942 



THE IREIGATION AGE. 



ARID AGRICULTURE 



BY 

 B. C. BUFFUM, M. S. 



Manager of the Wyoming Plant and Seed Breeding Company, 

 Worland. Former Professor of Agriculture in the Uni- 

 versity of Wyoming and the Colorado Agricultural 

 College, and Director of the Wyoming 

 Agricultural Experiment 

 Station. 



Prof. B. C. liuffum. 



Raising Diversity of Crops Advisable. 



Growing sugar beets adds a crop 

 to those usually produced on a farm. 

 It does not take the place of other 

 crops, but adds a new one. Diversi- 

 fying the crop does many things for 

 the farmer. He uses his land and 

 employs his labor to better advan- 

 tage. If he has several crops and 

 one fails he can better afford to 

 stand the loss, as there are others 

 which secure an income. 

 Sugar Both a Luxury and a Ne- 

 cessity. 



There is usually more money 

 made by producing luxuries than 

 anything else. Sugar is both a con- 

 centrated food and one of our greatest luxuries. The people 

 of England use one-third more sugar per capita than the 

 people in the United States. A few years ago an estimate 

 was made that it would require 700 additional factories to 

 supply our demand, and that demand is continually increas- 

 ing. It seems that there can be no possible danger of glut- 

 ting the market. 



Beets Will Grow on Alkali Land. 



Finally, sugar beets fill a niche in our farming not filled 

 by any other crop. They belong to a family of plants which 

 rejoice in salty soils and will grow on our alkali lands. 

 Farmers generally in irrigated regions know what It is 

 to see portions of the farm becoming less productive through 

 the rise of alkali to the surface. I know of no valuable 

 crop, unless it is English rape, which will grow in as 

 strong alkali as will the sugar beet. Nor does the common, 

 white alkali of this region injure the beets in any way, 

 except that these salts may retard or prevent the germination 

 of the seed. If such land is to be planted to beets the 

 surface should have the salts washed out so that they will 

 not be in concentrated form around the seed. Flooding 

 water over the land will wash off the surface salt or dilute 

 it and carry it back into the soil. Then the application of 

 a dressing of manure to mix with the surface soil will 

 help the land, prevent the rapid rise of salt again and enable 

 the seeds to properly germinate. After the plants become 

 well established the salts will do no harm if the soil can 

 be kept in a 'good state of tilth. 



Sugar Beet Culture. 



The land for sugar beets should be prepared in the fall. 

 After the season's crop is removed, manure should be applied 

 at the rate of ten to thirty loads per acre, the amount 

 depending upon how green and strong it is. Manure from 

 the sheep corrals is of the best for this purpose. We are 

 not afraid of getting the ground too rich, but the danger 

 lies in getting it too porous, thus allowing it to dry out 

 quickly, especially in the early spring. The manure should 

 be plowed under in the fall if possible, even if the ground 

 is very dry. 



Fertilizing Plowing. 



It is better to sharpen the plow share for each acre 

 and get the land plowed deep, eight to twelve inches is best, 

 but if the ground has previously been plowed five or six 

 inches, not more than two inches of the under soil should 

 be turned to the surface, because it is poor in vegetable 

 matter and fertility, so the young beet will not get an early 

 start and vigorous growth. 



Irrigating Land. 



After the ground is plowed and harrowed, it should, if 

 possible, be irrigated in the fall. The moisture left in 

 the ground from this irrigation will be sufficient to germi- 

 nate the seed the following spring. 



Harrowing Land. 



The ground will be pulverized by the frost and when 

 harrowed in the spring will be in the best condition for 

 the reception of the seed. The ground should be leveled so 

 it may be easily irrigated. The work done in getting the 

 ground in the best possible condition is profitably spent. 

 No amount of work afterwards will make up for the lack 

 of care in this. 



Rolling. 



Some roll the ground before, and some after seeding. 

 This is usually a detriment to the crop. The harrow marks 

 should be left in the field. The soil is generally left loose 

 on top and evaporation is prevented by this earth mulch. 

 The spring winds will not gather up the sand and fine par- 

 ticles of earth and slide them along the surface of the 

 ground, cutting off the young beets, as they do when the 

 ground has been flooded or when it has been rolled. When 

 the last harrowing is done, drive so the harrow runs cross- 

 ways of the prevailing direction of the spring winds. 

 Use Clean Ground. 



Before planting your seeds be sure that the ground is 

 free from sticks and all trash ; go around with a wagon 

 and pick this trash off. It will catch in your cultivator 

 and before you can stop you have lost several feet in a 

 row of beets. The damage is done. You have lost money. 

 Alfalfa roots are like leather on your horse hoes. They 

 will not be cut in two, but drag out and destroy the 

 young plants. If you use alfalfa ground for your beets, 

 plow the alfalfa as shallow as possible and still get all 

 the roots cut. Follow with the harrow, harrowing out all 

 roots and cart them off the land. Replow the ground three 

 or four inches deeper than the first plowing and prepare 

 the same as other ground. Alfalfa ground, fresh from the 

 sod, produces fine beets, rich in sugar. 

 Time to Plant. 



Beets should be planted early. Plant as soon as danger 

 of freezing weather is over. A frost will not injure the 

 young beets, but a freeze so hard that the ground is frozen 

 one-fourth inch or more deep will kill the beets. The beets 

 should be out of the ground and as far along as any of the 

 weeds when it is time for the cultivator to start. The early 

 planted beet gets a good start and shades the ground before 

 hot weather begins. 



Seeding. 



The seed should be sown with the regular sugar beet 

 drills, in drills 18 to 20 inches apart, and 1 inch to 1% 

 inches in depth. Spacing the rows 16 inches and 24 inches 

 apart in order to furrow and irrigate between the wider 

 alternate rows is a convenience on level ground where 

 it can be applied. 



These drills sow four rows at once and have two small 

 wheels following each shoe of the drill, one on either side, 

 and about one inch from the center of the shoe. These firm 

 the soil about the seed and tend to bring the moisture 

 to it, insuring an early germination. The beet seed requires 

 considerable moisture before it will start, and it should 

 never lack for moisture from the time it begins growth 

 until the crop is "laid by" in August. The seed should be 

 sown at the rate of 20 pounds per acre. It is poor economy 

 to try to save seed. This amount of seed will produce 

 many more plants than are desired, but it insures plants 

 over the entire length of the row which, when thinned, 

 should result in a nearly perfect stand. 



If a crust has formed over the ground from rain or 

 irrigation, each seed which grows will help the others, and 

 all working together will push hard enough to break the 

 crust so that the plants may get through. The importance 

 of a good thick stand of beets cannot be over-estimated. In 

 this lies the profit. It costs no more to grow, and little 

 more to harvest, a crop of 30 tons per acre than it does 

 a crop of 10 tons. The one crop yields a profit of $60 

 to $70 per acre, the other but pays the rent of the land 

 and cost of growing. 



Irrigating Seed. 



If the ground is dry when the beets are planted, don't 

 wait long for, a rain, but turn on the water. The beets 

 will be coming up in ten days or two weeks. The soil 

 is likely to bake if irrigated, but you can follow by another 

 irrigation, or if the plants are up so the rows can be 

 seen, start the cultivator and use the horse "hoes" and 

 "duck feet," or the "spiders," running the hoes as close 

 to the rows as possible. 



