-verse conditions such as overstocked overstock-ed ranges, together with several years of drought has caused many men to go out of this business. Today To-day we find very few stock men. They own the range rights, the cattle cat-tle and the sheep. Fruit growing has long been a major farm crop in some sections of the county. Of late years several sev-eral farmers are turning toward the production of vegetables. A combination combi-nation of fruit, vegetables and general gen-eral farming seems to offer the safest and most practical means of making a living. Many problems, water shortage . the annual rainfall in this pp, " the state is very low, avuj, about eight inches per year, water wa-ter shortage always comes during the summer months when the crops need moisture. This drought condition condi-tion presents several problems: First Among these is the idea that more water might be imjxmnd-ed imjxmnd-ed at the hea-j of the streams and the water let down as it is needed on the farms. Surveys and measurements measure-ments of the water run off should first be made to determine if SUch projects are feasible. j Second Test wells for irrigation purposes might be drilled with cooperative co-operative help in certain sections of the county. Third A cropping system might, be established which will tit in with this condition, for example, fall and Continued on page 4) i . ' COUNTY AGENT MAKES REPORT 'Continued from page li spring truck crops and fall and spring grains might be grown, thereby there-by allowing the small amount of water in the summer to be used on vines and trees. At present there is considerable abuse and waste of water rights. Some emphasis along the idea of more cultivation and more irrigation irriga-tion would hslp. Farm Livestock As is stated above, there are too few livestock on our farms, bringing about a depleted de-pleted soil fertility. Not only this, but waste feeds, ditch banks and weed patches could be better utilized uti-lized with more livestock systematically syste-matically handled and the farmer would thereby be furnished with more avenues of income. Small farm ilocks of sheep could be put on - every farm. Dairy farming Dairy farming which is the most fundamental of of all diversified farming, offers splendid possibilities in this county. The farms need fertility, the farmers farm-ers need the year-around job and salary, and the markets need the local production. At the present time there are 33,034 gallons of eream leaving St. George, Washington, Santa Clara, and Leeds districts, billed to Cedar City and Salt Lake City. Each year there are 11,384 gallons gal-lons of cream from Central, Veyo and Enterprise district, and 14,000 gallons from Hurricane, La Verkin and Toquerville district. There eomes back to St. George, Washington and Santa Clara, 20,000 pounds of butter, but-ter, 24,000 pounds of cheese, and 8000 gallons of ice cream, for which the farmer pays a high price. County Creamery We recommend the establishment of a local cream-erv. cream-erv. Better nrices for butter fat will encourage more and better dairying. The local consumption together with the ever increasing tourist trade will not be fully supplied by the present production. Turkey growing Turkey growing offers great promise as the diversified diversi-fied part of farming. This combination combina-tion works well with the dairy Jarm and the large alfalfa farms. Turkeys can be grown here at better bet-ter advantage than other livestock. Early, warm, dry springs are very favorable for starting young turkeys. tur-keys. With some stimulus this county coun-ty could produce from ten to twenty thousand birds for the Thanksgiving market instead of only one thousand. There are very few chickens in the county. Eggs sell at a premium almost all the year round. More than 140 cases of eggs were shipped ship-ped in last year. Poultry meat is selling at high prices. Very few i chickens are for sale. I Truck farming. Dixie has a de lightful early spring, usually plenty of water. Truck crops can be started start-ed in the fall and harvested very early in the spring. The prices for early vegetables are unusually high. Truck farmers should capitalize on the early climate. Last year some $50,000 worth of vegetables were liauled out of here as follows: 160 tons of onions, 250 tons of water melons and canteloupes, 16 tons of table carrots, 400 crates of lettuce, 350 tons potatoes and many other truck crops. Fruit growing Excellent fruit can be grown here, but unfortunately very little attention has been paid to controlling insects, proper prun-Jng prun-Jng and caring for the trees. Proper grading and packing of fruit has been neglected and consequently con-sequently a great amount of inferior in-ferior fruit has been sold out of the county and has brought ill repute re-pute instead of praise for the fruit. No attention has been given to controlling con-trolling the frost hazard and occasionally occa-sionally as was the case this year, all of the fruit was wiped out in some sections. More attention should be given to frost prevention. The fruit in the county, which is only part of a normal crop, is as follows: fol-lows: peaches, 262 tons; apricots, 4'i tons, pears, 2 tons, grapes 115 tons, pomegranates, 3 tons, nuts 2 34 tons, figs. 5 tons, apples, 12 tons, molasses, 14,500 gallons; honey :200 gallons. KayThe hay crop is abnormally short this year due to water shortage short-age and possibly also due to noxious nox-ious red top grass which crowds .the alfalfa crown and if the alfalfa is not cultivated and made to grow vigorously, it will be crowded out in a short time. Clover should be introduced to take the place of alfalfa. Some kinds will do well here and will supply an abundance of feed, and the weed problem will be controlled. Four hundred ten tons of hay have been shipped into St. George alone this year and is being sold at enormous prices. Speculators are taking advantage of this condition and the fanners are paying the price. Conclusion There must be more diversified farmings, more high producing pro-ducing livestock in proportion to the acres of land. There must higher yields per unit of investment. There must be more system in the use and distribution of water. The Dixie farmer far-mer must be more of a husbandman husband-man in building up and maintaining maintain-ing the fertility of the soil. There must be more wholesome cooperation coopera-tion among the farmers. All of these conditions must come and more too if agriculture is to succeed in Dixie, for it is a hard country with many .difficult problems. |