238 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



more recently invented weeders are considered better 

 than the harrow, as they are lighter, the teeth are finer 

 or closer, do not injure the tops, and as they require but 

 one horse much tramping on the ground is prevented. 

 They destroy all weeds in the rows, thereby saving 

 considerable hand- work. It is better to avoid irrigat- 

 ing during hot sultry weather, for if the soil is allowed 

 to become too dry the potato plants are weakened. 

 When irrigated at such time the conditions conducive 

 to fungous diseases, such as blight and rust, are bound 

 to prevail. 



Since the first appearance of ' ' Irrigation Farming ' ' 

 some of the older and more experienced spud growers 

 in the famous distridl around Greeley, Colorado, where 

 as many as 20,000 carloads of marketable potatoes are 

 grown in one season, have changed their views regard- 

 ing the proprieties of irrigation. Experience and prac- 

 tice are entirely different now. As the growers began 

 j^^to apply manure in quantities to the land in order, 

 primarily, to increase the fertility and the resulting 

 yield, they made some divScoveries : First, that the 

 plants needed more water or the manure would burn 

 them, and, further, that with richer soil and more plant- 

 food, rendered soluble and available by water and cul- 

 tivation, potatoes could stand more irrigation and 

 earlier in the season, not only without injury but with 

 material and perceptible benefit. Now they apply 

 twice the amount of water they formerly thought either 

 safe or necessary. At one time in the history of potato 

 farming near Greeley the growers calculated that if it 

 became necessary to irrigate potatoes to bring them up 

 the chances were about even between total failure if 



