240 Twenty-seventh Annual Report 



been very profitable on account of pbenomenal yields, over 1,000 

 pounds per acre of alfalfa seed having been recorded in the Yuma sec- 

 tion. Feeding stuffs in general have been high-priced and readily 

 salable, partly because of the military market along the Mexican line 

 and partly because of considerable areas which have been turned from 

 alfalfa into cotton, wheat and other crops. Grains in general, including 

 wheat, barley, milo maize and other sorghum grains, have produced 

 well and have brought high prices. The cost of feeds, in fact, has 

 reacted somewhat unfavorably upon livestock interests dependent upon 

 them and in some cases has led to shipments of unfinished stock to 

 localities affording cheaper materials with which to finish for market. 

 The great diversity of crops not only possible in the region, but which 

 year by year are coming into commercial development, continues to be 

 an astonishing feature of the irrigated sub-tropical Southwest. No less 

 than forty-nine such crops are known in the Salt River Valley, which is 

 typical agriculturally of the general region. This diversity is practi- 

 cally equal to that of the State of California or of the thousand mile 

 span of agricultural country lying between the Gulf of Mexico and the 

 Canadian line. The stability and the intensive possibilities of this 

 region, agriculturally considered, are beyond question, a fact which is 

 reflected in the improved conditions which are more and more evident 

 from year to year — better knowledge of agriculture, better farming 

 practice, better co-operation for the solution of agricultural problems, 

 and better agricultural service on the part of public agencies. Respond- 

 ing to this generally improved condition, land values have within the 

 year appreciated considerably and a noteworthy influx of farmers from 

 other sections of the United States is to be observed. 



THE EXPERIMENTAL FIELD 



Extraordinary diversity characterizes the agriculture of the South- 

 west not only as to soil conditions, which include extreme alkalinity, 

 diverse physical characteristics and varying chemical composition; and 

 as to rainfall, which ranges from almost nothing to almost humid in 

 amount ; but also as to temperature conditions, ranging from sharply 

 frosty in winter to extremely high in summer. Geographically, agricul- 

 tural locations are distributed from a point about 90 feet above sea level 

 at the southwest corner of the State, where crops can be planted or 

 harvested every month in the year, to an agricultural altitude of 7000 

 feet, where only quick-growing summer crops can be produced. Deal- 

 ing therefore with a variety of subjects as great as may be found in 



