The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1911-05-24
HOW TO IRRIGATE SPUOS
Writer In Farm Paper Tells
Best Method of Roising Pota-
toes In Arid Section.

journal of the irrigated region of the
Northwest, gives the following very
rational outlines of potato growing by
irrigation. AS nearly all the ranchers
in this section oi Nevada raise more OF
less potatoes every season, this paper
reproduces the article for their benefit
There is no particular number OF
times during the season that potatoes
should be irrigated The idea that
there is, is fundamentally false, al
though it is followed by some growers
and usually accompanied by failure.
The question is simply whether or not
the plant, at given time. is in need
of water
Before planting potatoes, the land
should be irrigated no matter how
damp the soil may appear to be at the
time of planting The ground should
be ditched with an ordinary hay ditcher
and the water run over it for period
that will vary from one to four days.
If land is new from sagebrush it will
probably need TO be wal cred three or
four days. You can judge whether it
has been watered enough when the
ground it thoroughly soaked, in fact,
muddy. In this first watering you can
hardly get he ground too wet. so that
the moisture will go down into the soil
eight or ten feet, thus providing for
six weeks or two months, plenty Of
moisture from beneath. After the
ground has dried out sufficiently for a
horse to stand upon it, it should be
plowed deeply. 1t should then be har-
rowed down fine when it is ready to be
planted. Potatoes may be planted IL,
IA or Is inches apart depending on the
richness of the soil, and the use of a
large piece Of seed is advisable. 1t pays
to give the plant plenty of sustenance
at the start. The potato patch will not
need watering now until it is in bloom,
if these directions have been completely
followed out.
Keep cultivating after the plants
come up continually and don't be afraid
to cultivate with the spike-tooth har-
row after they are four or five inches
high as the very few that you will
damage with the cultivator teeth will
be nothing compared with the benefit
derived. While the plants are in bloom
it is wise plan to keep an eye on the
patch from day to day, and if you find
any place, as you look over the field,
where the vines are turing dark in
color it means that they need water and
it is time to begin irrigating In any
event the plants should be irrigated be-
fore they have gone out of bloom, for
the reason that it is the time of blos
soming that the tubers set, and the
number of tubers which will set upon
the plants depends in a measure upon
the amount of moisture in the soil.
Of course, If your plants turn dark
before blossoming, it means that there
is not enough moisture in the soil,
and you had better irrigate, but this
will not occur if sufficient irrigating has
been done in the beginning.
After the first irrigating, when the
plants are in bloom, the only rule which
can be given is to irrigate the patch as
often as it is necessary to keep the
soil four or five inches below the sur
face of the ground nicely moist, so that
when you reach your hand in and bring
out handful of it in the grip of the
hand, and open the hand again, the
dirt will clearly show the indentation
of the fingers and be fairly moist.
A year ago, on the potato patch which
the writer grew it was necessary to
irrigate about every five days, because
the hot weather was drawing the mois-
ture out of the soil and the earth was
too dry beneath the surface. OF
course, it is possible to irrigate potatoes
too much but generally more failures
result from giving them TOO little
water. However, no mans advice will
help you in this matter, and your suc-
cess will depend upon applying the
rules of nature with good judgment.
In ditching between the rows for the
water to run, ditch as deeply as possi.
BILE. This is very important, as in run.
ming the water through the ditch great
pains should be taken that the top OF
the water in the ditch is not higf
enough to be applied directly to the
tupers. A small stream running long
time in the bottom of the ditch il
better than big stream running ,
short time.
4