290 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



have ditch banks covered with sod. This prevents 

 their washing away from too great heads of water 

 and facilitates irrigation. Brome grass is good for 

 this purpose, or Kentucky bluegrass. 



Alfalfa Growing and Irrigation in Mexico. The 

 following letter from Alf Kessler, once of Utah, 

 now of southern Coahuila, Mexico, is interesting as 

 showing the progress of alfalfa culture in our sister 

 Republic : 



When I was very young, in the small seventies, about the first 

 things that happened that made an impression on my mind were 

 the Chicago fire, the killing of Jim Fisk and the planting and 

 growing of alfalfa in Utah (and as everybody knows, Utah was 

 the first territory to be successfully reclaimed by irrigation). I 

 have been in the thick of the conflict from the beginning to the 

 present time, and since I have become grown, have traveled all 

 over the principal western country from Kansas City to the 

 Pacific, and from northern Alberta to Southern Coahuila, Mex., 

 where I am at present engaged in raising alfalfa. I have care- 

 fully studied alfalfa conditions wherever I have been and this 

 beats them all for raising the weed, as the natives call it. 



First in selecting a locality for raising alfalfa here, be sure 

 that you have plenty of water; then pick land that is on the 

 order of a nice deep sandy loam with not too much alkali; it 

 all hay enough lime; then plow it good and deep, level nicely, 

 and be sure it is level to save future trouble, but should have 

 a gentle slope, and sow 16 Ibs. of seed per acre broadcast with 

 machine. This we find sufficient. Then we irrigate in the fur- 

 row system. To make these furrows we have what we call a 

 drum roller. The drum part is about 36" high, and with two 

 plows (Center Busters) 26" apart from center to center, at- 

 tached just ahead of the roller. It has also two flanges the 

 same distance apart which fit the plow furrow and leaves your 

 small drills or ditches 26" apart up and down over the whole 

 field. Then we cross-ditch the field and leave these small ditches, 

 or irrigation furrows, 600' long and you are ready for the water. 

 This takes some patience for the first few irrigations, or until 

 the alfalfa is up about 6" high and well started all your trouble 

 is at an end. In your first few irrigations be careful and not 

 use too much water, in fact, just as little as will run through 



