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Show I ARID. FARM EXCURSION. H Farmers and Tlicir Wives Visit the H Experiment Farm. H AN EXCELLENT CROP OF RYE. H Oood Prospects for Arid Farming H Succeeding in Iron County H Loftlioiisc Wheat. H Those unfortunate individuals wlio H failed to find thno to attend Uio Farm H crs excursion to the experiment H farm in this county last Saturday were, H to say tha least, out of luck. About two H hundred persons were present, and H among them a goodly number of the H representative farmers of the county. H There were present farmers from every H settlement in the county with the ex- H' ccptlon of Kanarra and the hamlets of H Enoch and Hamilton's. An abundance H" 0' 'co water and excellent lemonade bbbbbb was'provided free, and shade was there H. for ttiosdstltnfchad time to use it, but H the mosfof the excursionists were too H- busy to have much use for it. H Professor William Jardlno was there H from tlio Stato Agricultural college and HV was on hand promptly at oleven o'clock H to begin his explanations of tlio situn B tion. Mounted on a light one-horse H conveyance which was driven by Mr. H Rowley, the local operator of the propo H sition, an'd followed by his audience, Hk. the Professor made the rounds of the H farm, stopping at the different plats H as they were reached to explain the ob- Hi ject of the experiment that was being Hf" conducted there and the means that H had been applied in the operation. HT Every one of the 170 plats is au object H of special interest, whether anything is M growing thereon or not, as its coudt BBpJr" tion illustrates some step in the prob Bw t lein that is bqlsg worked out. pven in BhV thehuattcr of summer fnllowlngdlffer BhVJ ent tioatment is nppljed in some in- Bkw; stances than others, and the results In BhV) the conservation of tlio moisture, BlS which is the great point aimed at In BkVJy the fallowing, carefully noted. In this BbyJ connection it Is very gratifying to note Bkw the large amount of moisture that Is BftYJ in the ground that bus been summer BbyJ fallowed. It would be far beyond the BhVJ scope of an article of the length that BkW this one is intended to be to even sum BbyJ marisc the description that lir. Jurdino BkBJv gave of eacltof'the plats1 which com BbyJL pose this farm;-' bin to illustrate tlio BhVJ manner in' which the problems involved BhVJ aro being worked out we will explain BhVJ the course that is being followed in the BhVJ ease of one or two plats, in detail. In BhVJ an experiment that is being conducted BftYJ to find tlio relative merits of close and BaBF wide spaced planting when applied to BBJ small grain, in some places one-third BBJ of the openings in the seed box on the BBJ drill have been stopped up, the result BBJ being that two rows of grain are the BBJ regulation width apart, and the next PPJ two arc double the dlstanco apait. In PH nnother place each alternate opening PPJ' has been closed and tlio rows of grain PPJ are as a result doublo the regular dis BPJ tancc apart: of course in these expert BH mentsthe regular measure of threcpecks BH of grain to thu acre is drilled in, so that PH although the rows are fewer to the aero PH the grain is proportionately thicker BH in the rows. There is a scries of these PH' seeding experiment plats among which PH was ouo on which the grain had been PH sown broad east, and which was an ob PH ject lesson against broad east sowing PH on an arid farm, ns it was not nearly PH so thrifty looking us tlm other plutb PPJ that had been put in with the drill. PBfl Other experiments were being conduct PH ed to uscertiilu the best variety of grain PH for this sort of farmtng, although that PH' question seems to have been practically PH Bottled In the northern cud of the state, PH' us far as their climate Is concerned, PBfl; judging by the large number of plats PH of Lofthouso wheat that haye been m . planted on this farm, nearly all the H . wheat put in being of that variety. H This grain was imported into the PBB country u few years ago by a gentle PBJ man whose nume was Lofthouso, and it PH has been carefully cared for and kept PBB pure at the State experiment farm oyer PBB since, In addition to this variety of PH wheat thero Jls u kind called Yellow PBB Uhnrnovku, which bids fair to make au PBB cnyiublo record us a drouth resistor. BH Another variety that attraatcd much BBBBBBBM attention was n sort of wheat specially adapted to the making of Macaroni, which although it makes good sweet bread, is not likely to become, popular on account of its dark color. This wheat which was sown In thi spring was all headed out and showed less signs of distress for want of water than any other grain on tlio farm; indeed it did not look as though water was any object. One fact in connection with the raising rais-ing ot wheat by arid farming seems to stand out very distinctly, and that Is that thick sowing will not do. The reason for this is not far to seek, as it is evident that the supply of moisture Is insufficient for the lurgo number of plants that result from thickly sawn ground, and is exhausted beforo the fcruln is matured, whereas on tlio ground that is thinly sown tlio moisture lasts to mature the grain. This was plainly evident on a plat of Lofthouso wheat that was sown on the l.'.th of August last year, and which, owing to the dry condition of tho soli, or somo other cause, did not come up well and made a very poor stand. This wheat did not seem to be suffering much, if any, from want of water, and tho heads on it were largo and the grains plump nud will undoubtedly ripen without shrinking. Another plat adjoining it was put in fifteen days later and came up much better; although this plat looks well it does not look ns well ns the one we have described, the heads not being qnlto so Inrge, and tho chances for it to mature without suffering suffer-ing for water being much less; the prospects are that tho former plat, which does not contain more than half as many plant, ns tho latter, will produce pro-duce more pounds of grain, and much better grain. .The corn that Is on tho farm nil looks well, but it is not likely to mnkc much unless there cornea 6ome rain to help it Inter on, although it is not suffering for water at present; but it Is not very forwnrd and It consequently conse-quently has most of its work before it, and the supply of molsturo in the soil must be running lbw. Anlutof.corn tlujtt bus. been sown broad cast shows the impracticability of thick planting au arid land. This corn Is not so tail as that which has been plnnted in tho ordinary manner, nnd it has made all tho growtli it will make unless rain comes very soon, and it is doubtful if even that would revlyo it ns it i8 suffering very badly for moisture. Experiments are being made in relation to tho number of grains of corn that it is be6t to plant in a hill, and the pint upon which this experiment experi-ment is being conducted is planted with some rows J.hat hae but two grains in u hill, some that have four grains, some that haye six grains and some that have nine 'grains; judging judg-ing from 'present appearances the four and six grain rows are likely to give the best results. A very Interesting feature Is the ex periments that aro being made in the nrld cultivation 'f lucerne or alfalfa, us It Is properly called. There aro several plats of this plant that were put in last spring, and a few were put in lust fall. The latter aro not much account, as the frost, or some other cause, has killed tin plants; but those plats that were put in last spring look astonishingly well, n ml judging from present .appearances .ap-pearances it is going to be practicable to raise alTalfn on1 tin urld furm. Some very Interesting experiments are being conducted with a variety of grasses, among which tho Hromus Incrmus seems to ho prominent, and judging by what Is in evidenco on the plats that are on the farm, It is likely that some very satisfactory results will be, obtained, ob-tained, nnd some valuable additions be made to our forage plants, more especially espec-ially for pasturing purposes. The addition ad-dition of a jjood pasture grass to our forage plants in this county would make the creamery industry practicable. The most striking feature of the products pro-ducts ou tho farm Is the fluo patch of rye that is just ready for the harvest. It Is over three feet high and the grains are nicely filled; It is indisputable evl-denco evl-denco that this grain can bo' success fully grown in our county without irrigation. irri-gation. Professor Jardlno in summing tin his talk at the farm lust Saturday expietsed' the opinion that what would b'o raUed this year would pay expenses. Of coursu the gentleman ought to know, but It seemed to us that this was rather too bright a view, but tho outlook for urld, farming In this county is certainly very encouraging. There certainly will ba a number of plats of grain matured on the urld farm tills year, and as far as the conditions under which it' will be done are concerned they haye not been up to the standard by any means. In the first place the ground hns uot been plowed as deep as tho rules for urld farming require, there has been no subsolling done, and but one season's precipitation has been available, where ns the rule is to store up the rainfall of ouc season in the ground before sowing the crop, as will be done tho present year in the case of tho crops that are sown on tlm ground Unit is summer fallowed the present season on the experiment farm. Even then the best preparation will not have been given the soil, ns tho plowing hns not been diep enough nnd no subsoil-ing subsoil-ing has In en done. It will bo two years yet before tho experiment farm will bo in fall hliitpc for making a fair test of what can bo done by nrld farming in Iron county. Now In lew of what has been done this flrht year on tho farm under the conditions that - have necessarily controlled, con-trolled, tliercvcan'hardly be'lroom for a doubt hi 1 llm ultimate outcome, but if onrfarnietB all wait till tho matter .ins been fully demonstrated before they bigin opeinlions it will take. them two j, cars at tho leust before they beglr. to veap the bgtiiHlls, whereas if thoy begin be-gin 1mm'dlaTeJy they will be just that fur ahead And by tho way, this urld farming Is not a poor mail's proposition; proposi-tion; that is, It is not within the power of the biiuilllurmer to enter. Into It, ex cepl It be on u very small scale, ns he will have to wait at least a year and a half after he plows his ground before F ho gets any harvest, and he will require re-quire a better class of tools than tho ordinary or-dinary small farmer possesses. If somo of our progressive farmers, who tiro a little better off In this world's goods than their neighbors, would tuko the Inltlatlve.thcy would haye tho credit of Introducing this great improvement among tlicir fellows. It is a self-evident fact that if a farmer can get fifteen fif-teen bushels of grain off an here of ground without irrigation, thero is more profit in it than twenty bushels, or even twenty-five bushels, where he hns to Irrigate; especially Is this the case when wc take Into consideration the great amount of arid land that is iu tho county and tho extent to which the nrld farms may reach, when men may put in as many acres of land to wheat, barley, oats, rye and corn ns they cau get time to plow, nnd seed to sow; and when unobstructed by wntcr ditches nnd furrows the harvester may travel for miles nmong the ripo grutn as it gatliers It for the benefit of its prosperous prosper-ous owners; when every man that desires de-sires to own a good furm may have one and work for himself; when the thousands thous-ands of ucres of land that is now lying Idle for want of water will all be under cultivation, and yielding good returns to the industrious farmer, nn era of prosperity will hnye been ushered in for lion county that will surpass any thing that our wildest imaginings havo conjured up. Succehsful arid farming will do more for the benefit of this part of tho state than the advent of the railroad, the development of the Iron deposits, or any of thu' other possibilities possibili-ties that we so often look forward to with so much desire. |