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About The Alliance herald. (Alliance, Box Butte County, Neb.) 1902-1922 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 1915)
FAMING THE RIVERS ffew to Make Flood Water t'nnfnl In Reclaiming Ieerta Million Ixst Yearly thru Floods Washington, Dec. 18 In his forth coming annual report Secretary Lane ays: No on ran survey the physical condition of the United Stated wlth vt being Impressed and almost over whelmed with the magnitude of the work that must be done in keeping ur rivers within bounds and putting ttiem to use. It In the largest task that the government must undertake sooner or later, and the sooner In my Judgment the better. This matter re me Immediately and most practic ally to my attention on a trip made a the late spring to the lower valley of the Colorado river. On the Ariz ona side of this river the government ai reclaiming the desert. That low lend will grow almost anything, from dates to alfalfa. Its most helpful friend, and Its unrelenting enemy, Wo, Is the river Itself, for without the river It would return to cactus and age. Yet the river Is so Jealous of hr freedom that she yearly attempt with violence, and by Insidious meth ods as well, to reclaim for herself rh foot of land that has by stealth n taken from her. On the opposite side of the river, the California side, the river Is held in by mountains until It has reached the Mexican line. There, by a capri cious turn, It deserts Its old-accustomed channel and flows westward Into what'was once. a lake, but Is now little more, than a morass, and so lowly finds Its way to the Gulf of -California. Immediately north of this westward bend In the river Is the Imperial Valley, which has late ly been used by several .novelists to flflnstrate the heroic struggle of man with nature. For this valley was nee a sea Itself, and has Indeed left sort, of rudimentary sea In a lake mown as the Salton Sea. The fruit ful soil of this valley, hundreds of feet deep, Is the slit of the Colorado, the deposited wash of a thousand miles of mountain channel. Each Jtana, when the snows of the Rockies Melt, the Colorado, resenting the lim itations which man has set up for It, presses with two strong shoulders against both sides of Its prescribed tanks, like Porthos under the slow oaring of the earth. And as long aa tfeat flood comes the people on both Idea must watch and work as the Hollanders have done. There are two distinct and aggres tr schools of thought on this mat ter of keeping the Colorado In Its face. One Is for sending the river wtlly-nllly down the old channel. The other is for letting the river live its -own life, but keeping it off our pre serves. On may be termed the ab oototlst . theory and the other the democratic theory. Congress baa thua far committed Itself to the lat ter. And this year, when danger threatened. Congress Joined in rals-1 ing a fund to keep the river from forcing its way north Into the Imper ial valley, and this work was suc cessfully executed under this depart ment by the former Chief of Engin eers of the United States army, Gen. W. It. Marshall. No one, however, believes that the work Is at an end or that we have done more than put a good patch upon It. Now, far above this point of dan ger there are thousands of square miles of land that need but the water of the Colorado river to make them as fruitful as the lands of the San Joaquin or the Salt Hlver valley. We need to catch that water when It is young, soon after It has been born from the snows. There. In mountain valleys, It should be kept for a time and, as needed, led into the peaceful paths of usefulness. And on that problem the Reclamation Service 1h working. The difficulty is to find large reservoir areas. This Instance Is cited to show how Intimately the matter of flood con trol and of reclamation are bound to gether. The problem extends from sea to sea. When we come east ward, to the Missouri and the Mlss IsHlppI for example, we find that in their upper reaches the lands need the waters, while In their lower reaches the lands must be saved from the waters. No one can take the yearly toll of lives lost and of property destroyed by the furious and unrestrained sweep of our rivers without realizing that the poople of thia country can not regard themselves as owning this land, really possessing it, until they have brought these waters under subjection. And In doing this they will literally create new land by the millions of acres, lands that will sup port millions of people as against the thousands which live upon it today. And In say'ng this I am not speaking without authority, for a year ago we enjoyed the value of a visit from the renowned builder of the Assuan dam. Sir William Willcocks, who has spent his life In India, Mesopotamia, and Egypt as a river tamer. And after he had seen our problem he sighed with regret that it might not be bis fortune to see the day, that he said would surely come, when the valley of the Mississippi would be another valley of the Nile, only greater In ar ea and more perfectly adapted to the white man's life. Why Sliould the Whole llunlcm Re Ilorne Today? How these, great works can be car lied on calls for constructive thought not merely cm the engineering side but more Immediately upon the fin ancial side as to those waya and means by which the lands reclaimed shall be made to bear In some degree the burden of the expense. Aa to the funds which will be needed, they mount into such figures aa to be stag gering. And I can Bee no hope that Do You Read Labels? Domestic science teachers and food authorities are urging the housewife to carefully read the label3 on all food articles. The lawa of most states compel food manufacturers to print the ingredients of their products on the label, and this enables con sumers to distinguish healthful foods from those which may be deleterious. High-grade baking powders are made of pure cream of tartar, derived from grapes. Dr. Price's Cream Baking Powder is a type of the highest grade. It is pure and healthful beyond any question. The low-grade baking powders are made from alum, a mineral acid salt. Most physicians condemn their use in food. Consumers can learn the char acter of the baking powder by referring to the label, which must state whether the contents include cream of tartar, alum or phosphate. DR. PRICE'S CREAM BAKING POWDER Made from Cream of Tartar STANDARDIZE POTATOES Department of Agriculture Urges Grower In Each Locality to Grow Same Variety this work will be adequately under taken without the government ad vancing its credit and investing di rectly some of its own funds. We are conducting this government from day to day out of current revenues. Only the richest of people could pur sue such a policy. No private enter prise attempts It. No railroad sys tem has been built that way. But few of the states now construct their highway systems out of the year's revenues. The permanent improve ments which the whole people under take are a legitimate charge against capital account, not against mainten ance. A commission to devise the ways and means by which the states and private landowners and the nat ional government can cooperate in paying for the work done seems to me a more needed body than one which will report upon engineering methods. The Iter. Irl It. Hicks 1010 Almanac The Rev. Irl R. Hicks 1916 Alma- nac is by far the finest, largest and best ever printed. The Hicks storm land weather forecasts for 1915 again have proven their truth and value, and this splendid Almanac for 1916 should find its way straight into ev ery home and office in America. The Rev. Irl R. Hicks Magaxine, "Word and Works," and his unique Almanac should always go together, both for only one dollar a year. The Alma nac alone is 35c prepnld. Send to Word and Works Publishing Com pany, 8401 Franklin At.. 8t. Ixiuis. Mo. The Alliance Herald prints all the news all the time. FOR SALE CHEAP Up-to-date carpet loom in good condition, and a gasoline iron. Mrs. Frank Ryckman. Phone Black 305. 518 West 3rd. l-2t-6660 It pays to advertise in The Al liance Herald. With the close of the potato har vest season for 1915 the time seems opportune to call to the attention of both the grower and the seedsman the desirability of considering seri ously a very material reduction In the number of varieties grown in any ' iven community or section of the country. It has been the nistory of every other staple crop that the fewer the varieties grown the lr.ore easily are they marketed. The pioneer fruit grower In America tried to grow an large a list of varieties as he could afford to purchase, while today the tendency is to reduce the list to the least number that can be depended upon to meet the market require ments. The reason for this is that it has been found a much easier task to erll lp.f luantities of one variety than an equal quantity made up of a large number of varieties. It is believed that the same principal ap plies to the potato crop. In a recent publication by the de partment, Bulletin No. 176, a system of classification of potatoes is pre sented in which the leading commer cial types are referred to eleven groups, and a list of the varieties studied which are thought to belong to each group Is furnished. In many cases the varieties listed In each group are so nearly identical that in the opinion of the author of thia bul letin there Is no justification for the retention of more than ten per cent of them. The commercial grower should de termine what group or class of pota toes Is best adapted to his climatic and soil conditions, and then confine his efforts to not more than one or two varieties within that group. In this way it will be possible for him to become more familiar with the be havior of the variety he is growing; to recognize Its special cultural re quirements; and to offer for sale a much more uniform and high-grade product than where he Is dissipating his energies on a doxen or more var ieties. The potato growers of some of our middle west states, particularly those of Wisconsin, are being strongly urg ed by their potato specialists and state association to adopt the Im munity plan of growing potatoes bt one or, at the most, two varieties this way the buyer oan be asssreq) securing a uniform stock, in carload lots, of Green Mountain, Eural Nov Yorker, or other classes of potatoes The movement must come from the grower through confining his efforto to a few varieties, preferably not more than one or two. These shoaM be selected Intelligently, with refer ence to soil and climatic conditloas. For example, the Green Mountaka group Is particularly well adapted to the cooler and molnter sections of tie United States. The Rural New York er, while succeeding under similar conditions, is also able to prodncw satisfactory crops where air and soil temperatures are higher, and whero the summer precipitation is scant, provided moisture is abundant la September and October. The Irish Cobbler group, consisting of early va rieties, Is at Its best in the North, but ;tlso pro luces well when planted aa an early truck crop In the South. The size of the seedsmen's lists I. very largely, If not entirely, 'povernr ed by the grower, and the remedy lie wholly with him. The efforts of the potato grower, dealer, and seedsman fihould bf directed as follows: 1. Reduce the variety list to n f wr standard comemrcial varieties. 2. Standardize these by careful selection and culture. 3. Adopt the community plan f growing but one or two varieties and advertise this fact to the public. 4. Demand a higher grade seed po tato from your seed grower or deni er, bnt In so doing be willing to pay a correspondingly better price for It. NOTICE There are many reliable farm pa pers issued nowadays that supply farmers and stockmen with cashable and workable Ideas, but the paper best suited to the farmers of this ser tion is Farmer and Breeder. It la issued seml-montnly at Slonx Cltf, Ia., and Is Intensely Interesting and practical. It regnlarly carries veter inary, dairy, poultry, horticulture, home and fashion departments in ad dition to market and live stock news The special feature stories abont bbc cessful farmers and breeders give many valuable hints, suggestions and lessons that any Intelligent farmer can apply with profit. Dear Thia In Mind "I consider Chamberlain's Cone Remedy by far the best medletne list the market for colds and troup," says Mrs. Albert Blosser, Lima, Onto. Many others are of the sane opinioa. ' Obtainable everywhere. ill We M erry Christmas and a it n 1 I 'The Sign of Service" 'Happy New Year We have enjoyed a liberal patronage during the year just coming to a close, and for this we are thankful, and we take this means of thanking the people of Alliance and surrounding country for their valued business. We feel, in a way, that this increasing patronage was and is due to the quality of our goods, together with our prompt service, two aims that are always predominant with the Forest Lumber Company. Every person in the state of Nebraska, and especially those people living in Box Butte county, have many rea sons for offering up thanks at the beginning of a new year. Permit us to say that we can always recommend our lints and our service they are at your disposal, . and we will continue to try and merit the patronage of old friends and customers and we welcome new friends and customers during the coming year. PHONE PHONE aWJy Kill! rhe Sign of Service" I FOREST LUMBER COMPANY GEO. A HEILMAN, Manager Lumber, Building Material, Builders' Hardware, Silos and Mill work