DECEMBER 15, 1913 



East the principles we adhei'e to in this 

 sun-kissed land. Here we have less than 

 three inches of rain per annum, very few 

 cloudy days, and practically no night dews. 

 A long hot summer is our lot, followed by a 

 delightful winter season, if it can be called 

 winter. I sometimes long for snow and 

 rain, and, to use a slang expression, " can 

 you beat that? " 

 Yuma, Ariz. 



CUTTING ALFALFA 



June Grass and the Alfalfa Weevil ; Advice from 

 Experiment Stations 



BY JOSEPH H. PETERSON 



As I have almost gTown up in an alfalfa- 

 field I will try to give you a little light on 

 the question. Dr. Miller says that in his 

 locality the young shoots that are to make 

 the second cutting will be spoiled if the first 

 cutting is delayed until full bloom. That 

 is not true here. The second gi-owth does 

 not start until the first is cut unless it is left 

 standing too long and given an extra amount 

 of water. The second crop will not start 

 here, as a rule, until it has had an irriga- 

 tion, although this is often given just pre- 

 vious to cutting the first crop. 



Farmers in this locality usually let their 

 alfalfa come well into bloom before cutting, 

 or would do so if there were nothing to 

 interfere. The second cutting, which begins 

 blooming the latter part of July, is nearly 

 all left to bloom out fully ; but the first cut- 

 ting of late years is nearly all done in bud 

 or with very little bloom. This, however, 

 is not because it is considered the best time 

 to cut, but to get the June gi-ass, with which 

 the first cutting is infested, before it ripens. 

 This June gTass, if cut early, makes fairly 

 good hay, but it matures earlier than alfal- 

 fa, and in the mature state it is not eaten by 

 stock, and is even injurious to horses. On 

 account of this, and also on account of our 

 new acquisition, the alfalfa weevil, the first 

 cutting of alfalfa is nearly all done early. 



We get three cuttings here, and the third 

 cutting often blooms profusely before it is 

 cut, and some years the bees get consider- 

 able late picking from it. The second cut- 

 ting is our honey crop, especially where it 

 is left to seed, as considerable of it often is. 



The Utah Experiment Station has made 

 some very thorough experiments in the past 

 on the proper time to cut alfalfa (it is com- 

 monly termed lucern in this locality), and 

 I quote a few concbisions : 



" The digestibility of lucern remains 

 practically constant from budding time to 

 the period of full bloom." 



901 



" We may hold this conclusion to be right 

 — that, to insure a large yield of dry matter 

 and the largest amount of albuminoids, 

 lucern should be cut not earlier than the 

 period of medium bloom, and not much 

 later than the period of first full flower. 

 This, in most cases, will be two or three 

 weeks after the flower-buds begin to ap- 

 pear. It will be a more serious en'or to cut 

 too early than to cut too late." 



The above is from Bulletin No. 58, Utah 

 Experiment Station, " The Chemical Life 

 History of Lucern," Part II., by John A. 

 Wedtsoe. 



Ogdeu, Utah. 



CUTTING ALFALFA 



Continuous Cutting of Immature Plants is Devital- 

 izing 



BY E. E. STARKET 



Dr. Miller, in Stray Straws, page 749, 

 Xov. 1, says, " Wait till it is all in bloom 

 before your first cutting, and the young 

 shoots from the bottom (which shoots make 

 your second cutting) will have grown so 

 high that they will be spoiled at first cut- 

 ting, or else you must set your sickle-bar so 

 high that you will not get all of the first 

 crop." 



I live near midway of the Yakima River 

 Valley where thousands of acres of alfalfa 

 is grown, and much of this has been grow- 

 ing as long as fifteen or more years contin- 

 uoush^ on the same ground, and I venture 

 to say that not one ton of lime has ever been 

 spread in this part of the country; and, in 

 fact, but little or nothing is done to aid the 

 gTowth except to surface cultivate in the 

 spring time and imgate. Three cuttings 

 per year are the general practice ; sometimes 

 four and even five cuttings are taken by 

 those who keep cows, and think it pays to 

 cut it while quite tender. Even if the cow 

 does like it better Avhile young, that fact 

 does not prove that land cut over in this 

 manner produces as great profit as where 

 the good well-matured cuttings are taken, 

 and the three cuttings can be each allowed 

 to bloom from one week to ten days or even 

 more (at this stage it is not "all in bloom"). 

 Alfalfa, when left uncut, is a continuous 

 bloomer for the greater part of a long sum- 

 mer. 



My own experience during the past five 

 years is that the shoots from the crown come 

 at various stages when the water is supplied 

 at irregular intervals, and I have concluded 

 that the best method of securing heavy and 

 best paying crops is to allow it to bloom 

 until the fiejd looks quite blue, say from ten 



