A Colony on Mars by Cliff Roehr Page B

cooled and recycled but in this case we needed to heat the water in the stream and the lake so we are constantly drawing cold water from the headwater just below the fal s and depositing it back into the stream about thirty feet down river. This should be adequate to heat the stream and lake to a temperature that can accommodate trout and even catfish. We were generating close to thirty megawatts of power and it was up to the electricians to route it throughout the facility and put it to use. I don't know how much thirty megawatts is but they tell me it will be all the electricity we wil need until for some time to come.
    That evening everything in the caverns seemed to burn a little brighter. We left the old diesel generator hooked up as a backup system but we had quit running it.
    CHAPTER – The Food on Mars
    October 5, 2107: Besides the ever present mushrooms the colony also raised chickens, rabbits, turkeys, ducks and geese. There was a small heard of goats but there wasn't enough for them to graze on. They produced a little milk but Tim never knew what happened to that. There certainly wouldn't have been enough to go around. Once in a while they would butcher a kid but Tim never found out who got the meat, he suspected the kitchen staff as there would not be enough fresh meat to go around either. They were getting enough frozen meat from Earth to flavor their food but they seldom if ever had steak or roast beef or any plain meat dish even hamburger. There always seemed to be bacon sausage and once in a while, ham.
    Tim looked up the two guys from the Scientific crew that were working with the small experimental garden and ask them what all it would take to grow enough vegetables to meet the needs of the community of now over six hundred people. After some discussion the finally decided that they would need about 160 acres of fertile irrigated land with adequate grow lights to raise everything they needed.
    In the early part of the twenty first century in the United States the rule of thumb had been that it took one acre per person to provide food to the country. Around 2025 The United States changed from a net food exporting country to a net food importing country. In response to this development farmers became a lot more efficient at food production. By 2107 the ratio had been reduced to half an acre per person. Thanks largely to the more extensive use of hot houses for growing vegetables. On Earth the growing season for most foods was stil seasonal. On Mars there were no seasons and all food could be grown year around and around the clock. That meant that on Mars the ratio would be about one quarter acre per person. That included the room that the animals required. Tim had in mind that the entire area on the Company cavern behind the lake and stream, which was approximately 320 acres would be the ideal place for the farm. That would provide all the land that they would need to easily feed a population of one thousand people. By the time that the population exceeded one thousand they would have more land because more caverns would be opened. Tim got a list of the fertilizers that would be needed to bring the Martian soil to life and keep it producing for one year. They then worked out just how many grow lights they would need to run a hothouse of that size. The results were staggering but undaunted Tim spent his next day off working out a requisition for the needed material and an estimate of how much was spent by The Company and the Government to provide the community with canned produce that nobody enjoyed eating. In his equation he allowed for six full time gardeners. The conclusion reached is that it would be cheaper to raise their own vegetables on Mars, a lot cheaper.
    The next morning before work he gave a copy of his findings to Carter and another copy to Thelma. The report was well received on Mars . Walter and Thelma submitted an edited copy of Tim's report to The Company and the government. Everyone agreed