IRRIGATING ALFALFA 247 



out on the highest points along the head ditch and 

 allowed to spread and flood over all the ground. 



The second system is by the contour or check plan. 

 Here little levees of earth are raised across the field, each 

 one on a contour or level line and each one so placed that 

 it will back the water up to the foot of the contour 

 above. By means of these contours the field is made into 

 a series of shallow ponds and all the surface is covered. 

 This is the almost universal plan followed in Mexico and 

 California. It is adapted to very level land. The fur- 

 row system applies to land having a strong slope. Once 

 alfalfa is established and water is available, the thought 

 is to keep it wet enough to have it growing vigorously, 

 and not wet enough to scald it or drown it. Soils that 

 are open, gravelly and pervious are best for irrigating, 

 since they can not be filled with water to the point of 

 drowning the roots. When water is abundant one can 

 get more crops than if it is scanty. It is well to irrigate 

 just before cutting and again within a week afterward. 

 To put water on quickly and take it off quickly is the 

 safe rule, but one must be governed by the permeability 

 of the soil. In winter time in arid regions one must 

 see to it that the soil is moist, else one's alfalfa will 

 winterkill. 



"Alfalfa Farming in America" There are many 

 points that the reader should know about alfalfa-growing 

 so many that I worked for several years putting them 

 into a book with the title quoted. Interested readers 

 are referred to that book for further details, since to 

 give more space here to this queen of meadow plants 

 would be to neglect its first plan ; that is, to give a com- 



