FARM ORGANIZATION IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA. 



3 7 



When the alfalfa fields have ceased to he profitable they arc plowed 

 up and seeded to wheat or barley during the fall or winter months. 

 The grain is harvested during the following May or early June. If 

 the field is to be seeded to grain a second time, the land is irrigated 

 and the stubble and volunteer young grain pastured during the re- 

 mainder of the summer, or the field may be seeded to one of the grain 

 sorghums, the lister being used for this purpose and only one or two 

 cultivations being given to the growing crop. When the second crop 

 of barley or wheat is sown the land is at the same time reseeded to 

 alfalfa. This is the nearest approach to a system of rotation in vogue 

 in Arizona, and it is by no means a general practice. 



Opinions differ as to the value of the practice of seeding a grain 

 sorghum crop during the summer upon the fields to be later seeded to 



Fig. 11. — A thrifty grain field in Salt River Valley. 



wheat or barley. Some claim that the grain sorghum crop injures the 

 land and reduces the yield of the succeeding crop of wheat or barley. 

 Some landlords stipulate in their rental contracts that grain sorghums 

 shall not be seeded during the summer months upon wheat or barley 

 lands. Results obtained by the two systems of cropping are shown 

 in Table XV. 



Table XV. — Effect of double cropping on success in grain farming in the irrigated valleys 

 of southern Arizona, 1913-1915. 





Num- 

 ber of 

 farms. 



Aver- 

 age 

 area. 



Yield per acre. 



Receipts. 



Farm 

 income. 





System of cropping. 



Wheat. 



Barley. 



Grain 

 sor- 

 ghums. 



Labor 

 income. 





18 

 27 



Acres. 

 246 

 159 



Pounds. 

 1,667 

 2,082 



Pounds. 

 1,828 

 1,863 



Pounds. 

 2,236 

 2,034 



S6,239 

 4,316 



S3, 097 

 2,389 



S839 



Not double-cropped 



280 



