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Show t - . Diversified trops R JL director of Atfneul- j : Iurl Extension. j j THE IMPORTANCE OF CROP ROTATION FOR v,.y .1 j I THE IRRIGATION FARMER ! ldaho- j Oregon Short Line "Demonstration Train Lecture. j 1 20 feet deep, making innumerable .1 perforations, while storing up nitro-. nitro-. gen. and when these roots decay they .leave not only a generous supply lertility for any desired crop, but millions mil-lions of openings into which the airs and ruins of heaven find their way, and help to constitute an unfailing reservoir of wealth, upon which tue husbandman can draw with little fear of protest or overdrafts." Professor Buffum, some years ago at the Wyoming Experiment Station, made a test showing the gain on al- falfa ground for small grain and potatoes po-tatoes over the. same type of soil where alfalfa was not grown. His re-sulis re-sulis obtained are here given. Wheat, gain in bushel per acre, 12; gain in value of harvested crop (local prices), $10.00. Oats, gain in hushet per acre, 41; gain in acre value of harvested crop (local prices), $16.00. Potatoes, gain in bushel per acre, 29; gain In acre value of harvested crop (local prices), $16.00. Therefore, get the land into a legume le-gume of some kind, alfalfa, vetch or field pea, as soon as ?'ou can that it may be better prepared for successful success-ful and profitable after crops. In case the farmer is in doubt just what crop to put in, he will make no mistake to seed down to alfalfa while he is planning out the crop rotation that his environment would seem to indicate best for him to adopt. Rotation Destroys Weeds. The elimination of weeds is effectually ef-fectually accomplished by the introduction intro-duction of cultivated crops like potatoes, po-tatoes, stock roots, sugar beets, field beans and truck gardening crops. The irrigation ditch is even a greater carrier car-rier of weeds than the winds. Where an entire Irrigation district adopts the practice of crop rotation and cutting ditch and canal bank weeds, they can be, and are, exterminated. Most of our worst weed pests are annual and when all users of a given ditch practice prac-tice a good crop rotation the weed qeustlon is solved. Get Station Bulletins. Because weed and insect pests as well as fungus diseases are fully discussed dis-cussed in Station bulletins which can be had by addressing the director of your state experiment station, I shall pass up any discussion of them. Rotation Fundamentals. Let us now consider the fundamentals fundamen-tals which we should concern ourselves our-selves with, in adopting a rotation for our irrigated lands, where we cannot afford to grow many cheap forage or grass crops, unless upon said farm we can convert these cheaper crops into more remunerative meat, dairy or poultry products. 1. All plants tend to exhaust the soil. They abstract some one or more food elements to the full amount of availability. 2. All plants do not exhaust the soil in the same way and manner equally. 3. Plants grown constantly or continuously con-tinuously on the same field favor the spread of insect pests and certain plant diseases. 4. Some plants, by methods of tillage, till-age, are favorable to weed growth, while others are not. 5. Plants differ in habits of root growth. 6. All legumes are soil bui'-icrs and soil renovators. 7. Some form of stock raising, combined with crop growing, will furnish fur-nish manure for making humus and building up the soil. The old English adage "No grass no cattle; no cattle no manure; no manure, no grass," is Basis of Success. The basis of farm success is organ ization, system on the farm; the basis of organization on the farm ia crop management; on the successful management' of the crop largely rest these h'vo fundamentals: 1. Economy of Business. 2. Maintenance of Soil Fertility. 3. Productivity of the Soil. 4. .Subsistence for Livestock. fj. Farm Profits at end of Season. The term "notation of Crops" is used to designate a system of crops which give a recurring succession of leld plants with differing plant food requisites. Reasons for Rotation. The primary purposes of a crop rotation ro-tation are 1st, Prevention of "Crop Sick" soils, the result of continuous cultivation of the same crop for a period pe-riod of years; 2nd, The elimination of weeds, insect pests and crop diseases; i 3rd, Increase in the productivity of the field crops by conserving the soil fertility. . First Irrigated Crop. Tho first crop to be grown in any appreciable degree "under the ditch" was wheat. Wheat followed wheat year after year on the river plain farms of Utah and Idaho until in some instances the yield of grain fell 25 and even 50 per cent below what it first gave the farmer. This was on comparatively virgin soil which we think is rich as cream. Why is this? Feeding at the same depth on the same plant food elements absorb the readily available plant food of this particular element so this class Df plants is then sparingly fed. Like i starved pig, it cannot make its owner the profits the well fed ones do. All plants do not feed alike. They either use different foods or the same food from different depths. There-tore, There-tore, plants feeding at different depths of soil, although they may use the same food elements, the deeper feeding plants can follow the shallow feeders without serious immediate loss, although eventually, unless these ibsorbed food elements be restored, ... tho available plant food will become 1" exhausted and the solt will therefore be impoverished. The depositor who continues to draw his money from the bank without with-out making deposits will at last find his checks returned marked "short." No bank will permit continued overdrafts. over-drafts. We should not be taking off all the time, without putting back the food elements upon which plants teed, some of the time. If we do, we have a crop sick soil that does not "pay its checks" for want of funds the available food elements that have been taken through previous withdrawals. with-drawals. Our Utah and Idaho soils are either of granitic or volcanic rock formation. These soils seem to hold an abundance abund-ance of potash, a reasonable amount of phosphates, a limited amount of nitrates, abundance of lime, but a great deficiency in organic matter commonly known as- humus. Here are the essentials we need in these soils; they constitute the soil barometer barom-eter since the lessened amount of any one of these will most seriously affect af-fect the general crop culture. Humus not only increases the water holding capacity of the soil but it also carries an appreciable amount of nitrates. Hence we need, early in our cropping, to get humus in the soil. Feed the soil constantly, that it may, in turn. feed our crops. How may we do this? By growing crops that tend to store what little humus we have with nitrogen, nitro-gen, while it increases the humus content of the soil. These are legume crops alfalfa, beans, peas, alsike, red clover and vetches constitute the legume le-gume family group which have proven profitable for us to grow in the west. Choose the one that is best adapted to your farm environment, and you feel will grow you the most dollars. Give it a permanent place in your field crops. These plants seem to have the peculiar pe-culiar property of utilizing the free nitrogen of the air and thus store nitrates ni-trates in the soil, and accumulate hu-v. hu-v. mus, the one filing our soils seem most to need. How is this done? Through a most peculiar little family of lower organisms known as bacteria, bac-teria, which grow on the root hairs and tiny rootlets of the root system of these legume plants. This creates, as it were, a fever in that particular part of the.yplant, calling for more air and more water. In a chemical process pro-cess not easily understood,, the free nitrogen obtained from the surrounding surround-ing air is worked into nitrates available avail-able to succeeding plant life. Perennial legumes are always deep feeders, bringing a part of their mineral min-eral food from soil depths below the feeding ground of ordinary crops. This value to succeeding crops is si-own in the opening paragraph to Centra's Alfalfa: "There - are some silent sub-soilers that do their work w'th ease and in their way. more effectually than any team or p'ow ever hitched. The clover plant is righteously famed as one of these, but alfalfa is its superior. Its roots work Sunday as well as Saturday, night and day. they strike 5. 10, 15 or true everywhere. Rotation on Irrigated Lands. Every rotation , on the irrigated lands in this region should contain: 1st, At least one money or cash crop: 2nd, At least one cultivated crop; 3rd, At least one legume crop; 4th, At least one live stock or feeding feed-ing crop; 5th, These should be so grouped as to most economically distribute farm labor throughout the year. 6th. So arrange the rotation that the farm can turn cheap and bulky feeds into milk, poultry or meat products. pro-ducts. 7th. Thus make factory methods on the farm, turn ordinary waste products pro-ducts into profits. The meat packer so utilizes the calf, lamb and pig that now there is nothing lost but the blat and the squeal. The adoption of a definite crop rotation ro-tation and the practice of factory methods on the farm will stop the leaks which now reduce the profits and tremendously improve the quality while it increases the quantity of the output of every farm in this district. I know an irr'gated farm in the I Rockies where ibe u?-reted method named above is followed and the returns re-turns for the rrriod of their c-op r"-tntion r"-tntion of six years, which I checked up last year, averacpd mo gross per acre cron Tx?r season. !i not be sat-tsfied sat-tsfied until you f-c ynn 'rn-e worked out a cron rofition ','!,H:te:l to you-foil. you-foil. clirwitr rsr':-t environment and that rotatim nvrmcipe yu a tress return of S".0 per acre crop pet season. |
