234 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



into one great stack, as may be preferred, after it is dried 

 thoroughly, and let it go through the sweat at least three 

 weeks before threshing. If placed in large stacks care 

 should be taken to put in stack ventilators, so that the 



- will escape without danger of burning, which has 

 a tendency to injure the seed. If threshed in an ordi- 

 nary machine all the teeth on the cylinders must be used, 

 and it often pays to run it through twice. An alfalfa 

 huller is very necessary to get the best results, and seventy- 

 five bushels is a big day's work. Stock will generally 

 eat the haulm or leavings. The first crop is best calcu- 

 lated for seed, unless perchance it be too rank, when the 

 bolls will turn brown prematurely and the seed itself 

 may not be worth saving. Insects may injure the first 

 crop, in which event the second will have to be depended 

 upon. If hay is hauled from the field on a hay rack 

 place a wagon cover at the bottom to catch all the loose and 

 falling seed. We usually allow the swaths to remain from 

 three to five days before hauling in the hay, but this is 

 incident upon the almost constant days of sunshine and 

 cloudless skies that we enjoy here in the far West. Seed 

 alfalfa must never be raked, and we deprecate even plac- 

 ing it in cocks. The less handling the better, in avoid- 

 ing waste. An average yield of seed is all the way from 

 eight to thirteen bushels to the acre when grown under 

 irrigation. In very large areas only half the first crop 

 may be reserved for seed, taking the other half from the 

 second stand. When alfalfa is grown for seed it needs 

 but very little irrigation, probably not more than half 

 the amount that is given to the hay crop. 



Fertilizing Elements. Plowing under green 

 alfalfa as a manurial agent and soil restorative is becom- 

 ing recognized in the West as a very essential agency in 

 preventing soil deterioration. It is therefore a very useful 

 plant in following out a line of crop roi-.tion. Asa 

 green manure or soil renovator, alfalfa is hardly equaled 



