464 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



ers could be collected and diverted by ditches upon soil suited to 

 alfalfa. Often in a draw, where moisture from the surrounding 

 prairie is inclined to center, good encouragement for seeding to 

 alfalfa is offered. 



The number of plants to the acre that can be maintained in the 

 dry farming district has not been determined; but at Rocky Ford, 

 Col., in 1908, an alfalfa nursery plant, without irrigation for 

 eleven previous months, produced at the rate of two and three- 

 fifths tons per acre the first cutting; and then made a second cur- 

 ting equally as good, that was left for seed. The plat had been 

 seeded in 1907 to Turkestan alfalfa, and thinned to single plants 

 twenty inches apart each way. It received one irrigation and 

 was thoroughly cultivated that year. The growth in 1908 was 

 made on the moisture that was stored and conserved in the soil, 

 but such phenomenal yields can hardly be expected without irri- 

 gation. In the favored spots, before mentioned, alfalfa can cer- 

 tainly be grown if once established and properly managed. 



The growing of alfalfa seed offers great opportunities to the 

 farmer on dry lands, because the fact has been well demonstrated 

 that alfalfa yields seed best when the plant makes a slow, dwarfed 

 growth, when it really lacks for moisture, but has enough to set 

 and fill the seed. Seed grown under dry conditions has more 

 vigor and vitality than seed produced with an excess of moisture, 

 and it is usually free from dodder and other noxious weeds, if the 

 field has had any. cultural care. There is a demand for dry land 

 alfalfa seed that far exceeds the supply. 



In establishing alfalfa for seed production, under dry conditions, 

 it is recommended to sow in rows eighteen or twenty inches apart, 

 with two to three pounds of good seed per acre. A thin, uniform 

 stand is absolutely necessary, even to thinning, as in beet culture; 

 but the stand can usually be regulated by the amount of seed 

 sown. It has been found that plants twenty inches apart will 

 support each other and not lodge or lay on the ground, as in 

 thicker or thinner stands. With a good stooling variety like the 

 Turkestan, plants six to twelve inches apart in the row are thick 

 enough. If all the seed would germinate, one pound per acre 

 would be ample, but it is difficult to sow a small quantity uni- 

 formly in the row, and for seed production it might pay to space 

 and thin the plants. 



The row system is essential, as it permits intertillage to eradi- 

 cate weeds, and to conserve the moisture, and also allows deep 

 cultivation to absorb winter storms, affording an opportunity to 

 furrow out the rows and to direct or divert any surface water that 

 may or may not be needed. It is the only system that will allow 

 the tillage that is so essential to all dry farming. 



