five, ten, fifteen or twenty feet deep, making 

 innumerable perforations, while storing up nitro- 

 gen, and when these roots decay they leave 

 not only a generous supply of fertility for any 

 desired crop, but millions of openings into which 

 the airs and rains of heaven find their way, upon 

 which the husbandman can draw with little fear 

 of protest or overdrafts." 



While alfalfa is noted for its deep-rooting pro- 

 pensities, as described above, it is making a still 

 more remarkable recora in its upward growth, as 

 suggested by the illustration, one among many 

 somewhat similar, furnished by the 1901 crop of 

 a single grower in Montgomery county, Kansas, 

 who secured five cuttings off one field which, 

 combined, measured 14 feet 2 inches in height and 

 yielded 7^ tons per acre, netting $77.50 per acre, 

 and legion are the reports of wonderful profits 

 derived from growing alfalfa in the Sunflower 

 State. 



The general cultivation and use of the various 

 sorghums as forage plants, and some of them 

 for grain as well, are becoming more and more a 

 factor in the State's live-stock husbandry ; as 

 such they are noticeable on every hand, and in 

 no other part of the United States of similar area 

 are they nearly so extensively grown, favorably 

 known and highly appreciated. On the lime- 

 stone lands of the eastern counties or the higher, 

 sandier plateaus and valleys further west, and 

 on soils of high or low fertility, they yield crops 

 having most acceptable values. Yet they do not 

 bear relegation to fields too foul for other crops, 

 and for the best results should receive as careful 

 attention as would be required for success with 

 Indian corn. The combined acreage of all vari- 

 eties of the sorghums raised in the State in 1901 

 was 1,169,253 acres, an area equal to the aggre- 

 gate of that devoted to all tame grasses, and 

 ranking third in this respect among the standard 

 crops of the State. 



This acreage is about equally divided between 

 eastern and western Kansas, with 55 per cent, 

 of the non-saccharine in the eastern half, and 60 

 per cent, of the saccharine in the western half. 



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