THE IKBIGATION AGE. 



385 



seen, is mingled with little lumps or "nodules." Each 

 of these is a colony of bacteria, drawing nitrogen from 

 the air. The alfalfa or pea roots run through the lumps 

 and take out what nitrates are needed for the growing 

 plant. When the crop is harvested, and the ground 

 plowed, the nitrates are still there. Nitrogen in vege- 

 tables is what makes red blood in the men or the ani- 

 mals that eat them. The gluten of wheat, the protein 

 of beans, the strength-giving qualities of cabbage and 

 onions, and all other vegetables, are all forms of nitro- 

 gen. 



And here Nature again supplements the advantages 

 of Colorado with still another advantage. Nitrogen 

 products tend to be acid. A field in the East that gets too 

 rich in nitrogen gets sour. The farmer has to buy gyp- 



Roots of the Field Pea Plant, Colorado. 



sum, or old plaster, or lime, or wood ashes, or some sort of 

 alkali and sweeten his ground before he can raise a 

 crop on it. But there are mountains of lime and gyp- 

 sum at the head of almost every Colorado 



valley and all the soil has fine particles of 

 lime and gypsum through it. So no matter 

 how rich the ground becomes, it is still sweet 

 and alkaline. The alfalfa and peas bacteria, 

 too, need an alkaline soil to develop their 

 full strength. 



Alfalfa, without any regard to what it 

 does for the soil, is in itself a bonanza crop. 

 It is a plant of the clover family, a peren- 

 nial, which sends long, tapering roots ten to 

 thirty feet into the ground. This immense 

 root is supplemented by a mass of smaller 

 rootlets, with attendant nitrogen nodules. 

 With this great root system, the plant grows 

 at the rate of more than an inch a day. 

 Three and four crops of hay are harvested 

 every season. 



Alfalfa, while growing, is the deepest, 

 living green that ever beautified a landscape. 

 When ready to cut, an alfalfa field is a sea of fragrant 

 purple blossoms making the finest bee pasture and 

 honey known. Alfalfa hay is rich green in color, sweet 

 in taste. It is the staff of life in a Colorado barnyard. 

 Horses work on it without grain, dairy cows give their 

 richest milk, cattle and sheep fatten with only a little 

 corn, even pigs eat the dry hay readily and can be pas- 

 tured all summer in a field. 



For chickens, finely ground alfalfa meal is sold 

 at high prices in the East as an egg-compelling nos- 

 trum. Chemical analysis shows alfalfa to contain al- 

 most exactly twice the digestible elements that a ton of 

 the best timothy hay contains. Alfalfa is so rich that 

 it can not be cured except in a dry climate. In the East 

 the hay musts and spoils in the dampness. 



Alfalfa will grow as high as 8,000 feet, but not 

 readily above 7,000 feet. At the higher levels, up to 

 10,000 feet, however, the Colorado farmer has the 

 field pea. If an Iowa farmer were shown a patch of 

 Colorado field peas, he would not believe that it was the 

 same crop he raises at home. In Iowa, and in Canada, 

 where the field pea originated, the peas are planted in 

 early spring. The vines grow two or three feet high 

 and set on a few pods. Then the blistering hot weather 

 comes, the pea vines turn yellow and die, and unless the 

 crop is harvested early in July the peas will fall to the 

 ground and the weevils will get them. In the high 

 valleys of Colorado, the peas keep right on growing 

 all summer. There are no blights to destroy the leaves 

 and stems, no weevils to attack the peas. The pods keep 

 green and hold the peas all summer. By fa}], the vines 

 are five to ten feet long, with a pair of pods at each 

 joint and half a dozen peas in each pod. Then the 

 farmer can turn in lambs and fatten them, or he can 

 turn in hogs and fatten them and make the finest 

 mutton or the finest pork at just about half what it costs 

 to fatten mutton or pork in the corn belt, and the grow- 

 ing of the peas and feeding them will leave his soil 

 very much richer than before the crop was raised. 



All the sugar in a beet comes from the sun that 

 shines on the leaves. It is the sun which, by some mys- 

 terious chemical action, changes the starch in the juices 

 into sugar. The sugar is taken up from the soil in 

 connection with certain mineral salts. Colorado 

 soil is rich in these salts, so plenty of starch is made 

 in the roots. The leaves are bathed in sunshine all day, 

 so the starch is converted into sugar. This is why the 



Pinon Can*!, Flume. Colorado. 



sugar beet is a different plant in Colorado. Every year 

 the average sugar content of the beets raised for the 

 factories of the State is increased, and at the same 

 time the average tonnage per acre is increased. 



The University of Nebraska has published an ad- 

 dress entitled "Some Problems Confronting Nebraska 

 Farmers," by Hon. William" G. Whitmore, regent of 

 the University. 



W. E. Embry, secretary of the Bade City Board 

 of Trade, Bade City, Fla., has published an instructive 

 booklet entitled "Pasco County, Florida," which will 

 be mailed to anyone on receipt of request. 



