INTRODUCTION. 7 



advent of the alfalfa changed the animal life too of 

 the canyon. Before alfalfa came there used to be little 

 animal life save the chipmunks and lizards ; all had 

 fled that could flee to the green mountain tops. 

 After alfalfa deer came to stay down in the meadows 

 all summer long ; some of them had their little fawns 

 down there. The boy foreman used to see the old 

 does standing deep in alfalfa nibbling daintily very 

 early in the morning as he went up to change the 

 water. He would not shoot them; they were his 

 companions. Humming birds too came in great num- 

 bers to sip the sweet nectar of alfalfa bloom. They 

 would sit in quaint rows along the wire fence, peer- 

 ing curiously at the boy as he passed by smiling, 

 shovel on his shoulder. Bees he had none, else there 

 would have been great stores of honey made there. 

 It was joy to grow the alfalfa, because the grow- 

 ing of it was so very easy. The method of sowing 

 was very simple. The fields were first made fairly 

 level. There was a strong slope so that it was easy 

 to get water to any part of them. Then furrows 

 were made with a common turning plow run shallow, 

 or else with a furrow marker that made a number 

 of shallower furrows parallel with each other. Then 

 the alfalfa seed was sown, sometimes brushed in 

 with a brush drag, and then a tiny stream of water 

 turned in each furrow and kept running there for 

 days and days, since under that burning sun one 

 could not. count on sandy land holding moisture at 

 the surface very long. Sometimes the alfalfa was 

 sown in March, oftener in April. It did not make 



