OCR Text |
Show CROPS FimRmflQN Seldom Possible to Predict Which H Will Be Most Profitabe. Too Few Irrigated Reglona Where Uae i of Crop Rotation la Made to Keep Up Fertility of Soil Organic Matter Needed. n n In the development of a new agricultural agri-cultural region It Is seldom possible ; to predict what crops will prove the most profitable. In almost any region I the farmer Is forced to choose from a large number of possible crops the j ones best suited to his needs and raar- kets. In any new region there Is a . tendency to specialise on one or at most a very few crops, and In the Ir-r Ir-r rig a ted regions, particularly, this ten-Jency ten-Jency toward a single crop Is very pro-' pro-' oounced. The use of crop rotations and the Intelligent diversification of cropa on the farm are never conspicuous conspic-uous features of a newly opened agricultural agri-cultural region. Grain and alfalfa are the pioneer Irrigated crops, and these are usually followed by attempt to grow vegetables or orchard fruits ex-I ex-I tenslvely. Sometimes, Indeed, new ' land la put Into vegetables, orchard , fruits or sugar beets In an attempt to I grow vegetables or orchards. There are altogether too few Irrigated regions re-gions In this country at the present I time where any attempt Is made to-. to-. ward the use of crop rotations with a view to keeping up the productive ca paclty of the soli. There appears to be a widespread Impression that the , fortuity of Irrigated lands Is Inex 1 haustible; that land may be used for a single crop or for a series of In-', In-', tertilled crops for an Indefinite pe- tlod. The experience of gensrstions of farmers In humid regions Is disregarded. disre-garded. New land is often planted to orchard fruits, to be continuously Intertilled In-tertilled from the first and with the expectation of continuing this clean culture and fruit production lndefl nltely. In fact, whole regions are sometimes opened to colonists, with the expectation that each farm will Immediately become and will remain exclusively devoted to some type of orctard fruits, with Its consequent clean cultivation and without any means of maintaining the absolutely essential supply of organic matter. One of the most serious problems on American Irrigated lands Is that of organic-matter supply. As long as these lands remain relatively cheap and the farm units are not too small, a rotation of crops. Including alfalfa, ran be used. Hut alfalfa Is far from belnf an Ideal rotation crop for many regions, and the temptation Is strong, once a good stand Is secured, to let It remain as a permanent crop outside the rotation. For orchards and vineyards vine-yards we lack a sultabley.y nt of annual legvtitnoua sJ m.i-J for green manure. These probiV111 of crop rotation and of the supply of organic mutter are usually problems ; of the older Irrigated regions, though i In some Instances the desert lands : are naturally so poorly supplied with 1 organic matter that this question 1 quickly becomes acute. I In some of the older and more h'gh- I ly developed Irrigated fruit regions fsrmers are now confronted with this 1 problem of plant nutrition. This Is pnrtlculsrly true In those sections where a scanty water supply requlrea 1 continuous clesn tillage for moisture-conservation, moisture-conservation, purposes. This clean tlllsge has not only prevented the addition ad-dition of any new supply of organic matter, but has made conditions In 1 the highest degree favorable for the 1 complete disintegration and conver- ' elon of the supply originally contained I In the soil. The Importance of or- 1 ganlc matter can scarcely be over- 1 etslmnted. Its depletion nnu-t be 1 avoided If crop production Is to be 1 maintained It ttiererore becomes a ' problem of the first Importance to so plsn the crop rotation on the farm and to so arrange the orchard plantings plant-ings as to provide for the use at frequent fre-quent Intervals of such cropa as will Increase the supply of organic matter In the aoil. 1 |