ARID AGRICULTURE. 



123 



CULTIVATION 

 FOB SEED 



IRRIGATION 

 FOB SEED 



Where alfalfa seed is raised under dry fann- 

 ing conditions, the plants may be cultivated 

 when very small, as are sugar beets, with a culti- 

 vator supplied with "duck feet," or "bull 

 tongues." After the plants are a year old the cul- 

 tivation may be done with a disc or alfalfa har- 

 row. After the plants begin to produce seed, it 

 will be necessary to cultivate carefully in order 

 to prevent thickening up from the growth of seed 

 which is shattered off the parent plants. Under 

 irrigation we would give the same cultivation as 

 for dry farming, and in addition it will be nec- 

 essary to ditch deeply between the rows. These 

 ditches should be made before the plants get too 

 large. 



Alfalfa raised for seed production should 

 never be allowed to get dry or to suffer for water. 

 The key to the method of raising alfalfa seed is 

 furnished by those plants which grow along ditch 

 banks. Such plants which are never flood irri- 

 gated, which never get dry, which are not 

 crowded, always produce seed abundantly. If 

 the plants get so dry that growth is stopped, an 

 irrigation will start new growth from the crowns, 

 which interferes with or destroys the crop. 



HARVESTING The problem of harvesting alfalfa seed 



THRESHING rowTl by irrigation where the rows are wide and 



the ditches are deep, has not been worked out. 



Xo machine has been constructed for this work. 



