228 



lished, it is there for years to come, certainly is sufficient 

 argument to support the demand for thorough and careful 

 preparation of the seed bed. 



The summer culture idea involving this storage of one 

 year's rainfall puts the soil in such .condition for five or 

 six feet down that the tap root immediately pushes on 

 down through this moist soil sending out the little feeders 

 on their way down, and the chances are that a good crop 

 may be harvested the first year, as was true in the case 

 above referred to, due only to the fact that the soil condi- 

 tions were perfect for the rapid development of roots, and 

 ample moisture to produce this magnificent growth. While 

 it is true that much better results are attained from alfalfa 

 in valleys where sheet water is eight to twelve feet from 

 the surface, yet a sufficient number of experiments have 

 been made and in some of them a sufficient length of time 

 has elapsed, to warrant the statement that on the majority 

 of our high divides in the semi-arid belt as good or better 

 yields can be secured from this crop than are commonly 

 harvested in the eastern states on the average meadows 

 of timothy and clover. The value of lands where the 

 phenomenal crops or yields of alfalfa along some of the 

 valleys in western Nebraska and Kansas has hardly 

 come to be understood, or fully appreciated even 

 by the people who have raised them. We are familiar 

 with fields that for three successive years have turned off 

 in alfalfa hay alone from $30 to $40 per acre, and where 

 hay and a crop of seed has been harvested as. high as $80 

 per acre has been made. The value of this plant for feed- 

 ing hogs, cattle, and sheep is just beginning to be 'appre- 

 ciated. All experiments thus far carefully conducted luivo 

 demonstrated that there is no fodder plant so valuable/ 



