THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



LANE FORCED TO STOP LAND GRAB 



A NUMBER of Rec- 

 lamation Service 

 officials and employes, 

 who grabbed the cream 

 of 157 farm units open- 

 ed recently on the Un- 

 compahgre, (Colo.) 

 Federal Irrigation 

 project, must look else- 

 where for farms. 



Following sharp 

 protests from Colorado, 

 Secretary Lane issued 

 the following order to 

 the Registrar at Mon- 

 trose : 



"You are directed 

 to cancel the entries 

 of the Reclamation 

 Service employes who 

 have filed upon the Un- 

 compahgre project 

 since September 15, 

 1915, and to withdraw 

 all lands opened on 

 September 16, not en- 

 tered upon at this date. 

 It appears that the no- 

 tice of the coming 

 opening of these lands 

 was wired to Colorado 

 and there published more than ten days before the 

 date of opening, but that the instructions as to 

 further publication intended for the land of- 



Yes! Irrigation helps the crops. 



fice officials, miscar- 

 ried." 



This leaves the situ- 

 ation as it was before 

 the order opening the 

 land with exception 

 tion that those filing on 

 the land outside of the 

 Reclamation employes 

 will retain their filings. 

 Just what will happen 

 with the rest of t he 

 land only time will tell, 

 but certain officials 

 who are in close touch 

 with the department 

 are of the opinion that 

 this will end the land 

 opening under the 

 project for the time 

 being, and probably 

 until the entire project 

 is completed. 



Directors of the 

 Uncompahgre Valley 

 Water Users' Associa- 

 tion voted to draft a 

 resolution censuring 

 the government for the 

 manner in which the 

 opening was conducted. 

 Of course, there may have been an honest mis- 

 take, but the whole deal looked very rotten to these 

 men on the ground. 



GREEN MANURE HELPS START ALFALFA 



THE report of experiments conducted during the 

 year on the Yuma Reclamation Project Experi- 

 ment Farm near Yuma, Ariz., shortly to be issued 

 by the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 devotes special attention to a discussion of the 

 method of raising Durango cotton, and also dis- 

 cusses alfalfa and sorghum culture in this region. 

 One section of the report is devoted to Sudan 

 grass, and there is mention of experiments with 

 hemp, flax and broom corn. 



The following advice on the use of green ma- 

 nures, taken from this report, should be of interest 

 especially to alfalfa growers : 



"One of the most important values of alfalfa 

 is its usefulness as a preparatory crop. It is the 

 best green-manure crop yet found when all phases 

 of its benefits are considered. However, a stand of 

 alfalfa is often difficult to establish on very light, 

 sandy areas or on spots in fields where heavy grad- 

 ing has exposed the sandy subsoil. Apparently, the 

 difficulty experienced in establishing alfalfa stands 

 on these soils is not a deficiency of plant food, but 



a very irregular moisture content of the soil. This 

 condition has been found to be most economically 

 improved by the addition of a summer green-manure 

 crop of cowpeas. Cowpeas when planted in a good 

 seed bed have produced on sandy soil approximately 

 four tons of green manure per acre. Alfalfa may 

 then be seeded in the fall and become established 

 for the following season. 



"At the experiment farm the alfalfa yields have 

 been increased 2 tons per acre by this culture. The 

 field operations of growing and plowing under this 

 crop of cowpeas would cost not to exceed $4 per 

 acre. If 2.3 acre-feet of water are applied to this 

 crop at 50 cents per acre-foot, the water will cost 

 $1.16. Cowpea seed has been bought f. o. b. Yuma 

 at $8 per hundred pounds. If planted at the rate of 

 30 pounds per acre, the seed would cost $2.40, mak- 

 ing a total cost of $7.56 per acre for two extra tons 

 of alfalfa, which, in 1914, when hay was cheapest, 

 was worth $12.10, netting a profit of $4.54 on the 

 first year's results, as well as the residual effect 

 on the soil. In an effort to determine the best 



