68 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



nor loitering, it sweeps on toward the bay, flowing under cool 

 shadows, stretching out wide over shallower reaches, and em- 

 bracing tree-embowered islands. It bears water enough to make 

 a garden of the entire valley, could it be held back until needed. 

 The canal is large enough for steamships at the head; it divides 

 after a time, and divides again and again as needed, until there 

 is a vast network of ditches. 'hundreds of miles, so much that 

 Mr. Schmitz declined to even guess the total length. Italian 

 laborers take the water from the ditches and spread it over the 

 land. Dikes, following the contours, make it spread over all. 

 The alfalfa fields are irrigated three times each season. There is 

 so large an area to water that it is not practical to get over them 

 oftener than that, yet it would doubtless be better if it could be 

 done. And the cattle graze the alfalfa, except that one crop is 

 taken from the field and made into hay for winter feeding. 



Alfalfa grows rank over here. It is the best that I have yet 

 seen in California. The cattle thrive on it as a matter of course. 

 They are careful not to turn hungry cattle on alfalfa pasture. 

 They must be first filled up with hay or grass. After once be- 

 coming accustomed to green alfalfa they are never taken away, 

 so do not get hungry, gorge themselves and bloat. That seems 

 the explanation of it all. They graze it with many thousands, 

 yet lose hardly any at all. And sheep are treated the same way. 

 I never saw such lambs as these alfalfa lambs. They are born 

 early, in February generally, and they run on the alfalfa until 

 they go to the butchers. Often their mothers are fat enough to 

 go also in a short time after the lambs are taken away. The 

 herder merely restrains them from roaming about over the fields 

 and trampling down too much at a time. The alfalfa is not 

 grazed short, there is no chasing the sheep away after they have 

 eaten a little, there is no running them about to keep them from 

 bloating; they are simply gotten used to it and left alone until 

 they get fat. And the loss is very light indeed. Shropshire rams 

 are mostly used. The ewe flocks are largely kept up by purchase 

 of range ewes. The increase reaches as high as 120%. The 

 quality of the Miller & Lux cattle is very good much better 

 than the average. Very many registered and more pure-bred but 

 unregistered Short-horns are used, but the California idea pre- 

 vails that a Short-horn is not good unless he is red. And, by the 

 way, there are no Short-horns in California; there are only 

 "Durhams." This term is also used in Utah and Nevada. At 

 present the cattle are kept until they are three and four years 

 old. The question of early maturity seems to have been little 

 considered. 



I saw them dipping cattle as a preventive of Texas fever. The 



