Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 166, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1920 — DESERI IN BLOOM [ARTICLE]

DESERI IN BLOOM

Irrigation Makes Garden Spot of Death Valley. Furnace Creek Ranch, In Eastern California, Probably the MosFleolated • Farm In the World—Many * Feet Below Sea Level. Probably the most isolated farm in the world Is situated in a certain spot in eastern California, near the bottom of<he United States, where some mining men have fitted out a ranch of some 65 acres. The place is known as Furnace Creek ranch, and It has been made possible by irrigation, the water being piped from springs in the Funeral mountains. Edward Hogg, hi describing the ranch, says that it “is situated 178 feet below sea level on the floor of the greatest depression on the face of the western hemisphere, within pistol shot of and only about 100 feet higher than the greatest depth of Death valley. Yet, in spite of its peculiar location, the ranch is within the shadow of Mount Whitney, whose eternal snows tower into the Heavens to a height of nearly three miles, the highest point of land in the continental limits of the nation.

“Furthermore, Furnace Creek ranch is probably the only farm in the world where weeds are unknown. As it is entirely artificial and surrounded ty a desert barrier, the seeds of noxious, weeds have had no way of getting there, and unless they be Imported by man, the ranch will undoubtedly always remain free from them. “Obviously the introduction of an abundant water supply was the prime requisite to make the ranch possible. This is obtained from two large springs far back In the Funeral mountains, which pour their streams upon the burned-out Death valley" soli through two great aqueducts, one of steel and one of masonry. Part of the water to diverted along the route to freshen a heavy growth of willows planted to, give shade to the watercourse. But in spite of this, the loss of water from evaporation is very great, and in summer the water emerges from the aqueduct at temperatures up to 110 degrees. Men and live .stock, of course, cannot drink it so hot. Cooling is therefore effected by means of large evaporation ‘ollas,’ and the drinking water to quickly reduced to 70 degrees In the hottest weather.

"The humidity of Death valley’s atmosphere varies like that of other places, but according to analyses made by the United States weather bureau, its air is the driest known. Its average moisture content to less than .01 per cent. Water thus becomes as volatile as gasoline and evaporating coolIng IS accomplished with great rapidity. It 1s this speedy evaporation that has largely made Furnace Creek ranch possible. The ranch is primarily a hay farm, the principal crop being alfalfa, which is fed to cattle and hogs. After being dressed, the meat 1s sent to mining camps. The live stock could not'live through the scorching summer if it were not for the coolinginfluence of shower baths with which their corrals are equipped. The cattle, horses and mules are further protected from the blistering winds by having the sides of their pens covered with sheet metal. , “White men cannot live long in the withering heat Consequently all the work-about the ranch is done by Indians of the Piute and Shoshone tribes, under the direction of an educated foreman. The average life of a white man in Death valley is very short. Three white foremen employed on the ranch lasted two summers each and perished during the third. Two others went insane and attempted to flee out of the valley on foot Neither of them lived to get out of the maze of Funeral mountain canyons. “The Stygian temperature of Death valley lasts for about five months of the year, usually from May 1 until Oc-tober;-the other months are cool ' and pleasant Rain to virtually unknown. Consequently the irrigation of Funeral creek ranch to continuous.”