554 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



December 



cattle ; a ration of grain is necessary 

 for fattening them. Alfalfa may be 

 stacked in the summer and fall and 

 late in the spring, and a year or more 

 later the inner part of the stack will 

 be almost as green and fresh as when 

 cut. This is because of the dry at- 

 mosphere through the winter. On all 

 hay the curing process can go on al- 

 most without interruption. The con- 

 sequence is that there are few storage 

 barns. The average price paid for al- 



stock as a valuable forage plant, yields 

 from one to two tons per acre. It re- 

 quires practically no care and yields 

 one cutting. During the past three 

 years $6.00 has been paid per ton. 

 Some quantities have been shipped to 

 breeders of fancy stock and horses in 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New 

 York, where it brings high prices. 



Today, potatoes are attracting the 

 attention of irrigation farmers. The 

 average yield during the past two 



The Gering Ditch Reservoir in the " Bad Lands" at the Base of the Famed Scott's Bluff. 

 View from an elevation of over 500 feet. North Platte River beyond. 



falfa during the past three years has 

 been $3.50 per ton. Alfalfa is also a 

 wonderful fertilizer and subsoiler. Its 

 roots reach into the soil from ten to 

 twenty feet, and when the sod of an 

 alfalfa field is broken for planting 

 grain crops the farmer expects rich re- 

 turns, and seldom is disappointed. 



What is known as wheat-grass hay, 

 and which is becoming known the 

 country over among feeders of fine 



years has been one hundred and fifty 

 bushels to the acre, and in some cases 

 yielding as high as six hundred bush- 

 els. Previous to three years ago, po- 

 tatoes brought between 30 and 40 

 cents as an average ; now 80 and 90 

 cents is sometimes paid, with the aver- 

 age between 50 and 60 cents. It is 

 found that the light soil is particularly 

 adapted to the cultivation of very fine 

 tubers. Farmers are now planting 



