American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1909-01-16
FIRST DAY FAR
MERS' INSTITUTE
Sugar Beets and Diversified
Farming Discussed.
Large Attendance and Good Interest
Manifested Musical Numbers and
Home Talent Feature. Good
AT Springfield Monday

Inc IdImcIs llSIlLuIe at Aberdeen
opened yesterday afternoon instead Of
Thursday night, owing to the failure Of
the lecturers, Professor H. T. French
director of the experiment station Of
the University of Idaho, and Elias Mel.
son, in charge of irrigation investiga.
tions in Idaho, to arrive. The gentle.
msn reached American Falls Thursday
night and were driven to Aberdeen
Friday forenoon, arriving after II
o'clock
The attendance was much larger than
year ago, indicating great increase
in population. The sessions are being
held in Nate Newcomb's building. the
tabernacle being too small The ladies
provided an excellent dinner, which was
served in the tabernacle.
President Brown called the institute
to order about 10 o'clock, literary and
musical program being given, and upon
the arrival of the speakers they were
introduced to the audience. H. c..
Austin, field superintendent of the
Idaho Sugar company, opened the after
noon session with an excellent talk on
sugar beets. He advised the farmers
not to grow them unless assurances
were given that the railroad would be
completed in time to haul the beets to
the factory, because experience had
proven it impossible to haul the crop
more than five miles to shipping sta
ton at a profit. Alfalfa, he said,
should precede beets in order to prepare
the ground, as sagebrush soil lacked
the properties necessary to produce a
profitable yield. Ten or twelve tons to
the acre, he thought, might be grown
on new land if it were summer fallowed,
but disappointment would be meted out
to the man who attempted to grow
beets on spring plowing. On alfalfa
land the first cutting should be plowed
under and the land again plowed in the
fall to get best results. But growing
beets did not deplete the soil, he said,
but enriched it, and in substantiation
he pointed to land that this year had
produced its eighteenth crop of eighteen
tons per acre.
He was followed by A. Y. Satterfeld,
a beet grower of several years expert
sence, who has been experimenting for
the past two seasons on the tract few
miles from Otis. He stated that beets |
could be grown successfully on new
land if summer fallowed, but warned |
all against attempting to grow them on
stubble land He was anxious to have I
beet growing established, and all the /
old beet growers whom he knew were
equally anxious. Beets on new land /
should be thinned to twelve or fourteen /
inches, as they would grow larger.
Last year his beets weighed from a
pound to pound and half, and a few
as much as four pounds. The time of
irrigation was important. He waited
until the tops began to wilt, then flood
ed, and cultivated as soon afterward as
possible. He preferred flooding, al
though the factory people endorsed
lrrlgating in bitches. As an evidence
that beet growing did not deplete the
soil he stated that his father last year
secured forty-one bushels of wheat
from land that had grown beets for
several years. This land had been for
merly devoted to wheat growing and
yielded about fifteen bushels. This
demonstrated that beets enriched the
soil.
Professor French spoke on diversified
farming. He advised the growing of
alfalfa or clover in order to put nitro
gen into the soil, and to break up the
sub-strata and enlarge the feeding
ground of plants. Soil chemically rich
was not always productive, because the
plant food was not always in shape to
be assimilated The adding of manure
or the growing of alfalfa or clover
would put the foods in proper condition.
IN the Palouse country the wheat yield
mad fallen from forty to sixty bushels
per acre to about half as much, owing
20 the growing of wheat on the same
and every year. This result would
-oilow In any country, no matter how
aeh the soil, if this practice prevailed.
on dry land he recommended dry :,
ana alfalfa. Rye is good to rest the \
ground, and will enrich it if plowed un- :
Ter When there is sufficient moisture to
'ause speedy decomposition. If the
'ol is too dry the plowing under of a Ii