394 Twenty-eighth Annual Report 



forage can be harvested and preserved in almost undiminished 

 value, for a period of years if necessary, until the silage is needed 

 to tide livestock over one of the periods of drought that the farmer 

 is sure to experience in this country. Not only are silos indispen- 

 sable in connection with dry-farming operations, but they are also 

 essential for preserving forage values produced under irrigation. In 

 the hot, dry climate of Arizona losses in nutritive value of sorghums, 

 Indian corn and other forages in the dry state is undoubtedly greater 

 than in the East, where the custom of cutting and preserving these 

 materials as fodder originated. Here, therefore, where these supplies 

 are at best not adequate to the needs of livestock in time of short- 

 age, it is more than usually important to preserve the nutritive 

 value of irrigated forages to the utmost by means of silos. It is not 

 too emphatic to say that silos will soon be recognized as the back- 

 bone of the Southwestern livestock industry, both on the range and 

 on irrigated farms. 



Under the influence of increased prices for agricultural com- 

 modities, many interesting economic reactions have taken place. 

 For instance, the high price of cotton has resulted in the conversion 

 of considerable areas of alfalfa into cotton land. This in turn has 

 tended to enhance the price of alfalfa hay and along with it that 

 of other feeds ; and this again, by making the profitable feeding of 

 inferior livestock impossible, has resulted in a strong tendency 

 towards improvement in the quality of livestock throughout the 

 State. Many other instances of reaction due to changed agricul- 

 tural conditions within the State might be enumerated. The general 

 effect, however, has been strongly in the direction of improved 

 methods, better livestock, and greater returns for the farmer 

 everywhere. 



Of interest at a time when unusual efforts are being made to 

 increase agricultural development within the State, are the helpful 

 financial agencies available for the use of the farmer. The recently 

 organized Federal Land Bank of Berkeley, California, is one such, 

 being in charge of Federal farm loan business for this State. Ari- 

 zona State funds also, derived from the sale of vState lands, are 

 available in long-term farm loans at a moderate interest, and con- 

 siderable amounts have already been distributed from this source. 

 With increasing assurance of agricultural permanence and stability, 

 money from private sources is also more easily available and at 

 more moderate rates of interest than in the older and more pros- 

 perous da3^s of farming'developments within the region. 



