CHAPTER XIV 



ALFALFA AND OTHER FORAGE CROPS AND 

 PASTURES 



A PERMANENT, modern system of agriculture cannot 

 be developed without the aid of live-stock husbandry. 

 Consequently, forage crops and pastures are of high 

 importance in irrigation agriculture. However, no forage 

 crops of any kind should be shipped out of the dis- 

 trict where they are raised, for the plant-food contained 

 in hays, especially alfalfa hay, is often worth more than 

 the money actually received for the hay. Irrigation- 

 farmers, dealing with a new and largely undeveloped 

 system of agriculture, on very fertile soils, are tempted 

 to pay little or no attention to the permanence of the 

 system. In the sections recently reclaimed by irrigation, 

 there is, however, the most unusual opportunity known 

 in the history of agriculture, to apply our vast, new agri- 

 cultural knowledge on lands which never before have 

 been under cultivation. It should be possible by the wise 

 use of our knowledge to build, under irrigation, a system 

 of agriculture excelling all others in profitableness and 

 increasing fertility. A first principle in accomplishing 

 this is that the irrigated sections must send out only such 

 products as have been manufactured from the rougher 

 crops butter, cheese, sugar and meats and which con- 

 tain the minimum quantities of plant nutrients. 



165. Alfalfa, or lucern. This wonderful crop has 

 been the foundation of successful irrigation agriculture 



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