The Fallon standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1920-1958, 1920-10-07
Project Has Sample
OF Republican
Economy
Experimental Farm Now Has But
One Caretaker and Work
Awaits Funds

one of the field men ON the Truck
ee-Carson experiment farm were
let off and large part of the regu-
lar farm work came to a standstill.
Little or no cultivation has been
possible and the ordinarily well
kept fields, gardens and hedges are
rapidly taking on an unkempt, un-
tidy appearance, all because con-
gress. in the interest of economy.
saw fit to make large cut in the
agricultural bill. Because of the
decrease in the amount of appropri-
ations the work of a number of
stations in various parts of the
United States was discontinued
along with other features. such as
the campaign against hog cholera
in the swine producing sections, and
tick eradication in some of the
southern states.
The Newlands experiment farm is
unique among those established on
government irrigation projects In
that it is the only one that lies in an
alkali area. All the others have
comparatively good soil, of sufficient
uniformity to permit of compare
tive cultural and yarietal tests of
field crops. On the local farm the
soil is so spotted that 1t has been
impractical to conduct variety tests
on it except to a very limited ex-
tent, for the reason that when two
or more varieties are grown side by
side for comparison it is frequently
found that the difference in yield is
just as likely to be caused by soil
inequalities as by any inherent diff
ference in the productivity of the
crops under test Since variety
tests of wheat, barley, potatoes, on
ions and other crops could not be
efficiently tested ON the experiment
farm il was necessary to cooperate
with individual farmers who were
kind enough to offer their lands for
the tests without reimbursement to
themselves.
Up until the United States enter
ed the war about so acres of land
was planted each year on private
farms. This cooperative work prov
ed to be very efficient as a means
of ascertaining what varieties are
most suitable to this section. Other
cooperative work was conducted to
study the results obtained by vari-
Gus kinds of fertilizers on the diff
ferent soils of the project, and a
temperature survey was made by
installing recording thermometers
for a period of three years in six
different parts of the project
On the experiment farm the
greater part of the work was for the
purpose of determining the effect of
various treatments in reclaiming al
kali soils. These treatments include
the application of various chemicals
such as sulphur, sulphuric acid, acid
phosphate; the plowing under of
stable manure and green manure,
and the rotation of crops. A part
of these experiments will require
several years more work to deter
mine their efficiency.
A we'll equipped laboratory has
been maintained in order that the
effects of field experiments could be
measured by analyzing for the aka
Ii salts at frequent intervals. In
addition to the regular soil work
the farm chemist has analyzed each
year hundreds of samples of soil
and water for the general farming
public. Probably the most directly
useful work performed by the lab
oratory in the past has been the de-
termination of the alkali content of
the water from new wells put down
by homesteaders. The alkali con-
tent of the underground water of
the project is about as spotted and
irregular as the everything soil and
there is no way of telling in ad-
vance if the water will be useable
for domestic purposes.
The orchards on the farm have
! been planted for the purpose OF
testing as many different varieties
of fruits as possible A large part
of the trees have already come in
to bearing and lists of varieties
suitable to grow in this project have
been prepared for the information
of all settlers who desire to plant
an orchard. Many kinds of orna
mental trees have been planted fol
trial and thousands of trees anC
shrubs have been propagated for 10
cal distribution.
In the experiment farm Office 4
an excellent collection of books ant
bulletins on agricultural subjects
The bulletins are all card indexes
and are available for use by an,
resident of the project. They ar
loaned out to those interested 4
the same manner as library books.
The experiment farm has bee
closed down and its work viii nc
J be continued unless favorable az
tion is taken by congress during tn