688 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



ARID AGRICULTURE 



BY 

 B. C. BUFFUM, M. S. 



Manager of the Wyoming Plant and Seed Breeding Company, 

 Worland. Former Professor of Agriculture in the "Uni- 

 versity of Wyoming and the Colorado Agricultural 

 College, and Director of the Wyoming 

 Agricultural Experiment 

 Station. 



Prof. 1!. C. liiiiruni. 



ALFALFA HAY CULTURE. 



Alfalfa is an intensive culture hay. 

 The plant is worth all the work and 

 attention given it. It responds to care- 

 ful, persistent, attention. The fact that 

 it is easy to grow should not make the 

 farmer careless. The profit in any 

 kind of farming does not lie in aver- 

 age crops, but in producing more than 

 average crops. 



PREPARATION OF LAND FOR ALFALFA. 



Sowing alfalfa in the sod or on 

 sod land seldom results favorably. 

 Alfalfa seed has become scarce and 

 expensive and should never be wasted 

 or thrown away in a poor seed bed. 

 New land should be cultivated in some other crop at least 

 one year before it is seeded to alfalfa. The seed bed should 

 be moist and well packed. On this account it is advisable to 

 plow in the fall. Where irrigation is practiced too much care 

 cannot be given. The careful leveling and smoothing of land 

 which is to be seeded to alfalfa is necessary. The crop is to 

 remain on the soil for from two to ten or more years, and 

 avoiding future expense of difficult irrigation will pay many 

 times over. It is well carefully to level the ground and then 

 try it by giving a flood irrigation before the seed is planted. If 

 there are holes or bumps which are hard to irrigate, go on 

 again with the Fresno scraper, land grader or home-made 

 leveler. Either irrigation or sufficient length of time and atten- 

 tion given to conservation of moisture should always be prac- 

 ticed before planting alfalfa seed. It is important that there 

 should be enough moisture in the soil to germinate the seed 

 and give the plants their first few weeks of growth until they 

 get eight or ten inches high before another irrigation becomes 

 necessary. 



TIME TO SOW ALFALFA. 



Where the seasons are short alfalfa should be sown as 

 early in the spring as the ground can be put in proper condi- 

 tion and heavy freezing weather is past. The young plants 

 are not seriously injured by a few degrees of frost. At lower 

 altitudes where the season is longer alfalfa may be sown any 

 time up to the middle of August. As far north as northern 

 Wyoming we have succeeded in securing a good stand of al- 

 falfa where it was planted as late as the last of August. 



SEEDING ALFALFA FOR HAY. 



Use a drill. Use a drill with press-wheel attachments. 

 Do not sow broadcast unless only an acre or so is planted 

 and a drill cannot be obtained. Plant the seed shallow 

 from, one-half inch to two inches deep. The amount of 

 seed to use will depend upon circumstances. If the seed- 

 bed is in perfect condition, moist, loose on the surface, 

 firm below and warm, from eight to twelve pounds of 

 good seed per acre will produce a sufficient stand. Usually 

 the seed-bed is not in good condition and twenty pounds 

 of seed per acre is recommended. The more seed the 

 finer the hay, other things being equal. Some growers, 

 especially in the Eastern states, plant as much as thirty 

 pounds or forty pounds o f seed per acre. The method the 

 author has recommended to growers is to sow ten or 

 twelve pounds the first year, and if a heavy stand is not 

 secured, go over the second season in the opposite direc- 

 tion and drill in ten pounds more of seed. This reseeding 

 should be done the first or second year, as after the old 

 plants get well established the young ones are shaded or 

 crowded out, and never make a good, thrifty growth. 

 Seed at right angles to the direction of the wind. Under 

 irrigation it is best to seed with the direction of the land 

 slope, unless the land is so steep the soil will wash. 



PLANTING WITH NURSE CROP. 



It is common practice to sow alfalfa with some nurse 

 crop, as no return can be expected from the alfalfa the 

 first year. When this is properly done, a nurse crop is 

 not especially objectionable, as a stand will be secured 

 which will produce hay the second year. Better results 

 are always obtained without a nurse crop. The plants 

 become stronger and will produce heavier crops of hay 

 the second year where they have the land all to them- 

 selves from the time of planting. The best nurse crops 

 are those grains which produce the least leaf growth or 

 stool the least, or mature in the shortest season. Maca- 

 roni wheat is better than other wheat. Wheat or barley 

 is better than oats. If grain is used as a nurse crop, plant 

 it thin, using only half or two-thirds the seed used if 

 planting without alfalfa. Winter grains may be used as 

 nurse crops by harrowing in the spring and sowing al- 

 falfa early, before they have made large growth. These 

 crops mature early in the summer and leave considerable 

 season for the alfalfa to establish itself after they are 

 removed. 



CULTIVATION OF HAY. 



If any cultivation is attempted the first summer it 

 must be carefully done. Young alfalfa plants are very 

 tender. At the end of the season, however, a light har- 

 rowing crossways of the drills may do more good than 

 harm. If weeds are thick, they should be mowed before 



The "Go Devil" and Stacker Putting Up Alfalfa. 



there is danger of smothering the young plants; but do 

 not cut close to the ground. An excellent practice is to 

 apply a thin coating of manure with a spreader over the 

 alfalfa field in the fall, either for new or old planting. 



It is only recently we have discovered the great profit 

 arising from cultivating alfalfa fields. There are two in- 

 dispensable implements for alfalfa cultivation; the disc, or 

 the spiked-tooth alfalfa harrow, and the drag harrow. 

 Cultivation should begin in earnest in the spring of the 

 second season. If the disc is used, set the blades fairly 

 straight. Weight the disc so that it will cut two or three 

 inches deep. Lap it each round to leave the ground level, 

 and do the work thoroughly. The alfalfa spiked-tooth 

 harrow does not ridge the land like the disc and does 

 not split the crowns of the alfalfa plants. It digs up 

 the soil deeper, and does excellent work in loosening and 

 aerating it. If the soil is left lumpy, follow with the drag 

 harrow to finish the work. This cultivation should always 

 be done in the early spring; it may be done in the fall 

 and winter, and in many localities will pay after each cut- 

 ting, providing there is time after irrigation and before 

 the plants get too high. Such cultivation lets air into the 

 soil, saves moisture, kills weeds, destroys insects, makes 

 plant food available, increases the crop. 



INOCULATION. 



In most of our western soils alfalfa will not need arti- 

 ficial inoculation. By inoculation we mean supplying the 

 bacteria which live on alfalfa roots and gather nitrogen 



