THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



nor lawns. Where irriijation has been 

 practiced a number of years, the soil be- 

 comes so filled with water that it soaks 

 out in the low places, the seepage fonn- 

 inor little lakes or ponds. Water can be 

 found by digging wells, but the water is 

 so impregnated with the alkali of the 

 soil as to be worthless for drinking. The 

 drinking water must come from the 

 mountains. Many cities and villages 

 pipe their water 15 to 20 miles from some 

 mcuntain where it first comes rushing out 



weeks, and perhaps months pass, without 

 a drop of rain, and they are powerless to 

 hel]) themselves. On the other hand, 

 the same men may, the next year, find 

 themselves willing to pay hundreds of 

 dollars, as they see crops drowned out or 

 washed away, or perish in the fields, if it 

 would only stop raining. Irrigation en- 

 ables the farmer to put his thumb right 

 on the water supply, to supply his crops 

 when they need it — to withhold it when 

 desirable. 



Hdmh .\.ri.\RV ov Herman Rauch 



Hoase-apiary at the right- 



of a mountain gorge. Such water cannot 

 be excelled. It is pure melted snow that 

 has touched nothing except the bare 

 rocks. It is clear, cold, soft and sparkling. 

 If a man locates where this water cannot 

 be piped to him, he must build a cistern, 

 draw water in a tank, and .store it in his 

 cistern. 



Irrigation is a costly system to inaugu- 

 rate, but once it is established, agriculture 

 that is based upon it is far superior to 

 that depending upon rain fall for its mois- 

 ture. Thousands and thousands of East- 

 ern farmers have seen their crops wither 

 a;ul die under a hot sun, while days, and 



FUSS, Near Denver, Colorado. 



—long " rick " of alfalfa hay in the back-ground. 



The foundation of Western agriculture 

 is alfalfa. It is to the West what red 

 clover is to the East — only more so. Its 

 roots go down several feet and bring 

 fertility to the surface, while its leaves 

 absorb it from the atmosphere. It makes 

 the best of pasture, or it may be cut three 

 times in one season for hay. Its color is 

 an intense green, and one of its peculiari- 

 ties is that it retains this color when 

 made into hay. A load of alfalfa hay 

 looks like a load of the very greenest of 

 grass. It is cut with a mowing machine, 

 but there is no use for a hay tedder, as 

 there is no hurry to get it cured "for fea^ 



