12 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



rain nor irrigating water can be had to make 

 farming a success. ( )ne can travel fifty to 

 100 miles and not see a tree, and bees would 

 starve to death, as I know by actual " experi- 

 ment." Such is " Colorado soil." 



In describing irrigation of young Alfalfa 

 he says, " the rushing waters let loose by the 

 irrigator ; " a novice should know better than 

 that : only a gentle flow is used, and many a 

 poor farmer can't get that. Again, in speak- 

 ing of the newly seeded Alfalfa meadow and 

 how it should be carefully cared for until 

 the plants are well established, he says: 

 " Three times a year all the heavy farm ma- 

 chinery moves across the fields, and the 

 young plant is too tender to resist such 

 rough trampling of machines and horse.>." 

 That sounds well, but in practice amounts to 

 almost nothing : most seeding here is done 

 with wheat crops, as is done in the East. 



Describing the work he again says: " Wag- 

 ons move off with their complement of 

 pitchers and irrigators "—which would lead 

 one to believe that both sets of men were at 

 work in the same field. Perhaps 'twas true ; 

 but the field likely contained hundreds of 

 acres : and what does the average citizen 

 know of the big ranch farming ? No, pitch- 

 ing hay and irrigating do not go on in the 

 same " field " at the same time, as the gen- 

 eral reader understands by a "field." Nei- 

 ther is it true that " the cockstore built three 

 times as large as in the East," but, instead, 

 are seldom more than a fork full in a "cock," 

 and very much is stacked from the winrow. 

 The article in general is true, more particu- 

 larly of a large " ranch ; " but was evidently 

 written to read, and is not a faithful repre- 

 sentative of " Alfalfa farming," and. is very 

 misleading to those who don't knon\ Per- 

 haps, within a mile or two of that ranch one 

 could not make a living from hundreds of 

 acres. In parts of Colorado one can go in a 

 few hours ride by wagon, from summer heat 

 to winter cold, and in a few minutes walk, 

 from fertile to barren soil, barren usually 

 from lack of water. Colorado represents 

 just such diversity. 



Alfalfa here is the main forage and hay 

 crop. But when it comes to the question of 

 its value, as compared with red clover and 

 timothy, 'tis doubtful if it has any real ad- 

 vantage, save in arid regions, because, as 

 before stated, it stands the drouth. 



Red clover is being planted here more and 

 more, and to-day clover hay brings the high- 

 est price of the two. 



But the difficulty is that the snows on the 

 mountains melt and go down the streams in 

 early and mid-summer, and in the fall the 

 water supply is short ; and if the clover be 

 not irrigated in the fall, it gets so dry it kills 

 out. The Alfalfa does not kill, owing to that 

 iiitniense root. So, you see, necessity com- 

 pels the growing of the latter. 



Now, about that "long drawn out bloom." 

 Alfalfa comes into bloom just a few days 

 later than red clover, perhaps a week to ten 

 days later. If allowed to stand, it will con- 

 tinue to bloom until frost, or nearly that 

 time, especially if it has plenty of moisture 

 so it will be supporting both ripe seed and 

 bloom at the same time. Such a field is 

 almost worthless for hay ; for it is too hard 

 and woody. Such is cut for seed. 



When wanted for hay it is cut just as soon 

 as it begins to be fairly started in blooming, 

 and often sooner. And so it is throughout 

 the season, never being allowed to reach 

 prime or full bloom. 



Whence then comes " Alfalfa honey ? '' It 

 comes from the seed crop, from the ditch 

 sides and fence corners, and from the wheat 

 fields. Wheat is sown on Alfalfa sod broken 

 up, and that thick, tough, long, tap root, is 

 so hard to cut off that the plow will dodge 

 many of them, so that quite a little Alfalfa 

 grows in the wheat. From that we get quite 

 a little pasturage, until wheat harvest, which 

 is the last of July and first of August. 



Then, sometimes, a farmer will get behind 

 with his work and let a hay crop of Alfalfa 

 " stand too long," so we get, perhaps, a few 

 days pasturage from such fields. But wheat 

 harvest seems to practically end the flow, 

 except one has a range of seed crop fields of 

 alfalfa ; such, however, are scarce. 



Now, if all the alfalfa acreage of ("olorado 

 were allowed to bloom to its prime, I believe 

 it would yield ten, perhaps twenty times the 

 honey it does. It certainly is a good honey 

 plant, and produces first class white honey. 

 The bloom is a whitish blue color, so I sup- 

 pose it yields white honey on the same prin- 

 ciple that the washerwoman makes the shirts 

 white, by using bluing in the wash water. 



Some portions of the state have other 

 sources than the alfalfa. Some have clover, 

 which follows the alfalfa, but does not pro- 

 duce as good lioney. We have a little of it 

 here. 



^s before mentioned, Colorado soil is very 

 diversified, and a few miles often make a 

 vast difference. But here our honey flow 



