Oklahoma County this year, and it is generally conceded that the Oklahoma product is as abundant and of as choice flavor as any melons from that district.

At Waterloo a cooperative colony will ship largely.

At Lawrie are loaded more watermelons than at any other station, and in season they lie thickly all over the great Cimarron bottom. On One Hundred and One ranch, near Bliss, in the Ponca Indian Reservation, is probably the largest melon patch on the continentover 400 acres all in one field, and all in melons. At one corner of this field is a large sign reading: "$5 fine for any person who passes this way and fails to eat a melon."

Farmers who have engaged largely in melon raising report a net profit of from $10 to $15 per acre.

GRASS.

The native grasses of Oklahoma are one source of great wealth for the Territory. The wonderful Buffalo grass of the western part of the Territory, which cures on the stalk as well as the best of cut and stacked hay, pastures thousands upon thousands of head of cattle the year round, not only sustaining their growth but often bringing them into condition for market with no other feeding. Then there are the native blue stem, gama, and other grasses, which cover the rolling prairies, the hills and valleys, and the woodlands of Oklahoma with a carpet of rich green verdure.

No other portion of the country has better native pasture than does Oklahoma, and thousands upon thousands of tons of prairie hay are cured and marketed every year. In many places the native grass grows from 4 to 6 feet in height, and the western portion of the Territory-called by some the "short-grass country"-astonishes visitors with growths of this kind in the fertile bottoms, and waving oceans of grass of unusual length cover all the land.

Many varieties of cultivated grass have been tested and some proven quite successful. Of these alfalfa has produced the best results. It does well in the eastern half of the Territory, producing three cuttings of hay per season. The hay is so rich that animals require no grain to fatten, and as a pasture, particularly for hogs, it is unexcelled. Some of the clovers do well, as does also timothy.

OATS.

Until within the past year or two but little attention was paid to oats, but the crops last year and this have been very large. The Territory seems well adapted to their production and the yield is prodigious, often running well up toward 100 bushels per acre, and 50 to 60 bushels is a common average.

FODDER CROPS IN OKLAHOMA.

The possibilities of this Territory as a feeding and breeding ground for the beef steer are unequaled. It would be hard to find a region where the variety and amount of forage crops that can be grown is greater than here, coupled with a climate that makes shelter of any sort a luxury. The corn and alfalfa of the central and eastern portion with the "short grass" (that grows very tall) and Kaffir and sorghums of the western portion furnish feed for live stock which exceeds in value any other single interest, not even excepting the wheat crop.

The experiment station at Stillwater is studying the feeding value of the new forage crops about which little is known, and is securing results of great interest and value.

MILLET.

Millet does well in the greater part of the Territory, and more of it is raised each year, especially in the sections where creameries and cheese factories have been established, and increasing numbers of milch cows are being fed by farmers.

W. N. Reed, near Hoyle, raised this year pearl millet with stalks 12 feet high and heads 6 inches long, which he estimates will produce 20 tons of fodder to the acre.

CASTOR BEANS.

An important side crop for many farmers of the Territory has been castor beans. They produce well in most any part of the Territory though raised most extensively in the central and eastern portions. They yield from 12 to 18 bushels per acre, are easily harvested, and bring on the market from 85 cents to $1 per bushel. The crop last year for the Territory was about 125,000 bushels and will be about the same this year.

PEANUTS.

Every year the people of Oklahoma learn by experimenting of some new crop adapted to the Territory, and it is this constantly increasing diversity of crops that makes the Territory so attractive to the people of other localities where but two or three crops can be successfully raised.

The farmer here is not compelled to run his chances on one single crop, but can insure at least moderate success in any year by adapting his crops for the year to the character of the season-wet or dry, hot or cold-he having choice of six or eight leading crops, any one of which is remunerative, and part of which can always be found especially adapted to the character of the season. For some years farmers here and there over the Territory have planted small patches of peanuts and found them to yield abundantly, but it was not until last year that any attempt was made to raise them on a commercial scale. About 100 acres were planted by S. P. Atherton, J. W. Durst, and Jefferson Bowen, farmers near Wright, Lincoln County, and the success of the crop surprised everybody. The nuts produced were of good size, with firm meat, and yielded from 50 to 100 bushels per acre, the general average being in excess of 60 bushels. As the crop sells for 60 cents per bushel the return was found to be very desirable, and this year fully 1,000 acres of peanuts have been planted and Oklahoma will supply a large part of the peanut trade in the cities of the middle West.

The Oklahoma peanuts rate as well as those of Virginia or California and the growing of these nuts for market will be an important industry in Oklahoma.

The three men who grew the nuts so successfully last year purchased a peanut thrasher and kept it running all the fall on their own crops and those of their neighbors. This is the only thrasher of the kind at work anywhere between the Pacific Slope and the Alleghenies. A feature of the peanut crop that adds to its profit and success is