The Richfield recorder. (Richfield, Idaho) 1909-1931, 1909-05-06

watch of his ground. He should dig
into the soil, say three or four in
ches-and if a handful of this earth
would stay in a ball when squeez-
ing it into his hand, usually there is
sufficient moisture, but if it falls
apart ready, this would indicate d
deficiency of moisture and it must
be supplied The later in the season,
the deeper we should dig to deter
mine this, as the roots of wheat and
oats often penetrate the soil to a
depth of two or three feet. We
should dig down deeper as the sea-
son progresses and test as above, but
there is another indication that is
apparent to the eye of the observant
farmer and that is ths=whenever
grains rother plants begin to as
sumo dark color, which is a pecul-
lar hue, it indicates in unspeakable
terms that they are suffering for
water and it must be supplied or
| they will perish, SO if the farmer has
! a large field always use the first
test because if you wait for the
plants to warn you by the darkening
of the color you may not be able to
get over your field before the ire
parable damage had been done be-
cause of the lack of moisture Wheat
or oats and other serials always make
tho oraotoct demand on tho or0u,d
from the time that they begin to
shoot up in the stock to the time that
the grain is matured and usually the
crucial time is when the grain is in
the milk. If the plant lacks moist
ure at that time the grain will be
shriveled and the consequent loss in
both quantity and quality.
Planting Potatoes.
In my trip around the country to-
blowing quite deeply for their po-
tato fields and upon examination /
find the soil quite dry and in fact
too dry for safety. By the way of
an illustration let me say that if
you place a wet body in a surround
ing condition that is dryer the moist
ure Will seek to be equalized and
evenly distributed just as far as the
amount of water or moisture will
permit Therefore, if you plant
potato, which is fully 80 per cent
water, in a comparatively dry soil the
dry soil has a tendency to extract
or take away the water or moisture
contained in the potato, which will
either materially weaken it and hence
a weakly plant; or it will extract
the moisture to such a degree that
it will fail to grow. The young po-
tato plant is absolutely dependent
upon the nutriment in it for growth
until leaves are EMBODIED above the
ground and the rootlets have pene-
trated into the deeper soils. Hence
you see if you plant potatoes in a
soil that is too dry you will court
failure. Hence at this time of the
year whenever potatoes are planted
on spring blowing the land should
be irrigated before planting. If this
is done and you keep up the proper
cultivation on such soil as you have
here you will not have to irrigate
until the blossoning time of the po-
tato or the time when the young tu-
bers are first set and begin to de-
velop on the root stems of the plant.
One irrigation in this climate and
soil will often mature a splendid crop
OF potatoes and at the most | do not
believe that over two irrigations
would be necessary in any case on
the Big Wood River segregations.
However, the farmer should watch
his crop and apply the same tests to
determine the moisture as you would |
in The case of grain, and also watch |
the vines as they give the same in
dications with regard to the lack of |
moisture as crops 40, by a darkening |
of the leaves. l know from exper-
fence that after the tubers are set |
the ground should never be allowed
to become either too wet or too dry.
in either it case has tendency to
stop the growth OF the tuber. Too
wet has the tendency to destroy the
cell tissue of the tuber If too dry
they will cease growing and II
moisture is applied again instead ose
the potato growing many other small
Ter potatoes will begin to grow from
The eyes of the original potato, which
results in a potato being covered
over with smaller ones which, while
it may not ruin the flavor or the
texture of the potato, will surely de-
;troy their value to such an extent
Is to make the crop improbable.
Root Systems.
With regard to plant growth as a
whole, just bear in mind that the
DOT system of all plants is larger
han the top and the root system