equivalent to a rainfall of nine inches. How much the plant gets depends on the cultivation given the soil to check evaporation. On a majority of Kansas farms all corn-stalks in excess of 8,000 per acre are weeds, robbing the 8,000 plants of the moisture they so much need to perfect the grain. If one stalk in five square feet of ground can not perfect the seed, how much less likely are two stalks occupying the same territory to do so? Every surplus plant is a "dog in the manger," that can not bear fruit itself and prevents its neighbor from doing so by stealing its moisture. Seed corn should be selected from the

IN

N the October Consular Reports, Mr. Otto Doederlein, United States consul at Leipsic, Germany, gave a most interesting account of the practical operations of a plow propelled by electrical power, and giving great satisfaction.

The details cannot be here given, but it may be stated that electricity as a practical feature in the most important of all farm work, that of hauling the plow, is fully established. To show this it is only necessary to give the final figures of cost as compared with that of plowing by means of animal power and steam. Assuming that the farmer has a ten-horse power threshing engine to run the dynamo, the cost of plowing an acre of land to a depth of 9.24 inches is given at $1.29 per acre, as against $2.74, the cost of doing the work with oxen. Under favorable conditions the expense could be reduced to $1.14 per acre. In all cases it was less than onee-half that of doing similar work

with oxen.

It was also found that, as compared with plowing by steam, the cost by electricity was less than half. Whether for work on a large or small farm the Germans have found electricity much the cheaper motive power for the plow. In this connection we quote the words of the consul as follows:

"It is thus evident that the working expenses of the electric plow for extensive husbandry amount to less than half of those incurred in working the steam plow. This contrast is readily explained, for the capital sunk in the plant is only onethird of that required for the steam plow; the expenses connected with the generating of power are materially lower than is the case with the steam plow, in which a very considerable surplus power has to be raised in order to work the pulleys and brakes and to overcome the stiffness of the rope.

"I have been informed by the director of the Haale factory that electricity will shortly be also used in digging potatoes and sugar beets."

Right here is an opportunity for Western manufacturers as well as for those interested in the development of electrical power. We have almost unlimited water power in the arid States in the mountain streams which can be and at no distant day will be utilized for hauling plows and doing other farm and ranch work on our great plains and in our fertile valleys.

The door to an immense industrial development stands wide open before our men of capital and enterprise. Will they enter and reap the rich rewards?

THE GENTLEMAN-FARMER.

BY F. C. BARKER, OF NEW MEXICO.

NEARLY every one knows what is

meant by the term gentleman-farmer, although the meaning is somewhat difficult to define; for the fact is there are many kinds of gentleman-farmers. In the first place we have the gentleman who is farming for pleasure only. So long as he is content with the pleasures to be derived from the occupations of a rural life, he is likely not only to be satisfied with himself, but his neighbors will benefit from the many experiments which gentleman-farmers are prone to indulge in. Such men are the most useful members of an agricultural community.

There are, however, other classes, of whom we have unfortunately too many specimens in the irrigated districts of the West. We have the gentleman-farmer who wishes to combine pleasure with profit, too often lured on by the roseate hues of the boom literature of this new country.

Now I am by no means deprecating the idea of deriving pleasure from one's business, indeed I can hardly imagine the successful man who does not do so. But far too many men are anxious to engage in agriculture or horticulture without having the previous experience which will enable them to form any idea of whether such a life is likely to prove pleasurable or otherwise. When such men find that life on a farm is not a continuous round of pleasure, but that there are many difficulties to be overcome, disappointments to be borne and hard work to be done, they are apt to be soon discouraged.

The fact is that the successful farmer has longer hours to work and harder work to do than falls to the lot of almost any other man, and this holds good on the irrigated farm perhaps quite as much as where the advantages of irrigation are absent. The farmer, however, has this advantage over most other men. He can perform his work cheerfully knowing that he is not working for any other man, but that the whole produce of his labor will be enjoyed by himself or by those he loves.

His is an independent life and he is not at the beck and call of any boss or at the mercy of any capricious customer. Every evening he has the pleasing satisfaction of feeling that he has accomplished something of which he himself will see the result and reap the benefit. He knows that good work will bring him not only financial success, but, that which man esteems above money, the approbation of his neighbors. Thus the good farmer gets to take a pride in his work, and what to others may be merely toil is to him a pleasure. I fear that very few of our gentlemen-farmers look upon the matter in this light, but when they do not, farming is likely to prove a curse to them and they a curse to farming.

Lastly we have the gentleman-farmer who expects to spend the money while the other fellow does the work. This class is especially numerous on irrigated farms. Call at his farm and ten to one you find him absent. Either he is on a hunting expedition, or he has gone for the mail or is in town on some small shopping errand that might well have been left to his wife. If by chance you find him at home he is either reading the daily papers or smoking a cigar on the piazza. The last thing he ever thinks of is to take off his coat and go to work with his hired men. If he keeps a cow, a hired man does the milking and a hired girl makes the butter. If he has a vegetable garden, the hired man does the hoeing and digging. No wonder he tells you that he can buy butter and vegetables cheaper than he can raise them and that pigs don't pay.

He who expects to lead a "sweet do nothing" life as a farmer is apt to have his castle of indolence rudely shaken to its very foundations. It is of course possible to make money on a farm where the labor is done by hired help, but the farmer himself will have to work as hard as any of his laborers. The hired man does not as a rule feel any pleasure or take any pride in his work. He will need constant watching, and the farmer who not only watches his laborers, but sets them the example of good work is as a rule the successful farmer.

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COST OF RAISING CORN IN KANSAS.

KANSAS is certainly a great corn State.

Statistics show that the average annual yield for all the thirty-four years, bad seasons and good, since 1861 has been twenty-seven bushels per acre for the entire State, ranging in different years from 9 to 48 bushels. The product for twenty-five years ending with 1895 has had an annual home value averaging more than $31,000,000 and a total value in that time exceeding $776,000,000.

Secretary Coburn, in the March quarterly report of the State Board of Agriculture, presents a detailed showing from 68 longtime extensive growers, in 45 counties which last year produced 140,000,000 bushels, giving from their experience "on such a basis as others can safely accept" each principal item of cost in growing and cribbing an acre of corn, estimating the yield at 40 bushels. About two-thirds of those reporting prefer planting with listers and the others use the better known checkrow method, after the land has been plowed and harrowed.

The statements of all the growers summed up, averaged and itemized show as follows:

COST OF RAISING AN ACRE OF CORN.

Seed....
Planting (with lister, or with check-row
planter including cost of previous
plowing and harrowing).

$ 0.07

.77

Cultivating.....

Husking and putting in crib.

1.03 1.18

Wear and tear and interest on cost of tools..

.25 2.41

.141

$29.25

Commenting on these figures Secretary Coburn says: "In none of these calculations has there been made any allowance ordinarily, under the crudest management, should offset the cost of harvesting the grain, and under proper conditions should have a forage value much in excess of such cost. Taking these into every estimate, as should rightly be done, the showing of cost per bushel would be very In the results of sensibly diminished. this investigation it will likewise be noted that the rental for these Kansas corn lands, or the interest figured by their owners on the investment represented, averages more than 8 per cent. or a net rate higher than the capitalist, general banker or money-lender dreams of realizing.

for the value of the corn-stalks, which

"Further, it should be understood that the thrifty Kansas farmer does not measure the profit of his crop by the narrow margin shown in such statistics between the items of 'cost' and 'value.' He does not, as a rule, anticipate selling his corn by the bushel at the figures given as 'value,' nor expect more if he did so than a moderate return, one year with another, for his labor and investment; it is the conversion of it, on his farm, into beef, pork, poultry, dairy and similar products from which comes the surplus to make the comfortable homes and build the school-houses, colleges and churches that are such common objects on his horizon and so largely the measure of his ambition."

CALIFORNIA LEMON GROWING.

THE Azusa Pomotropic has the follow

ing interesting and instructive article on lemon culture:

"A large number of our readers are engaged in lemon culture, therefore will read with interest anything that bears upon that industry in this locality. It seems strange that the forecasts

of extremely low prices early this spring are not being verified. Scarcely any one believed there would be much sale for the fruit at remunerative prices till July or August. Advices from the East have predicted the usual depression in the lemon market, but we notice both the lemon companies at Azusa keep busy receiving and dispatching the fruit. Furthermore, we are informed that the demand is brisk and the supply inadequate and that good prices are prevailing. No one doubts that the better care in growing, picking and curing has much to do with better markets, for the trade is learning that it is getting less and less precarious to order California lemons in large quantities and that they can be supplied in satisfactory quantities from this State.

"Before experience taught our growers, they did not suppose that a warty or ridgy lemon was more subject to decay than a smooth lemon of exactly the same internal texture. Now they know it is next to impossible to preserve the oil glands in the rough lemon during the picking and curing period. Experience has shown that a smooth lemon properly matured, gathered and cured escapes injury much more thoroughly than a rough one of the same class otherwise. By observing common sense methods, the California growers are putting forth a grade that the trade is getting to rely upon and firmer prices are maintaining wherever the fruit has been tried.

"An examination of the lemons now curing in the association packing house at Glendora shows a very large majority of them grown with smooth skins, and invariably they stand the curing ordeal better than the corrugated and lumpy fruit of the same general quality. Mr. Scott, the manager, attributes the production of finer fruit to closer soil assim ilation, greater age in the trees and common sense pruning, with great emphasis on the latter clause. 'Put on the tariff and lop off the water sprouts,' might be nailed to Scott's office door as the theme of his daily discourse, varied with reflections on ripe-lemon pulling, carelessness in handling, over-irrigation and-lopping off the water sprouts again.

"Since his advent at Glendora he has interrogated every sentence with a pruning hook. He believes in his theme-

it may prove to be a mission to this valley, where lemon trees grow like eucalyptus-and he stays with it every day in the week. It is well to have a monitor in the association for it cannot select the good and refuse the bad that comes to a lemon curing establishment, and its success is dependent in a good measure on securing as little poor fruit as possible, for its members have a right to have their entire output cared for. Agitation for better methods should be the association's watchword and is, and while Mr. Scott's theories on pruning are most radical they are rational and are producing results to be proud of in their application."

Feeding Cattle.-L. L. Roy, of Topeka, Kan., has recently made a careful test in feeding flaxseed meal to twelve rough cattle. They weighed when bought 10,340 pounds. 10,340 pounds. In seventy-five days they gained 4,610 lbs. The shrinkage before sale on the market was 710 lbs., partly due to bad handling. The ground meal cost about one third more per ton than The cattle were in such prime condition that they brought 40 cents per hundred more than other cattle of the same weight sold the same day. The summary as made in Colman's Rural World shows:

corn.

Makes meat at less money than other feed. Makes more meat than other feeds. Makes absolutely healthy meat, which is worth much in the steer or hog, and worth infinitely more to the person who eats it.

Makes a loose hide, a good digestion and the best possible general appearance. Makes meat that sells for more money than animals fed on other feeds.

You can feed without danger, as much of it as the animal will eat. The more you feed the more meat you get. Do not be afraid to feed it liberally. It is feed, and not medicine.

It contains three times as much nourishment as corn, and does not cost much more than corn. Therefore, it is cheaper than corn.

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Push your work; never let it push you. It is the early spraying that will prevent the worm.

There is never lack of demand for the best butter.

Theory and practice must go together in good farming.

Potatoes must have loose earth in which tubers may expand.

There is greater explosive power in an idea than in a bomb.

Read critically. There is much written

that is not Scripture.

these days with poor cows.

It is easier to keep out than to drive out insect pests from the orchard.

Good horses command the best prices even though less than formerly.

Stick to the crop that pays you well, to what you are successful in doing.

If a cow's attention is attracted she immediately lets down her milk.

It is better to coax than to beat a nervous cow. You will get more milk.

A boy should be educated to make a farmer as much as to make a doctor.

Business principles are just as important to the farmer as to the merchant.

Whatever you do if done well stays done and saves time, trouble and worry. Turning under green crops is one of the cheapest and best methods of fertilizing.

Even bacteria have their uses. You cannot make cheese without their assistance. Co-operative enterprises need good management, or they will fail as others do. Be careful in the selection of seeds. It will improve the crop and increase the profits.

It is necessary to mature your lambs for the market, as well as to give them growth.

A chief advantage in dairying for the farmer is, that it causes no depletion of the soil.

The reading farmer may profit by the experience of others, and it contributes to his success.

Never rush the cows from pasture to stable, and never set a dog on them. It means money loss.

Governments are too apt to be great machines for robbing and oppressing the people. If ours is so used it is the people's own fault.

Be careful in selection when buying trees. One variety will bring profit, another will cause you loss. Foresight is better than hindsight.

Don't waste the straw. It may not be as nutritious as good hay, but it contains enough food and fertilizing properties to be well worth husbanding.

Never forget the duty of the good citizen to vote. You cannot have success without good government; you cannot have good government unless each man contributes his share toward putting the best men at the helm.