Deming graphic. (Deming, N.M.) 1903-1948, 1913-05-30
GROWING OF SUMMER CROPS
AND METHODS OF CULTURE
Some Suggestions as to the Growing
Of Summer Crops, With Some Of
the Methods Of Culture Which
Have Proven Successful.

Shall we grow u summer crop or
the grain stubblei
That is the question that thous.
ands of farmers must decide soon
There is a prevalent belief that the
growing of such crops as sorghum
milo, kafr, shallu, etc, is hard on
the land.
There are some apparent grounds
for this belief, from the fact that
succeeding crops are frequently very
much poorer than those grown on ad-
joining land where the sorghum crop
had not been grown the previous sea
son.
IL Is by no means certain, however,
that the poorer succeeding crop is
due to the excessive fertility taken
from the soil by the sorghum crop.
Our best farmers have come to
learn that the chief difference is in
the mechanical condition Of the soil
after the sorghum. Sorghum has
many small tough roots that make
the soil very difficult to handle. The
roots decay slowly and unless an UNI
usual amount of work is done in pre-.
pairing the land, it is not in the prop
er condition for sowing grain or al
falfa,
Milo, kaiir and shallu are only
slightly more favorable in this re-
spect than sorghum and so it comes
about that the same amount Of work
on grain stubble that has lain fallow
all summer puts the soil in better
filth than would considerably more
work on land where sorghum, milo
or kafr has been grown, and so nat
nrally enough we attribute the poor
er succeeding crop to some element
that the sorghum has taken from the
soil, when in reality the deficiency
Is due to lack Of preparation.
There is nothing in the chemical
analysis Of the sorghum that indi-
Gates that it should be any harder
on land than is corn, and il is not
probable that a crop Of one takes
any more fertility from the soil than
the other.
The fact that we cannot get away
from is that on high priced land, Il
crop of grain in season will not re.
turn enough to pay the expenses of
the crop and leave enough for fair
rate of interest on the investment
In order to make farming profitable
1t is necessary to grow more than one
crop in a season, and it follows logi-
cally that crop like sorghum or
milo should follow the grain crop.
1t is not to be supposed from the
foregoing that We advocate the claim
that it is possible to go on taking
crops off the soil indefinitely, without
putting anything back, and not make
the soil poorer On the contrary,
what We claim is that the experience
of the best farmers proves conclus-
lively that First, alfalfa is the most
profitable crop for general farming in
the Southwest; and second, that for
most profitable results in alfalfa
farming it is necessary to reseed the
field once in five to six years, and in
order to do this il is advisable to
practice rotation Of crops in which
grain and some summer crop will oc-
cupy the land for one or better for
two seasons. Furthermore, we be-
leve that it has been sufficiently de-
monstrated that the most profitable
farming is a system that provides
for the feeding of the crops grown
to live stock and returning the ma
nure back to the land.
We believe that il is only n ques-
ton Of few years until it will be
the general practice of the best
farmers to follow a somewhat SINH
lar rotation to that followed by many
clover-corn farmers, and that would
be to manure heavily the alfalfa sod
during the winter, cut one or two
crops, and pillow up and plant to milo,
kafr or shallu in June. This to be
followed by grain crop. Another
summer crop could be grown, and
repeated blowing and narrowing
through the following winter will put
the soil in ideal condition for re-
seeding to alfalfa in the spring.
II is essential in a system of in
tcnsive farming to grow a summer
crop, and the question of most i'm
portance is what to grow, and that
can best be answered by considera-
ton Of the purpose for which we in
tend to use the crop. Sorghum has
been grown longer in the Southwest
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