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Show RANCH & GARDEN 1977 Editlon-Ap- rll, Violas eyes contrast in color USDA studies water conservation measures Someday, farmers may go into their fields regularly and take their plants temperatures. If it is found that the plants are not feeling well, because of heat and dryness, they will know its time to irrigate. some other day, several years later, satellites may take the temperatures of whole And Another method is to measure the sap pressure within a plant, an indication of how hard the plant is working to draw water from the soil into the roots and up into the stem and leaves. The stem of a sample plant is cut, and scientists measure how strongly the plant holds its sap. earth-movin- Sap measurementpressure be more the country. may will representative than temthen calculate yields, eventually perature to indicate the water status, predicting shortages and plants surpluses. World crops can Reginato says, but is be monitored, allowing and destructive. sections of Scientists better planning of food Eventually, researchers hope to be able to rely solely on the temperature distribution and commodity sales. But right now, scientists at the U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory in Phoenix still must check their test plots carefully, taking as many as 120 measurements of a plants development every day from planting to harvest. Soil Robert scientist Reginato explains one process of taking a plants temperature: A healthy plant spires water and so is tranthree-to-fiv- less efficient method than Several types of catsprinkler and drip systems. chments have been tried, including asphalt and The problem, Replogle metal. These are expensive, the and says, is that uneven, lumpy however, to water continues distorts laboratory ground distribution and therefore is experiment with different inefficient. To level field soU treatments. One that basins to an accuracy of one provides about 90 per cent inch, a laser device tran- runoff is paraffin wax. smits a signal that controls Evaporation from the g blade elevation of an storage tank is reduced with machine. After floating foam rubber that, the biggest expense is covers. the time needed to babysit The laboratory now the controls, Replogle says. Were working on an houses a machine that e readings and have the thermometer devices portable and cheap enough to be used by farmers. Next year, Reginato and three other scientists will extake on a larger-scal- e of with acres 2,500 periment in California. wheat Temperature readings will be taken at ground level, from feet, from 65,000 feet and from a satellite. The higher level readings will be compared to level ground measurements to check accuracy of remote sensing by aircraft and satellites. l,000-to-2,00- 0 degrees Celsius cooler than the surrounding air. We can measure both plant temperatures with an When soil scientists are infrared scanner and air co- ready to predict irrigation by temperature nventional methods. needs, John Replogle and Generally, if the plant is his group of engineers will cooler than the air, we know be ready with more efficient its utilizing water properly irrigation systems. and has enough. If it has the Replogles department at same temperature or the laboratory is concerned flood with higher, it needs moisture, mainly Reginato says. irrigation, a cheaper but automated irrigation system with air cylinders attached to the check gates. The cylinders are connected by air lines to a control center that will determine which gates need to be lifted and lowered. simulates atmospheric conditions. Small dishes of different soils with different treatments are placed in the machine with a few drops of water on them. Then they are alternately frozen and thawed and subjected to radiation to determine the most durable treatment. ultraviolet Many farmers in the West and Southwest, of course, have to think about obtaining water before they can use it. Besides not getting much rain, most of the rain that does fall moves into the soil and evaporates in a few days. Thus, the rain produces neither runoff nor groundwater recharge. For this problem, Keith Cooley and his research group have devised water catchment areas. About an acre or two of soil is treated so that water does not soak in, but instead runs off into a storage tank. Cooley estimates that one such catchment in an area with 12 inches annual rainfall could collect as much as 300,000 gallons of water a year. Cooley estimates that thousands of water harvesting units are in use in several states. Most provide water for wildlife and livestock rather than crops, Cooley says, because it takes about 10 catchment units (depending on rainfall) to irrigate one unit of cropland. Yet another moisture source in water-scarc- e areas is sewage from cities. Treatment of such sewage for ittigation, recreational lakes and, in some cases, drinking water is being studied by Herman Bouwer, director of the laboratory. that for centuries, waste water has been treated by letting it percolate through the soil, where organic matter in the water decomposes. His group is resurrecting this notion, which in exnotes Bouwer research is h to be about proving adas as expensive vanced or tertiary treatperimental one-tent- ment. Winter wheat growing in northern Utah and the state's milling and baking industries depend on wheat varieties that are resistant to dwarf smut. utilize cities Most treatment filtering out what sinks and floats and secondary treatment where air is passed through the ir effluent so that bacteria can digest more of the organic wastes. This is expensive and still does not produce effluent that can be used for unrestricted irrigation and Viola plants are slightly smaller than pansies and have finer leaves and somewhat smaller flowers. Most violas have no faces like pansies but usually have a small eye of a contrasting color. . Instead of teritiary treatment, Bouwer recreation. let the secondary effluent seep to the groundwater from rapid infiltration basins, using the soil as a natural filter to renovate the sewage water. and Plant breeders have selected viola varieties for clean, crisp colors such as apricot, gold, white, purple, blue and yellow. These are prized for edgings which are often wrapped around beds of mixed color pansies or other cool weather flowers such as calendulas and stock. While most of the quality improvement occurs in the top three or four feet of soil, a few hundred extra feet of underground movement are needed to make sure that the renovated water is free from taste, odor and microincluding organisms, viruses. The renovated pathogenic a The Johnny jump-up- , primitive viola, has very water can then be pumped to irrigate all kinds of crops, including lettuce and other vegetables eaten raw. use of the water Large-scalfor drinking is not yet recommended because some organic compounds are not degraded in the soil. and small . flowers naturalizes readily. All violas are extremely frost hardy and will live through severe winters when fall planted. e Pincushion flower lacks good name ....a ... purple shades. Few other flowers can match pincushion for production of long stemmed, long lasting cut flowers. Mourning or a Pincushion Bride Flower? All are common names for an admirable all purpose annual flower that suffers from the lact of a Scabiosa good name. atropurpureus. Interpreted, literally, Pincushion grows rapidly from large, name means a dark purple plant that cures the itch. Neither statements are true. wire, an apt name, descriptive for blossom size and apPincushion 8 to 9 inches visible. Seeds can be sown early young plants are frost hardy. Pincushion flowers will withstand quite a bit of heat if you remove Seed breeders have selected a wide range of pastel pink, rose, lavender and orchid colors while retaining the deep wine and spent blossoms and water the plants frequently. FIT FOR & ranch Sizes Widths 6 E "Not all sizes in all widths. RED 171NG Feel really fit BOTH STORES: 14 East Main in Price & Castle Dale in diameter. After a while the wire will be virtually in- is pearance. Perhaps it will stick. otlock feet sure-sprouti- seeds. Plants are rather open and floppy because of the long stems. Try growing 2 or 3 plants inside a 2 ft. high cylinder of chicken the botanical . . . for farm work. |