The Coconino sun., 1919-06-27


 nino county for number of years
 but not until the last five years has
 it been widely known as a potato dis.
 trict. They were first grown neal
 Flagstaff. The particular district
 first planted to potatoes is situated
 just at the foot of the San Francisco
 peaks on valley land sloping south.
 ward. It was protected on either side
 by abrupt mesas surrounded by for.
 ests of pine and altogether favorably
 located for potato growing. Coconino
 county is the second largest county in
 the United States; it is situated in the northern part of Arizona and extends from central Arizona across the
 Grand Canyon of the Colorado to the
 Utah line. As whole the country is rough and very broken. Much of the land is what might be called desert with little vegetation. Such land
 however, is used for grazing in fall and spring. The better farming and grazing land is confined to the higher elevations, especially near the San Francisco mountains. The farming land is very scattered, there being about three hundred homesteaders in the county.
 The soil is of volcanic origin, is rather coarse in texture and in many places is slightly acid in nature. It is lacking in humus and limestone. Crops are grown at elevations be- tween $500 and $500 feet. At these higher points the annual rainfall is about "A inches. The season is very short, but during the summer season the crops grow very rapidly. On May 26, 1918, there was severe frost which froze potato vines in some fields to the ground. These potatoes grew again, however, and produced a good crop. A frost came as early as August IA and 15, 1918, which froze many potato plants, thus cutting down the yield. The period without frost was, therefore, in some districts last year, but 80 days.
 One feature of potato culture in this section is worthy of mention and is peculiar to Coconino county. The crops are first grown under dry-farm conditions. April, May, and June are characterized by many windy days with but little rain; consequently the soil drys out rapidly. If the crops are planted and are too far advanced before the summer rains, which usu- ally come about July 1, they are in a weakened condition, have made a small spindling growth and are too far advanced toward maturity for the rains to benefit them. On the other hand, if the soil has been worked into a good mulch on the surface to re- tain the moisture and the planting is begun about May 1, the crops come nicely. They develop good root sys- tenn, but the tops grow slowly until the rains come, when they develop very rapidly.
 The problem, then, is to get the potatoes as we'll as other crops over a period of about two months of dry weather.
 In the fall of 1917, when the agri- cultural agent reached the county there were some three thousand acres devoted to potato growing. Many of the fields were lin a pitiful mixture of weeds and potatoes, as Cowboy farming" made no provision for culti- vation. (An explanation of Cowboy farming" is to plant the crops in the spring and return in the fall for the harvest.) The varieties in the fields had become badly mixed. Very little selection had been made so far as could be judged. A few barrels of Early Ohios had been shipped in about five years previous. Among this seed must have been some of the Peachblow variety. The latter variety being rounder in shape and smooth was chosen for seed by the farmers. In this way they unconsciously chang ed over their fields from Early Ohio to Peachblow. and is doing so changed over to higher yielding variety. The original Early Ohio potato had been awarded first prize at the Arizona State fair for the first two years un- der this name and by a competent judge. It was difficult to demonstrate to growers that this common round red variety they were growing was | Peachblow instead of Early Ohio.
 The red variety had been marketed under the name of "Coconino Red"
 Other fields were made up of a mix tufe of white varieties. The agricul- tural agent set about to eliminate the lmcIlOT sOfts. ht uikkHk tiiic " | was very noticeable that several vari- cities were poor yielders, rough and undesirable for our conditions. The | big problem was to make better selection and rid the farmers of seed mixtures and to discard entirely the poor varieties.
 Work was done at once to encour- age the growers in the selection of seed, both by the hill-selection meth cd and in the cellar. On several farms a man was designated to follow the digger and when a good hill came over the elevator, all the potatoes were retained for seed. This seed gave splendid results the following summer.
 It was interesting to note tha. where hill-selected seeds were planted by the side of feld-run, that, in com paratively dry soil, the hill-selected seed gave about 75 per cent stand while the others gave only about 40 per cent. It was pleasing to note t' an improvement had at least begun in the fall of 1917.
 DurinU the followinp winter and ,