THE CANAL FARM OF LUX AND MILLER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5179, 27 October 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE CANAL FARM OF LUX AND MILLER.

(Correspondent Stockton Independent). Mr. Schuyler of the Stockton Independent, who is making a tour of the San Joaquin Valley, thus describes one of the irrigated farms of Lux and Miller .-—Large meadows of alfalfa, upon which thousands of cattle aud sheep are grazing, were to be seen on either hand, interspersed with fields of wheat stubble, from which the grain had just been harvested. This is the canal farm of Messrs. Lux and Miller, and we passed through it over a well graded road for three miles before reaching the house, which is the headquarters of the farm. Everything about the premises showed the most perfect order and neatness, as the quality of systematic precision and order so predominant in Mr, Miller’s character, is rigidly enforced among all employes. The house is a large and handsome establishment, and is occupied by the foreman and his clerk. As it is headquarters for the management of all the land of Lux and Miller under the canal, there is connected with it a dry. goods and grocery store, a blacksmith and waggon shop, a steam feed mill, a grain warehouse, a harness shop, and a largo storehouse for agri-

cultural implements. The barn is an enormous one, largo enough to hold 112 horses with hay and feed to last them a ye ir. All buildings are carefully whitewashed, and one cauuot see a bit of a board or any rubbish of any kind laying about anywhere. Near the house is a large garden, orchard and vineyard, with background of several acres of thrifty eucalyptus trees serving as a wind-break to protect the whole premises from the force of the wind. The whole place has been built and the trees and vines have been grown in five years. Water was running in ditches everywhere, and among the trees the rich alfalfa, grown from seed sown last spring, was over two feet high, rich and green. The vines were loaded with rich grapes, from which we feasted as well as from the peaches, which were somewhat scarcer, as the starvingjblackbirds driven from the barren plains had eaten all the early blossoms. Irrigation is here carried on with tho same system that characterises everything about the place. The fields are laid out by an engineer, who is constantly employed by the firm in that sort of work. On the clay soil of that section irrigation must be done by flooding the land with water and permitting it to stand upon it until it is thoroughly saturated. There is no seepage to the soil, and no furrow irrigation will answer. To accomplish the flooding, therefore, the laud is divided off into checks, in such a manner that a moderate leyee, say eighteen inches or two feet high, will back up the water so as to cover the highest land inside the checks. If the ground has a light slope the levees are less frequent and the checks larger, but on irregular, or rapidly sloping laud, the checks must be small, or else the levees would require to be too expensively high. On the land we examined the checks containing from one to ten acres, but in some of tho valley lauds the checks may be as large as fifty to one hundred acres. The water is let on at the highest part and allowed to flow until the upper cheek next the canal is filled, when it is drawn off into the next check, and so on. Each check was provided with two floodgates at the upper and lower sides. Nothing is lost by these levees as the alfalfa grows all over them. The way alfalfa is treated on the Canal Farm it is made to yield ten or fifteen crops a year. The farm is divided off into fields, separated by the most substantial fences. When the alfalfa in one field has attained a height of about two feet a herd of cattle is turned in, and in a few days they browse it down to the roots. They ara then removed to the next field.and sheep are turned in. After they have eaten every visible spear they are taken off, and the land is again irrigated. In two weeks, under the stimulus of the water and the tropical sun, it is again ready for another herd of hungry cattle. In this manner the farm supports about 3000 head of - cattle constantly. The herds are being. continually shifted, the fat cattle being removed and driven to market, while their places are taken by the lean kine from other sections. The succulent alfalfa fats the cattle rapidly, and this accounts for the excellent quality of beef in the San Francisco markets. , - ,