230 IRRIGATION FAR3IIXG. 



crowns have awakened from their hibernal rest, but this 

 practice is not right. The chill of the water in very 

 early spring is not conducive to quick growth and may 

 often retard the plants in getting an early start. We do 

 not irrigate prior to the first cutting unless the season is 

 particularly dry and the plants seem to actually demand 

 the water. AVe irrigate late in the fall and apply a top- 

 dressing of light barnyard manure, which is found to be 

 of great service in several ways. The flooding of a newly 

 cut alfalfa field is shown in Figure 64. 



Harvesting. It must be said of alfalfa that in 

 cutting it for hay a good deal of skill should be employed 

 by the husbandman, or the results may be disappointing. 

 Alfalfa contains six per cent less water than does red clo- 

 ver, at the point of blooming, but at the same time it seems 

 to require a more thorough curing process to fit it for 

 the stack or mow. The knack to be acquired is that of 

 curing the hay sufficiently to insure it keeping sweet in 

 the stack without becoming so dry as to shed its leaves 

 in the handling. This cannot possibly be accomplished 

 by curing fully in the swath. A method much practiced is 

 to rake the alfalfa, while still quite green, into windrows, 

 where it is allowed to cure somewhat more, and finally 

 to rake it into moderate-sized cocks, in which it is allowed 

 to stand until ready for the stack. This process makes 

 very nice hay, but where a large acreage is to be taken 

 care of it is too slow and expensive. Alfalfa may be 

 cured in the windrow with entire success, but it is im- 

 portant when cured in this way that there be ample 

 facilities for putting it into stack very rapidly when ready, 

 otherwise it will become too dry and much of it will be 

 lost in the handling, especially if it has to be carried 

 from the fields on wagons. Alfalfa should be cut on the 

 first appearance of bloom. The old-fashioned "go-devil" 

 is now made in the way of an improved table rake, and 

 tlie ricker which supplements it at the stack forms a very 



