UNIVERSITY 



OF ARIZONA^ 

 AGRICULTURAL 

 EXPERIMENT STATION 



TIMELY HINTS FORFARMERS 



No. 93 



MARCH 1. 1912 



THE INTENSIVE CULTIVATION OF ALFALFA 



f REPRINTED AND REVISED, DECEMBER 1, 1917) 



In December. 1908. the writer, desiring: to employ profitable a small 

 block of ground near Yuma. decided to plant it to alfalfa. This ground, 

 a fine sandy loam with a few patches of alkali, consists of 7.93 acres of 

 fertile bottom land, irrigated bv water from the Colorado river. The 

 field, nearlv square, is divided into three portions of which the middle 

 one. marking the site of an old slouch, is depressed 18 to 20 inches 

 below the other two. The tract is irrigated from a lateral running 

 across the north end, connecting; with the "Reclamation Service water 

 supply. The field slopes from north to south about two inches in 100 

 feet; and was laid off for large heads of water in wide lands with 

 broad, oval borders about six inches high between. The work was in 

 charge at different times of E. L. Crane and C. J. Wood, well known 

 for their knowledge of Colorado Valley farming. 



Seeding: Nineteen pounds per acre of clean, homegrown alfalfa 

 seed was broadcasted in the recently irrigated, plowed, and harrowed 

 soil, and then brushed in. The seed was sown in December and. the 

 winter being mild, germinated nromptlv, even on the low borders, for- 

 tunately helped by a timelv fall of rain. In southern Arizona, Sep- 

 tember and October are ideal months to sow alfalfa which, along with 

 weeds, germinates and grows until frost. The weeds are then killed 

 by the cold, leaving the alfalfa readv to resume its growth in the spring 

 to the exclusion of the weeds. New and clean land may be seeded 

 successfully in spring and summer : but in foul land weeds, especially 

 Bermuda grass, compete detrimentally with spring and summer sown 

 alfalfa. 



Irrigation : The field was irrigated at first by water pumped by 

 the V '. S. Reclamation Service from the Colorado River : and later by 



