THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



93 



should be raked into small windrows and permitted to 

 cure in part of the windrow, or in the cock, according 

 to where you are and what sort of climate you must 

 work in. Alfalfa dried in the swath loses many of the 

 leaves when raked. 



Side delivery hay rakes work well in alfalfa meadows, 

 since they leave the hay loose, in good condition for 

 drying. In esatern meadows, under showery conditions, 

 the hay is best cocked up in small cocks while it is yet 

 tough. Such cocks will turn rain well and may be after- 

 wards opened out on a sunny day, or they may become 

 dry without opening. Then, too, hay caps may be used 

 on the cocks to advantage. 



Take a wisp of the hay, choosing a damp part of 

 it, and twist it violently into a rope. If no moisture 

 can be made to exude from the stems the hay may be 

 put into the mow or stack, especially if many tons are 

 to be put together. If only a. ton or two will be put 

 into a small mow it should be well dried before putting 

 away, since it is more apt to mould and become musty 

 than when much is piled together. 



There is a serious need in much of the black soil 

 of this corn belt of more complete drainage than it has 

 -at present, before it is really fit for alfalfa culture. 

 Men growing only corn, or corn and oats and timothy 

 Jiay, have not usually a vivid conception of how wet 

 their lands are during a good part of the year. In Illi- 

 nois very much of the draining that has been done has 

 been done superficially, with tile too close to the sur- 

 face. These should be deepened so that none of them 

 are at a less depth than thirty-six inches, and if they can 

 be put down forty-eight inches all the better. Then 

 there are needed other drains between the ones now in 

 use. When this is done and some manure made use of, 

 there is no doubt that very fine alfalfa fields can be 

 maintained in Illinois. 



It is hard for a farmer in the heart of the corn belt 

 to consider seriously the demands of any other crop, 

 yet if he will study alfalfa a little he will see that he 

 is accepting no inferior plant when he puts it in place 

 of some of his corn fields. Alfalfa will make on good 

 land in that region a total yield during the season of 



Motor Baling Press in Operation. 



from four to eight tons per acre. Taking six tons as a 

 standard, and calling the hay worth $8.00 per ton, there 

 is thus derived from that acre a gross revenue of $48.00. 

 "To equal that amount the field must yield 120 bushels of 

 -corn which must sell at forty cents per bushel. Or, 

 put it according to the amount of available and digestible 

 carbohydrates and protein produced by these crops, the 

 alfalfa will yield fully three times as much protein as 

 the corn and double the carbohydrates, too! Further- 

 more, the alfalfa is not depleting the soil, while corn is 

 a robber crop. 



East of Illinois begin the clays, gravels, and loams 

 that extend through Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsyl- 

 vania, and the sister states. Few indeed of these soils 

 are ready for alfalfa in their natural state, yet all of 

 them will yield it most profitably when made fit for 

 it. The requirements of alfalfa in these states are simple. 

 It needs, first, to have the land drained, if it is not 

 naturally dry. It requires that the land be sweet. In 

 parts of Indiana, northern Ohio, in some of Pennsyl- 



vania and New York there are acid soils. These must 

 first be sweetened with lime before they will grow good 

 alfalfa. The third requirement is that these soils be 

 stored with organic matter, with humus. That means 

 that they must be spread over with stable manure. After 

 these three conditions have been met there is nothing 

 but a little knowledge of the plant necessary to make it 

 thrive admirably. The farm on which the writer lives 

 grows now annually about 350 tons of alfalfa hay, though 

 ten years ago little of its area was adapted to alfalfa at 

 all. Tile underdrains and manure have made its growth 

 possible, and it has proven very profitable. 



Alfalfa sod is very hard to plow; with indifferent 

 tools, impossible. It can be done with comfort, but it 

 requires, first a good team of three strong horses; next, 

 a plow, preferably a walking plow, in good repair, with 

 a very sharp share. Next, it needs a sober and Christian 

 hearted man. And it is a great aid to carry a file, and 

 frequently file to a knife edge the cutting edge of the 

 share. A little V shaped wing running horizontally out 

 from the landslide under the edge of the uncut land 

 about three inches is a great help, since it makes the 

 plow run steadily and renders the next furrow far easier 

 to turn. 



Some of the alfalfa roots will not be cut off, and 

 they will live over, doing no harm in the sUcceding crop.. 

 All that are cut off will probably die, and there is no 

 danger of alfalfa spreading beyond the original limits 

 of its field. 



Alfalfa seeds best in the dry parts of Kansas, 

 Nebraska and westward. Usually the first crop is allowed 

 to make seed. It is easily threshed, and in favorable 

 seasons yields heavily, from one to fifteen bushels per 

 acre being reported. The only seed worth much is the 

 common alfalfa, but it is wise not to get seed from a 

 latitude south of you. 



Alfalfa will not thrive without the right bacteria 

 upon the roots. Nor will milk sour without the bacteria 

 of souring being present. And yet milk sours, and yet 

 women folks do not add bacteria, knowingly, to their 

 milk. Nevertheless milk will sour more rapidly if a little 

 sour milk is added to the sweet at milking time. So 

 alfalfa will surely become inoculated by natural processes 

 if grown on fit soil, but it will the sooner become in- 

 oculated if earth from an old field is dried in the shed 

 and pulverized and sown broadcast over the field and 

 harrowed in. There are also cultures available that 

 are used to inoculate the seed. They are sometimes 

 of use. They often fail to be of use, through some 

 defect in the method. It is not worth while to bother 

 with cultures. It is worth while when sowing alfalfa 

 on land that has never had it before to use soil from 

 either an old alfalfa field or a sweet clover (melilotus) 

 patch. The bacteria that live on melilotus are the 

 same that live upon alfalfa. 



Do not sow either alfalfa or bacteria upon soils not 

 a fit home for bacteria. That means that the land should 

 be dry, sweet, and stored with vegetable matter. 



Bees love the blooms, especially in the western 

 lands. Alfalfa honey is prime. Alfalfa covers the 

 land with perennial beauty. It makes work for many 

 laborers to gather the harvests and to feed the hay. It 

 causes new homes to spring up, puts paint on school 

 houses and sends little urchins trudging along country 

 lanes with full dinner pails and smiling faces. It is one of 

 God's richest gifts to man. 



The Secretary of the Interior has ratified the award 

 and execution of a contract on behalf of the United States 

 with Mr. Jesse Hinds of Bayard, Nebraska, by which the 

 latter agrees to construct high line lateral in connection 

 with the North Platte irrigation project, Nebraska-Wyom- 

 ing. The work involves the excavation of approximately 

 107,500 cubic yards of material, and the contract price is 

 $12,315. The location of this canal is about 13 miles 

 northeast of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. 



THIS SAVES YOU FIFTY CENTS. 



Remit $3.00 for one year's subscription to THE IRRI- 

 GATION AGE and one copy of the "Primer of Hydraulics," 

 cloth bound. 



