STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 253 



the ditch so that the top of the can will be Hush with the bottom of the 

 ditch. By this device you can keep the gophers out entirely. In <■•<!><■ you 

 can irrigate, this ditch will carry a head of water (one hundred inches), 

 and by striking a tappoon across you can flood your whole ground. I have 



used this kind of ditch tor several years with marked success. 



My mode of treatment with alfalfa is this: After this has been sown three 

 or four years I apply a sharp harrow, well weighted down, say two hundred 

 pounds, and give it a thorough application both ways, and then an appli- 

 cation with a heavy hush, causing the stools to start very vigorously, and 

 also levels the surface of the ground. To secure the greatest amount of 

 feed it is desirable to cut it instead of pasturing it. Never allow stock to 

 tramp over and pack the ground. 



Some object to alfalfa, saying that stock fed upon it are liable to bloat. 

 So will stock fed upon eastern clover. 1 here give a remedy that has never 

 been known to fail in a single instance: 



Get an ounce of calacynth, drop six drops on a teaspoonful of pulverized 

 sugar for horse or cow. place it well back on the tongue, and if not relieved 

 repeat the dose in twenty minutes. With this remedy at hand there is no 

 need of losing any stock from bloat. 



D. Edson Smith, of Santa Ana: 



I sowed a patch of alfalfa four years ago. and it has gradually " run out," 

 especially during the past year, and the irrigating water has brought on 

 the seeds of many weeds, some pretty bad ones. I now want to renew it, 

 and ask for information as to the best method to follow. I believe we do 

 not use enough seed in first starting, and the roots are thus enabled to grow 

 large and loose, and thus fail to continue in life. Can this patch be thor- 

 oughly pulverized by plowing? 



W. Z. Cook, of Santa Ana: 



My plan to keep out weeds is to put a fine sieve in the gate between the 

 zanja and my head ditch, letting the water all come through that, When 

 reseeding is to be done, I advise plowing about eight inches deep with a 

 small, sharp plow, cutting the roots; if the soil is rough use a leveler, and 

 then seed abundantly. 1 sow thirty pounds of seed to the acre, first put- 

 ting on fifteen pounds one way, and sow fifteen pounds more right across 

 the first planting. 



Mr. Hitchcock, of Santa Ana: 



The best alfalfa patches I have seen in this country were put in just before 

 a rain, and without harrowing. 



J. W. Sallee, of Pomona: 



In preparing the soil great care should be taken in order to make an acre 

 of alfalfa pay well. Let me suppose that your land is gentle, sloping from 

 north to south, you should make a bead ditch clear across the upper end of 

 the patch, and then run a series of levees clear across the patch, close 

 together if the land is steep, so as to fully flood the entire patch at every 

 irrigation. This makes sure work of killing all the gophers. The land 

 between the levees must be level, having a gate at one end to let the water 

 pass through to the next level when the first one is full. Alfalfa must not 

 be pastured, because stock will tramp it out, and the gophers must be taken 

 care of or they will soon kill it. 



H. Hamilton, of Orange: 



Is it possible, after a piece of alfalfa has been injured by gophers or stock, 

 to utilize any of the old roots, or must the whole piece be plowed and 

 sowed anew? 



