Ira Hamlin "Hammie" Kent discusses what ranching was like in the Lahontan Valley before the Newlands Project (6.5 minutes)
SA: Now when you were a little boy, tell me what the ranch was like: How big was it? What was going on? When you were old enough to recollect, describe the kind of ranch and what it was like. Just that early period.
IK: Well, when I was a little boy, our ranch was self-supporting. We at that time milked around 150 cows. We had anywhere from 500-1,000 pigs that we raised every year. We made all our own hams and bacons. We normally had 500-600 laying hens for eggs. During the winter months, we would have anywhere from 10-12 men working for us, feeding cattle, milking, and one thing and another. And then of course in the summer, we had probably up to 50 men, during the haying season. At that time we were farming a lot more ground than what we are today. A lot of the ranch that was being farmed in those days has been sold off. And probably farming, oh, I'd say, probably 300-400 acres more in those days than what we do today.
SA: You say three or four hundred more. What was the total acreage, do you have any idea?
IK: Well, the total acreage at that time that was being farmed was probably right around 1,500-1,800 acres.
SA: So you were born into a huge ranch.
IK: Right.
SA: What did it look like? Were the fields . . . .
IK: Most of the fields were quite small, because everything had to be done with teams and it was hard to level a field and move a lot of dirt, because we had no way to move it outside [of] the tailboard and the fresno scraper. That was about the only way we could move dirt. So consequently, you just couldn't move that much dirt. So the fields were quite small. It wasn't until, oh, probably into the forties before we started in making the fields a lot larger.
SA: I want to talk about the period before the irrigation project, when you were getting the water locally here. So let's stick with the ranch before the irrigation. I have several questions to ask. Number one, you had all of these animals, and how much alfalfa hay did you grow? Was there anything else beside the alfalfa hay that you were growing?
IK: Oh yes, we at that time, of course, raised wheat and barley and alfalfa hay. That was just about the extent of it, until, oh, probably about, I can't remember the exact year-1913 or 1914—they built a sugar beet factory here at Fallon.
SA: We won't get into that yet. That's after the irrigation.
IK: Yes.
SA: I want to stick with the before, so that we can contrast the period before the irrigation. How was the irrigation done on this ranch with
all these animals and crops, before the irrigation project?
IK: Well, we had a dam, as I mentioned before. We called it the rock dam, which is right behind Stillwater. When the Carson River flowed in the spring of the year, and as I stated before, the Stillwater
Slough was a tributary of the Carson River. And we dammed that water up and had several ditches coming from that dam: one ditch that went to the south of the dam, and another ditch that came to the north. And the ditch coming to the north irrigated all of our place and also the Freeman Ranch, which was originated by my great-grandfather, Charlie Kaiser.
SA: So would it all be through the ditches that you would dig, or your people on the ranch would dig to reach the crops?
IK: Yes.
SA: Were there periods of great drought?
IK: Well, the Carson River would stop flowing, like it does right now,
anywhere around the middle of July, first of August. And consequently, there wasn't any water to irrigate with.
SA: What would you do?
IK: Well, a lot of our hay wasn't alfalfa hay in those days. It was all wild hay. We didn't have alfalfa.
SA: You didn't plant anything.
IK: No. The only thing we planted was grain. But the only hay was wild hay.
SA: Did a lot of it come up?
IK: Oh yes, wild hay would come back year after year. As soon as we'd get the water on it in the spring, it would start growin', yes.
SA: Was there enough during the drier periods for the animals? Was there enough, or did you suffer at all?
IK: No, as I recall, we never did have any problems, as far back as I can recall.
SA: So, Stillwater wasn't one of them that was in such urgent need of the irrigation, is that right?