COMMERCIAL TRUCK CROPS ON THE TRUCKEE-CARSON 



PROJECT. 1 



By F. F>. Headley, Superintendent, and Vincent Fulkerson, Scientific Assistant, 



Office of Western Irrigation Agriculture. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The growing of truck crops on the Truckee-Carson project is assum- 

 ing increasing importance from year to year. This class of farming 

 is largely followed by men who rent land on the older alfalfa ranches. 

 Suitable land for this purpose has been rented for $12 to $25 per 

 acre and generally for a term of years, since subduing and leveling 

 old alfalfa land is often expensive. 



Potatoes, onions, celery, and cantaloupes are grown extensively for 

 marketing outside the State, but the growing of other truck crops is 

 limited to the demands of the local non-agricultural population resid- 

 ing on the project and in adjacent mining camps. The future devel- 

 opment of the truck-crop industry is therefore limited, except for 

 those crops that will bear shipment and can compete with the outside 



market. 



POTATOES. 



About 480 acres of potatoes were grown on the Truckee-Carson 

 Project in 1912. The Burbank is about the only variety grown for 

 shipment. The yield per acre is exceedingly variable, owing to a 

 number of causes, such as variation in soil, irrigation, and seed. The 

 average yield on good alfalfa land is probably about 10 tons of market- 

 able potatoes per acre, while the average yield for the entire project 

 in 1912 was 4.1 tons per acre. Market prices in the last few years 

 have ranged between $12 and $25 per ton. 



The future of the potato industry is promising. The local demand 

 is large 1 , and the completion of the Panama Canal may so reduce the 

 transportation rates that Nevada-grow T n potatoes can be placed in 

 eastern markets. The quality of Nevada potatoes is excellent and 

 by careful selection of seed and type, with due care in growing, sort- 

 ing, and marketing, there should be a large development in this 

 industry. 



i Issuerl Feb. 15, 1913. 

 [Cir. 113] 15 



