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Show i . i i ii .i i i i i i n 1 SUOfR BEETS 1 I A VALUABLE METHOD FOR INCREASING IN-CREASING THE FERTILITY FERTILI-TY OF THE SOIL. - (From Bulletin of Utah-Idaho Sugar Company.) It is not our purpose or desire 'to pose as an authority on agriculture, but our experience of seventeen years, .since the first crop of ibeets was grown under irrigation, has not been without its lessons which in sv practical way have demonstrated the correctness of the conclusions of leading investigators concerning some of the controlling factors of soil fertility, fer-tility, and while wc realize that no amount of reading can make a successful suc-cessful beet grower, to one who desires de-sires to achieve the greatest measure of success it may afford a very efficient effi-cient aid by way of suggestion. Wc shall hope the suggestions hers presented will receive your careful consideration. The virgin soils of the humid state's were rich in vegetable matter when the early settlers began farming them through the yearly growth and decay of i luxuriant vegetation of the preceding pre-ceding ages, but with the constant cropping in grain the fertility declined until rnnny farms were abandoned that were once fruitful. It was at one time thought that to restore them it would only be necessary neces-sary to analyze the plants to be grown to ascertain their wants and to analyze the soil to determine what was lacking and to supply the various ingredients which were shown to be wanting but investigation has repeatedly repeat-edly shown these lands to contain large amounts of plant foods and yet be quite infertile. Yet such soils were made to produce large crops through the improvement of the mechanical condition by careful tillage and the plowing under of green .crops. The most important function of this system of green manuring is the admission ad-mission of water into the soil and its conservation, as next to temperature there is nothing more important, in contributing to the favorable growth of plants than moisture and the element ele-ment of plant food which iso greatest great-est importance and least in evidence in our soils is nitrogen which fortu nately wc have in alfalfa and clover in its most acceptable form and it heavy icrop 'of either plowed under is I of greater service in improving the j mechanical condition than any other available thing. Our most eminent investigators and our experiment stations generally agree that The productiveness of any soil depends de-pends more on its mechanical condition condi-tion than the amount of plant food ir contains. The dcsiraiblc mechanical condition is that character of porosity that 1 freely admiits water and air and ol 1 such a nature that the water mny " quickly settle away, leaving it open and friable or mellow. I This condition is present in heavy 1 soil only when they arc well supplied 1 with vegetable matter. Some of the lands along the river J bottoms partake of this icharactcr, but j as a rule these lands were brought under cultivation years ago and the J continual cropping with grain has re- duccd the vegetable matter until it is f in sore need of replenishing. The up- i i lands never had any vegetable matter j worth considering in them. The wat- cr, prior to the .construction of the canals, was too far beneath to furnish any sub-moisture and they were extremely ex-tremely arid, and while these soils arc exceedingly rich in most of the elements of plant food and produce abundant crops of alfalfa, they are not well adapted to crops that require open and intensive culture until they have been improved by adding vegetable veget-able matter. The first irrigation tends to run the soil together and .'n the case of the heavy soils especially this cementing action of the water increases with each application until the surface becomes so hard as to be j impervious to water and incapable of producing good crops no matter j how much plant food it may contain. i This is a most serious situation for a j crop of beets, as d'uring our hottest and dryest weather the plants have, j or should have, grown to a size that j would prevent the stirring of the soil and reached a period of development j when the greatest amount of water j is required. The leaf surface at this j time is enormous and with, no sub- I moisture what little there is in the soil i is soon'pumpcd up and exhaled, and where the soil has become -all but impervious im-pervious through this running together togeth-er or puddling the surface may be wet by irrigation, but the root which feeds the plant becomes dry and the beet cither dies or fails to reach its full development Assuming the foregoing to be true every thinking farmer must arrive it the conclusion not only of the desirability de-sirability but of the absolute necessity neces-sity of turning heavy crops of alfalfa or clover into the soil. Our suggestion is, begin some system sys-tem of rotation now by plowing under un-der the second crop of alfalfa as soon as it -commences to bloom whether you intend to grow beets or any other oth-er crop that requires working of the soil. I The method which we have hcrc- 1 toforc advocated has received the in- 1 dorscment ofjio less an authority 1 than Charles L. Flint, Secretary of 1 the State Board of Agriculture of 1 Massachusetts for twenty-eight on- i sccutivc years, and' author of "Gras- I scs and Forage plants," "Manual of Agriculture," etc., who says: "The time when the crop is plowed plow-ed under and the depth to which it is covered arc both very important considerations con-siderations in this system. With regard re-gard to the former there is a difference differ-ence of opinion, some regarding the I best time to be when the crop is in J full bloom, others prefer the period just before blossoming. In no -oase should it be deferred until the blos-I blos-I soms fall and the seed begins to form. I The hard'er the fiber of the stems the I longer the time required to make them available for plant food. When green vegetation is allowed to decay in the open air much of the fertilizing material ma-terial is evaporated by the atmosphere, atmos-phere, and hence lost to the soil. Tn the other extreme if the crop is buried too deeply in the soil it decays de-cays more slowly and also much of I the material designed for planting I food will be buried too far from the I reach of the roots of many plant, j hence it is very essential the vegct- able mtinurc be covered by the soil just enough to prevent the fertilizing elements from passing off into the I air and sufficiently for the soil to ab- j sonb all these properties. ' It should be turned down only enough to be well covered. In this j w.ay the strength of the fertilizing j properties lie near the surface and the i 1 beat and light rains will also aid in the decomposition and if plowed under un-der at the proper stage of its growth, this will be very rapid." Under our condition it is necessary to first irrigate the land, wetting it thoroughly and uniformly so that as soon as it has passed. from a wet condition con-dition to one of suitable moisture for plowing there will be no patches cither cith-er too wet or too dry. Immediately before plowing the alfalfa al-falfa should be crushed to the ground by passing over it in the direction in which it is to bcjpjpwcd with a disc harrow set at a slight angle or a roller rol-ler or lcvclcr. The land should be plowed crosswise cross-wise of the direction it is intended to irrigate and on the following day harrowed in the direction, in' which it was plowed. By slanting the teeth of the harrow har-row so the bars will just miss the ground the alfalfa will not be disturbed dis-turbed and sufficient soil may be rak-cn rak-cn into the joints between the furrows fur-rows to keep out the air and retain the moisture which will hasten the complete decay. The field should lie in this condition con-dition until late in the fall when it --- - ' -- -a- should again be plowed slightly deeper deep-er and in the direction to be irrigated. In this vay the vegetable matter is kept near the surface and mixed with the new soil in the spring preparation pre-paration of the seed bed, which is very important in securing a perfect stand of beets, as soil that is brought to the surface for the first time is apt to run together with the spring rains and soon dry out, forming a crust which encases the seeds, destroying de-stroying their germinating power. The inclination which some have to plow under the thirdl crop of alfalfa alfal-fa rather than the second is not to be commended for the reason that there is not sufficient heat at that season of the year to cause its proper decay, and one is likely to suffer the annoyance and expense of combatting it9 tendency to grow the following year instead of receiving the full benefit ben-efit of its fertility. |