Farm Notes. 37 
wet to be worked, and the beets put in the first week of May 
made an absolutely perfect germination without irrigation. 
The year 1899 may be considered a fairly normal year 
for the earlier plantings and rather dry for the later. The 
tests of irrigating up the seed were made about the first of 
May, when the conditions were not far from an average. 
The plots were all planted on ground that had not been 
irrigated, and then half of them were allowed to depend on 
rain for the water necessary to germinate the seed, while 
the other half was irrigated the same day the seed was 
planted/ 
The following table shows the results of the two 
methods: 
IRRIGATING THE SEED. 
WEIGHT, CROP, TONS PER ACRE. 
Name 
Place 
Seed irrigated 
at planting 
Seed not irri¬ 
gated at 
planting 
M. D. Parmenter . 
Lamar. 
35.3 
36.5 
C. H. Miller . 
Antlers. 
12.0 
Did not grow 
23.7 
H. T. Gravestor.k. 
Canon City. 
27.8 
C. H. Gravestock. 
it 
16.3 
12.2 
J. M. Mortimer. 
ii 
19.2 
Did not grow 
30.7 
Adam May. 
Debeque . 
32.6 
Martin Nelson. 
Greeley . 
26.2 
30 5 
I. W. Clapper . .. 
Loveland . 
15.0 
13.8 
F. Niemeyer . 
Evans . 
59.9 
59.0 
D. G. Edgerton . 
Carbondale . 
11.2 
11.8 
Arkansas Valley Substation . 
Rocky Ford . 
17.8 
16.9 
Agricultural College . 
Fort Collins . 
22.3 
19.6 
Average . 
26.3 
25.4 
Although the general average is in favor of irrigatingup 
the seed, the figures of the individual plots show some for 
and some against it. There seems a probability that no 
uniform rule will apply to the whole of Colorado, but it is 
safe to make this a rule. Prepare for irrigation at time of 
planting; if within five days after planting, the seed shows 
no signs of swelling and sprouting, turn on the water and 
keep the ground wet until the plants show a full stand. 
4. VARIETY TESTS. 
Four varieties of sugar beets were grown on the College 
