AGRICULTURAL OBSERVATIONS ON TRUCKEE-CARSON PROJECT. 13 



land in preference to alfalfa ^vhen a hay crop is necessary the first 

 season. Sorghum usually grows well on new land and is fairly toler- 

 ant of alkali. It will probably give better yields if sown thickly in 

 rows about 3 feet, apart and cultivated once or twice during the 

 season, though where the soil is in good tilth a better quality of hay 

 may result from sowing the seed broiulcast or with a grain drill. 



CORN. 



Corn sown thickly, either in rows to be cultivated or with a grain 

 drill, so as to produce small stalks, may prove valuable to grow in a 

 small way for the feeding of dairy stock. Corn should produce from 

 4 to 10 tons of fodder per acre and it is a crop that is used extensively 

 in the dairy sections for feeding milch cows. On some of the rich 

 black lands of the project corn planted for grain is a profitable crop, 

 and with the development of a demand for this grain for feeding live 

 stock it w^ill probably be extensively grown. 



PASTURE CROPS. 



There are not at present any successful pastures in the Truckee- 

 Carson project where a mixture of grasses has been used. With a 

 pasture of pure alfalfa or clover there is always danger of bloat with 

 dairy and beef cattle. At Fernley there is a field of mixed alfalfa 

 and smooth brome-grass {Bromm inerniis) wdiich has been cut annu- 

 ally for hay. This field could probably be safely pastured wdthout 

 danger of bloat, but it is not known whether brome-grass can be 

 successfully grown on the lower land of the project at Fallon. Since 

 brome-grass starts very slowly when first sown, it might be well to 

 sow the seed with a gi^ain crop and allow the grass to get fairly well 

 started and then seed the alfalfa the following year. Or where 

 an alfalfa stand has become thin from hard pasturing, brome- 

 grass might be seeded in with a grain drill after disking the land 



thoroughly. 



SUGAR BEETS. 



Now that a sugar-beet factory has been built, sugar beets are 

 likely to become one of the principal money-making crops of the 

 Truckee-Carson project. Good beets have been produced experi- 

 mentally on the river-bottom soil, sandy-desert soil, and the black 

 soil of the Stillwater and Douglass districts. Sugar beets are quite 

 tolerant of alkali, but beets of good form and quality are not pro- 

 duced on low, wet soils. Sugar beets grown on plats having a high 

 water table (less than 2| feet) have a tendency to be short and much 

 branched. 



It has been the experience of sugar-beet growers in other sections 

 where alfalfa is groAvn that the beets should not be planted on freshly 



[Cir. 78] 



