sss 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



land itself. Some land is irrigated only 

 twice for a crop of hay, and some more.' 1 



" You have rain in winter, do you not ?" 



" Last year we did not have enough, and 

 so we ran very short." 



" How much water is required per acre ? " 



" An inch to the acre, right through.' 1 



" Mr. Ball, what are we to understand by 

 an inch .' " 



" An inch is what will run through an 

 inch hole under six inches pressure — that is, 

 a steady run, day and night/' 



" What is the nature of the soil of these 

 alfalfa fields ? " 



" Well, alfalfa does best on sandy or grav- 

 elly soil. On such soil it runs its roots down 

 80 'feet along the river-banks." 



••Mr. Ball, I heard it said in California, 

 Arizona, and other places on the desert, 

 that any of the desert land would raise nice 

 alfalfa," provided they could have plenty of 

 water." 



" That is true — there is no discount on 

 that. Alfalfa will grow any place where 

 there is water." 



il Then Horace Greeley's wild vision, as 

 some have termed it, of reclaiming the 

 Great American Desert, needs only water 

 to bring it about." 



" That's a fact." 



" How much winter do you have, where 

 these great alfalfa fields are? " 



" Sometimes as low as 10 degrees below 

 zero." 



" Why can't we raise alfalfa here? " 



" Why, you have too much rain. You see, 

 the idea is. alfalfa will not stand water ex- 

 cept for a few days at a time. It kills the 

 head, and then it dies." 



''Alfalfa, then, is rather a plant of the 

 desert." 



" Yes, it is." 



" I had that idea." 



" You can kill a whole field of alfalfa by 

 letting water run on it for two weeks steady. 

 We change the water every 24 hours. Four 

 hours a day is plenty." 



" How long does it take to irrigate, say 

 an acre of alfalfa, with the water that runs 

 through an inch hole, under a pressure of 

 six inches?" 



" You can not irrigate a single acre with 

 a squaie inch. You need a pretty good 

 stream. You can irrigate ten acres with a 

 ten-inch stream, but you can not irrigate 

 one acre with a one-inch stream. The sun 

 would lick up the small stream by the heat ; 

 but a ten-inch stream would keep ten acres 

 going very well." 



" It needs, then, ten inches of water to do 

 any thing?" 



" Yes, sir." 



" How long does it take to irrigate an 

 acre where you have ten inches of water?" 



" Ten inches will irrigate one acre in 

 twelve hours." 



" What is alfalfa seed worth per pound or 

 bushel with you?" 



" When I left, I think it was worth about 

 10 cts. a pound. It runs about like red clo- 

 ver—say 60 lbs. per bushel. We don't use 

 bushel very much. We buy and sell by the 

 pound almost altogether. We use no water 



in the winter. We shut it off in the fall, 

 when cold weather comes." 



" How soon do they commence irrigating 

 in the spring? " 



" When they get the ditches cleaned, and 

 put on the water in the spring — say about 

 the middle of April." 



" How much seed per acre is required? " 



"Well, I think about 20 lbs. Sometimes 

 a little more or a little less would do." 



" In raising seed, you have to let alfalfa 

 ripen, do you not? " 



" Yes. You can get two crops of seed in 

 one season." 



" How far apart are the furrows, for irri- 

 gation?" 



"About three feet." 



"About how deep? " 



" Well, three or four inches — just enough 

 to keep the water in the furrow." 



" How do you make furrows after the 

 first crop is cut? " 



" They furrow about once a year. The 

 more you harrow it over and dig around it, 

 the better it grows. A good many harrow 

 it every spring. It makes it grow better." 



" Is this alfalfa ground level, or nearly so, 

 or is it on a hillside." 



"Both. They can irrigate it on hillside 

 just as well as on the level ground." 



" How do you know when there is water 

 enough?" 



"As soon as it runs over the ground, there 

 is water enough." 



In addition to the above, I would say that 

 Mr. Ball has pretty nearly a carload of this 

 beautiful alfalfa honey. Ernest has just 

 tasted it, and agrees with me that it is equal 

 to any honey in the world. Mr. Ball pro- 

 poses to use about half a carload of supplies 

 during 1890, himself, and he may be able to 

 make up a whole carload among his neigh- 

 bors. So you see these great alfalfa fields 

 are going to open a big industry in this mat- 

 ter of supplies. Now, we are not all selfish 

 in our enthusiasm in this matter. There is 

 a great opening for energetic supply-dealers 

 right on the spot. It is poor policy to ship 

 lumber thousands of miles, and over moun- 

 tains, if it can be avoided. The resources 

 of all these new fields should be well looked 

 up and developed. 



THE WIDTH AND THICKNESS OP TOP- 

 BARS. 



THEIR RELATION AS AFFECTING THE BUILDING OR 

 THE PREVENTION OF BUILDING BURR-COMBS. 



ITHIN the last few months there has been 

 considerable said about the prevention of 

 burr-combs above and between top-bars 

 by means of having the top-bars of unusu- 

 al thickness up and down. The first that I 

 remember of hearing 1 of any thing of the kind was 

 at the national convention at Toronto, when that 

 bright Canuck, J. B. Hall, of Woodstock, Ontario, 

 showed me his top-bars, which were, if I remember 

 rightly, one inch square. I did not feel particular- 

 ly interested in the matter at the time, because I 

 had on hand a large number of frames, and I would 

 not change any thing of the kind without very 

 strong reasons. Resides, I had no trouble with 

 burr-combs, for I uted the Heddon slat honey- 



