FARM ORGANIZATION IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA. 
37 
When the alfalfa fields have ceased to be profitable they are 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 maybe seeded to one of the grain 
sorghums, the lister being used for this purpose and only one or fcwo 
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 
86, 239 
4,316 
S3, 097 
2,3S9 
$839 
Not double-cropped 
280 
