Increase of Hay Crop by Irrigation 179 



and southern France. Reference has already been made to 

 water meadows. 



We have shown in another place that the average yield of hay 

 per acre in thirteen states in this country was, for 1879, only 1.1 

 tons. It is true, however, that good soils, well managed, may be 

 made to yield most years an average of possibly 1.5 tons per acre. 

 There will be seasons, however, for these soils when the yield will 

 drop back to 1 ton per acre. Again, those seasons are rare for 

 most soils in the United States which will permit them to produce 

 three -fourths of a ton of hay per acre as a second crop without 

 irrigation. 



Our experiments in irrigating clover for a second crop gave 

 1.798 tons, 2.035 tons, and 1.773 tons of hay, containing 15 per 

 cent of moisture, for the years 1895, 1896, and 1897 respectively. 

 In irrigating the first crop of clover, the yields have been 4.01 tons 

 per acre, in a case of sub -irrigation through tile drains in 1895, 

 and 2.671 and 2.65 tons in 1897, which were surface irrigated, 

 making an average for the two crops of 4.979 tons of hay per acre 

 so thoroughly cured as to contain 85 per cent of dry matter. 

 These results, it should be understood, are derived by making an 

 actual determination of the dry matter in each crop and comput- 

 ing the weights of hay from the amount of dry matter. 



It will be observed that these yields are more than four times 

 e mean yield of the thirteen states cited in another place. In 

 addition to the first and second crops, there has been each time an 

 excellent third crop, which could be used for fall pasture, and 

 easily double in quantity the non- irrigated fall feed of the best 

 seasons. Fig. 31 is a view of the second crop of 1895, the third 

 crop on the same ground, giving pasture for 58 adult sheep 31 days 

 on 3.2 acres. 



In the spring of 1897 we seeded a piece of ground to clover 

 with barley, irrigating a part of the barley twice, both to see what 

 the effect would be upon the yield of barley and upon the clover 



CROP OF BARLEY AND A CROP OF HAY THE 

 SAME SEASON 



