7. A well-ordered rotation of crops is all-important
for potato success. Potatoes should not be grown
more than twice in succession on the same ground with-
out rotation, to insure freedom from fungus diseases.
Place potatoes in the rotation after the legume crop
which pays you best to grow upon the farm.
SUMMARY.
Feeding operations give barnyard
Soil Must manure which can be distributed most ad-
plenished vantageously upon the alfalfa fields in the

fall and winter and disked-in, in the early
spring. This is preferable to using it either upon the
potato or the grain crop and renews the ground for
all crops, while it invigorates the alfalfa upon which
it is applied. Our western soil is rich in mineral ele-
ments, but needs replenishing in nitrogenous matter.
The barnyard compost and the alfalfa work up and
replenish the soil, preparing for real profits in the
crops of potatoes which are later grown.
The irrigated West is the region to which the na-
tion must look for the increased amount of this staple
crop that shall, in the near future, be needed to feed
our increasing population. We, in the West, must,
therefore, study how we can best enlarge our acreage,
increase our yield and better the quality of this, the
most essential food crop of the American nation.
CHAPTER IX

SMALL GRAIN UNDER IRRIGATION

THE small grain crops are food crops for man
or beast and are, therefore, usually the first
crops to be grown on irrigated lands. They
bring quick returns, furnish feed and mature
within the period of the greatest water supply.
For these reasons wheat, oats, barley, and rye are the
new land crops, especially the first two. Some one of
these small grain crops fits into every rotation on an
irrigated farm.
