The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1912-01-12

anu TdluS VI heaven IluU Clelr way
and help to constitute an unfailin,
reservoir of wealth, upon which tn,
husbandman can draw with little fea
of protest or overdrafts."
Professor Buffum, some years ag'
at the Wyoming experiment station
made a test showing the gain on al
falfa ground for small grain and DO
tatoes over the same type of sol
where alfalfa was not grown. Hi
results obtained are here given:
Gain In acre valu'
of harvester
Gain in bushel cro]
Crop per acre (local price.
Wheat IL 800,
Oats Al 1870
Potatoes 20 100
Therefore, get the land into a lie
gume of some kind, alfalfa, vetch O
field pea, as soon as you can tina
it may be better prepared for sue
cessful and profitable after crops.
; In case the farmer is in doubt JUS
what crop tY put in, he will make n,
mistake to seed down to alfalf.
while he is planning out the crop 70
tation that his environment woult
seem to indicate best for him t.
adopt.
Rotation Destroys Weeds-The ell
limitation of weeds is e%ffectually &C
complished by the Introduction O.
cultivated crops like potatoes, stool
roots, sugar beets, field beans an(
truck gardening crops. The irriga
ton ditch is even a greater carrier Of
weeds than the winds. Where an en-
tire irrigation district adopts th&
practice of crop rotation and cutting
ditch and canal bank weeds, they car
be, and are, exterminated. Most Of
our worst. weed pests are annual anG
when all of a given ditch prac.
tice a good crop rotation the weed
question is solved.
Get Station Bulletins Because
weed and insect pests as we'll as fun
gus diseases are fully discussed in
station bulletins which can be had
by addressing the director of your
state experiment station, l shall pass
up any discussion of them.
Rotation Fundamentals-Let us
now consider the fundamentals which
we should concern ourselves with,
in adopting a rotation for our irrigat-
ed 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.
/. 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.
8. Plants grown constantly or IN
tinuously on the same field favor the
spread of insect pests and certain
plant diseases.
4. Some plants, by methods of til
lage, 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.
with crop growing, will fur
ntsh manure for making humus and
building up the soil. The old English
adage mo grass no cattle; no cattle
no manure; no manure, no grass" is
true everywhere.
Rotation on Irrigated Lands-Ev-
cry rotation ON the irrigated lands in
this region should contain:
!. At least one money or cash crop.
2. At least one cultivated crop.
3. At least I'M legume crop.
4. At least one live stock feeding
crop.
5. These should be SO grouped as
70 most economically distribute farm
labor throughout the year.
8. So arrange the rotation that the
larm can turn cheap and bulky feeds
INTO milk, poultry or meat products.
Z. Thus make factory methods on
he farm, turn ordinary waste pro-
into profits.
The meat packer so utilizes the
'alf, lamb and pig that now there
s nothing lost but the blat and the
'queal.
The adoption of a definite crop ro-
alton and the practice Of factory
Methods on the farm will stop the
eaks which now reduce the profits
md tremendously improve the quail
ty while it increases the quantity
Il the output of every farm in this
l know an irrigated farm in the
rockies where the suggested method
AIMED above is followed and the re-
urns for the period of their crop ro-
of six years which I checked
p last year, averaged 500 gross
acre crop per season. Do not be 1
atisfied until you feel you have I
'orked out a crop rotation adapted I
. your soil, climate and market en- I
and that rotation is av- ,
asaasasas