Grains and Forage Crops 105 



Beets and Potatoes. 



Which is the best for dairy rcti'j, />/(///; red iiuuifiels or a cross bc- 

 tii'cen these and sugar beets/ Can you sug^^est a more {profitable zariely 

 of potato than the Oregon Burbank? 



If you can get a cross which gives you more tonnage than a 

 mangel and a higher nutritive content you would have somctiiing 

 better to grow. The first point you have to determine by growing 

 the two side by side and weighing the product; the nutritive value 

 of each will have to be determined by chemical analysis. I'ntil 

 these determinations are actuallj' made a comparison of desirability 

 is nothing but conjecture. There are several other potatoes wliich 

 are sometimes more profitable here and there for early crop when 

 grown in an early locality. If you are not in an early locality you 

 are obliged to produce for tlie main crop, and nothing, to our knowl- 

 edge, sells as well as the Burbank, if you get a good one. 



Beets for Stock. 



Will sugar beefs grozc on black alkali land? Hozv many pounds of 

 seed per acre should be used and ivhen is it time for soidng in the San 

 Joaquin valley f Which kind zvould be best for cozvsf 



Beets will do more on alkali than some other plants, but too 

 much alkali will knock them out. You must try and see whether 

 you have too much alkali or not. You can sow at various times 

 during the rainy season, for the beets will stand some frost. Sow 

 8 pounds per acre in drills 2^ to 3 feet apart, so as to use a horse 

 cultivator. For stock you had better grow large stock beets like 

 mangolds or tankards — not sugar beets. It costs too much to get 

 sugar beets out of the ground, because it is their habit to grow small 

 and bury themselves for the sake of the sugar maker, while stock 

 beets grow largely above ground. 



Summer Start of Stock Beets. 



Hozv can I make Mangel JVurcels grozv in hot zceatherf The land 

 is level and can be irrigated by flooding or ditching betn'cen the rozcs. 

 Hozv often should the zvater be applied, and zvhich method used? The 

 land is in fine shape; a sandy loam bordering on to heavier land. 



Wet the land thoroughly; plow and harrow and drill in the 

 seed in rows about 2^ feet apart. This ought to give moisture 

 enough to start the seed. Cultivate as soon as you can see the rows 

 well. Irrigate in a furrow between the rows about once a month; 

 cultivate after each irrigation. 



Corn Growing for Silage. 



With fair culiivaiion. zvill an acre produce about 10 tons of ensilage 

 zuithout fertilisation — // being bottom land? Hozv should it be planted? — 

 the rozvs closer together than j feet, or should it be planted the usual 

 zvidth between rozvs, and thick in the rozvs? If fertilisers zvere to be used, 



