The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1912-01-05


tanned from the surrounding air is
worked into nitrates available to sue
ceeding plant life.
| Perennial legumeS are always deep
| feeders, bringing part of their min
eral food from soil depths below the
feeding ground of ordinary crops.
This value to succeeding crops is
shown in the opening paragraph to
Coburn's Alfalfa: There are some sill
ent subscribers that do their work with
ease and in their way, more effectually
! than any team or pillow ever hitched
! The clover plant is righteously famed
as one of these, but alfalfa is it's SUI
| perior Its roots work Sunday as well
| as Saturday, night and day; they strike
| ), 10, 10 or 20 feet Deep making in
| Vulnerable perforations, while storing
! up nitrogen and when these roots de-
cay they leave not only generous
| supply Of fertility for any desired crop,
but millions of openings into which
the airs and rains of heaven find their
way, and help to constitute an unfail
ing reservoir of wealth, upon which
the husbandman can draw with little
fear of protest or overdrafts.'
Professor Buffman, some years ago,
at the Wyoming experiment station,
made a test showing the gain on al
falfa ground for small grain and po-
tatoes over the same type of soil
where alfalfa was not grown. His re-
suits obtained are here given:
Crop gain in bushels per acre.
Wheat, IL; oats, Al: potatoes, 30.
Gain in acre value of harvested crop
| Qocal prices-Wheat $40; oats, SIC;
| potatoes, SIG.
Therefore, get the land into a le-
gume of some kind, alfalfa, vetch or
| field pea, as soon as you can that it
may be better prepared for successful
| and profitable after crops.
In case the farmer is in doubt just
what to put in, he will make no mis-
| take to seed down to alfalfa while he
| is planning out the crop rotation that
his environment would seem to indi-
cate best for him to adopt.
Rotation Destroys Weeds.
The elimination of weeds is effectu-
| ally accomplished by the introduction
of cultivated crops like potatoes, stock
roots, sugar beets, field beans and
truck gardening crops. The irrigation
| ditch is even greater carrier of
weeds than the winds. Where an en-
| tire irrigation district adopts the prac-
| tice of crop rotation and cutting ditch
and canal bank weeds, they can be,
| and are, eXterminated. Most of our
worst weed pests are annual and when
all users of a given ditch practice a
good crop rotation the weed question
| is solved
Get Station Bulletins.
| Because weed and insect pests as
we'll as fungus diseases are fully dis
cussed in station bulletins which can
| ho ha5 hY aI <,f
| your state experiment station, ! shall
pass up any discussion of them.
Rotation Fundamentals.
Let us now consider the fundamen-
| tails which we should concern our
selves with, in adopting a rotation for
our irrigated lands, where we cannot
afford to grow many cheap forage or
grass crops, unless upon said farm we
can convert these cheaper crops into
more remunerative meat, dairy or
poultry products.
l. All plants tend to exhaust the
soil. They abstract some one or more
| food elements to the full amount of
availability.
2. All plants do not exhaust the
soil in the same way and manner
equally.
). Plants grown constantly or con-
tinuously on the same field favor the
| spread of insect pests and certain
plant diseases.
4. Some plants, by methods of til
lase, are favorable to weed growth,
while others are not.
5. Plants differ in habits of root
growth.
6. All legumes are soil builders and
soil renovators.
Z. Some form of stock raising, COM
bined with crop growing, will furnish
manure for making humus and build
ing up the soil. The old English adage
NO grass no cattle; no cattle no ma
nure; no manure, no grass" is true
everywhere.
Rotation on Irrigated Lands.
Every rotation on the irrigated lands
in this region should contain:
lst-At least one money or cash
crop.
2nd-At least one cultivated crop.
3rd--At least one legume crop.
4th-At least one livestock or feed
ing crop.
5th-These should be so grouped as
to most economically distribute farm
labor throughout the year.
6th-So arrange the rotation that the
into milk, poultry or meat products.
7th-Thus make factory methods on
the farm, turn ordinary waste pro-
ducts into profits
The meat packer so utilizes the calf
lamb and pig that now there is moth
ing lost but the blat and the suueal
The adoption of a definite crop rota-
ton and the practice of factory me-
thods on the farm will stop the leaks
which now reduce the profits and ire
mendously improve the quality while
it increases the quantity of the out
put of every farm in this district.
| know an irrigated farm in the
Rockies where the suggested method
named above is followed and the re-
turns for the period of their crop ro-
tation of six years, which | checked
up last year, averaged 500 gross per
acre crop per season. Do not be salts
fed until you feel you have worked