252 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



a very hot sun, with, abundant water and a long 

 growing season. The practice was to flood the land 

 immediately before mowing off the crop; this made 

 the alfalfa start vigorously into new growth as soon 

 as it was raked off. In a week another flooding was 

 given, the earth taking all the water it could absorb. 

 As this land was beautifully drained by being under- 

 laid with sand and gravel of great depth and no un- 

 derlying moisture it never suffered from too much 

 moisture; thus growth was extremely rapid. 



Furthermore, in that arid region the subsoil is 

 quite as fertile as the top soil. There is little differ- 

 ence in texture o,r soil content whether one takes soil 

 from the surface or from a depth of 20 feet or more, 

 and doubtless the alfalfa roots penetrated quite 20 

 feet in that soil. 



I. D. O'Donnell once pointed out to the writer 

 near Billings, Mont., an irrigated farm of exactly 

 160 acres, all in alfalfa except a small lot around the 

 house and barn, maybe two acres in all, and from 

 which he had bought the hay one year. It amounted 

 to fully 1,000 tons, or a little more than six tons per 

 acre. 



Irrigation is impractical under eastern farm con- 

 ditions, as a rule. There are farms, however, near 

 the mountains, in what might be called the Piedmont 

 sections of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 

 Virginia and the Carolinas, where irrigation would 

 be quite easily arranged and some day this will be 

 done. Irrigation would pay richly in the East as well 

 as in the West. It is much practiced in humid Eng- 



