WHERE ELECTRICITY COMPETES WITH COAL 755 surface of the river thirty-five feet. But there was nothing to prevent Uncle Sam from stripping this appropriated water of its power, as it passed through his Minidoka dam. Accordingly, the largest power plant of the Reclamation Service was constructed, developing five units of two thousand horsepower each. The engi neers did stop here, planning to play the game for all it was worth. ONE OF THE PUMPING STATIONS. DIVERSION DAM IN THE SNAKE RIVER. The water pumping system on the Minidoka project is already the largest on the continent. It is stated that the second largest pumping plant is a part of the city drainage system of New Orleans. But the Minidoka giant pumping plant does not suffer in comparison, for the city pumps at the other corner of the continent are said to lift only about onehalf the amount of water raised by a single one of the three different pumping stations on the Minidoka project. The Each of these three pumping stations lift the water approximately thirty feet. The sight is indeed most strange-to see wide canals of water flowing abruptly into the side of a ridge. water disappears at the edge of low cement buildings, where the continuous whirr of machinery may be heard. But several hundred feet away, and farther up the ridge, streams again boil up like great springs, and are carried off in concrete-lined The power plant was so constructed that canals. The first pumping station is its capacity may be doubled, should the need arise. A great deal of water goes to waste during the spring flood flow of the Snake River, and it was gambled that the time will come when a part of this water will be stored and conserved for irrigation. When that time does come, the Minidoka dam will strip more water of its power, and more electrical energy will be available for summer irrigation and to compete with coal during the thirteen miles from the Minidoka dam; and the second and the third are respectively a mile and a quarter, and a mile and a half from the first station. Some of the rural residents of Idaho are said to have been highly skeptical that the slight copper wires would be able to lift the stream of water from the canal, when the giant pumping plants were dedicated, and they came for miles to see such a remarkable wonder as this. Their doubts were W By HARLAN D. SMITH HAT C. D. Robinson of Pawnee City, Nebraska, did with catalpas was nothing unusual but it is a good instance to cite because it shows what any farmer can do on a small piece of land. This is according to C. A. Scott, State Forester of Kansas. Mr. Robinson harvested a small crop of twenty acres not long ago. His profit was $152.17 an acre, or $3,043.40 for the entire crop. This was above interest on his investment for sixteen years at five per cent. In establishing, maintaining, and harvesting his grove, Mr. Robinson hired everything done and paid good wages. He could easily have done most of the work himself at odd times and saved one-half the expense. Nobody knows how many millions of rich acres in the Missouri Valley remain idle year after year because of spasmodic high water. Count only those acres lying close to river and creek banks-those very uncertain areas that are excellent farm land one day and a river bed the next-and you'll have a good many millions in your estimate. Yet on this very waste land a new and profitable industry will start some of these days. It will be catalpa growing. The ever-increasing demand for catalpa posts and poles will bring it about. Catalpa growing is not a get-richquick scheme. Requiring eight to sixteen years for a crop to mature, it isn't a quick investment. But there is mighty good money in catalpa growing and where the soil is good it is practically an absolutely safe investment. Some Kansas catalpa plantations are being harvested now with promises of large profits. Charles Delker, of Hudson, who has one hundred thousand trees, is cutting posts which he says will bring SIXTY THOUSAND POSTS. WORTH FROM FIVE TO FIFTEEN CENTS APIECE, AND 650 RICKS OF STOVEWOOD WERE SECURED FROM TWENTY ACRES. a gross income of five hundred dollars an acre. W. W. Hall, who also lives near Hudson, has a plantation of sixty thousand trees. "I will begin to cut mine in two years," Mr. Hall said. "I expect to harvest five hundred dollars' worth to the acre. During the last eight or ten years while you are waiting for the crop to mature you don't have to give the trees any care. I believe it beats wheat raising on my land." The catalpa speciosa or "hardy catalpa" is the only catalpa worth planting, Kansas' State Forester says. The more common species, catalpa catalpa, is not profitable. It is a very difficult matter to determine if seedlings purchased for planting are true to name. Seedlings of all species are so much alike that it is practically impossible to tell one from another. It is only from the characteristics of the mature trees or the seeds that the common and the hardy species can be determined, definitely. And then it requires a close comparison of the points of identification. One-year-old seedlings are the most satisfactory for extensive plantings. At this age the young plants are strong enough to establish themselves readily in their new location, and to make a good growth the first season. They also can be planted at a much less expense at this age than when two years old. The catalpa is very readily transplanted, and with proper care a full stand is easily obtained. Catalpas grow naturally in deep, rich soil, along creeks and rivers. Consequently, they reach their best development in rich, well-drained bottom lands. It is an entirely safe proposition to plant catalpa trees in any soil that will produce a good corn crop. Gumbo, poorly drained soils, or high, dry land is not desirable, for these trees. The general impression that catalpas require a sandy soil to attain the best development is erroneous, Mr. Scott says. A sandy loam or a sandy soil with a clay or loam subsoil are all right, but sandy soils with coarse sand or gravel subsoil are not at all suitable. Six by six feet is the distance usually recommended for planting the young trees. This spacing is the most satisfactory when all the trees in the plantation are to be grown until they are sixteen or eighteen years old. But if some of the trees are to be cut for posts or other purposes as soon as they are large enough, and these cut promiscuously throughout the plantation, the stand is left so open that grass and weeds soon gain a footing and the trees around the opening develop heavy limbs instead of tall, straight trunks. Too wide spacing allows heavy limbs to develop near the ground and as a result the best form for post or pole production is not thus obtained. Where intensive methods are to be practiced, the trees may be spaced three and one-half by seven feet. By the time the trees are eight or ten years old they will be crowding one another badly, and one-half of them should then be cut. When the plantation is thinned, the remaining trees are left seven by seven feet, which is sufficient room to permit them to reach full development. Crowding during their early period of growth is very beneficial as it causes the trees to develop clean, straight stems free from heavy limbs. It is quite a common practice among catalpa growers to raise a crop of corn between the tree rows the first year. The corn usually more than pays for the cost of cultivating the trees and thus reduces the cost of producing the timber. Catalpas require little care. After the third year no cultivation is necessary. You must just be patient and wait for the profits. Of course it will be wise to see that the plantation is protetced from fire and live stock. The danger of injury by fire is not great unless there is a growth of grass or weeds on the ground. The litter from the trees does not accumulate in sufficient abundance to carry destructive fires. Live stock of any kind is harmful to the trees. It is best not to allow any animals to range on the plantation. When sixteen or eighteen years old, catalpas will yield three general fencing posts to the tree. The trees that are cut out when eight or ten years old are large enough to make one post apiece besides considerable stove wood. If the trees are cut while they are in a good, thrifty condition, the sprouts from the stumps. will yield a second crop of posts in from fourteen to sixteen years. This second crop will nearly equal the first in number of posts and value. They will be straighter and freer from limbs than the posts from the first cutting, and quite as durable. Because it requires practically no attention the second crop is the most profitable. It's like waiting on a paid up endowment policy. And fully as safe, the Kansas forester says. the first station-near Honolulu-that began overland wireless-message sending. It should be remembered and recorded as well as the more famous, but no more justly so, wireless stations. Even if Honolulu, as in the event of a war with the Japanese, for instance, should have all other communication with the American continent cut off, there would still be the wireless. Wireless communication is now held with the United States. block is accomplished principally by the natural weight of the wedge which is increased by the iron piece on its top. The machine is driven by an electric motor. The power is derived from an electric circuit, and on turning the lever of the auto-starter, the splitting of the wood begins. The transmission of the power from the motor to the kindling machine is by means of a belt. On the motor being started, the hatchet is raised and goes rapidly down by means of at special mechanism within the machine. Another arrangement for binding the wood into convenient bundles, when split, is shown on the right side of the picture. The wood is put into the semi-circle of the iron frame on a chain. This chain is tightened by means of a lever so that the pieces are brought close together and the binding is thus easily accomplished. ELECTRIC KINDLING MACHINE IS new device is THIS born of the necessity of giving the farmer help in his strenuous day's work. The machine is a German invention. The strong iron frame in the foreground is connected with an iron anvil on which a block of wood rests. MACHINE THAT CHOPS WOOD WITH ELECTRICITY. |