232 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



by others, in regard to cutting wheat and 

 corn, and even the digging of potatoes, 

 while in an immature state. 



EXPERIMENT STATION PROVED THAT IT 



IS BETTER TO WAIT UNTIL THE 



ALFALFA IS IN BLOOM. 



Some years ago the Experiment Sta- 

 tion of New Mexico carried on a series of 

 experiments to find out at what stage of 

 development the alfalfa plant would make 

 the most pounds of the best hay. As I 

 understand it, they made four cuttings of 

 the first crop. First, when about half 

 grown; again just before it came into 

 bloom; then while in full bloom; and 

 again after it had gone to seed. 



They then took four bunches of steers 

 and fed them the same number of pounds 

 from the four different cuttings, and 

 weighed each bunch of steers every five 

 days during the experiment, which lasted 

 some 60 days. 



ALFALFA CUT TOO E-^RLY IS REALLY 

 UNWHOLESOME. 



The result was that five steers died dur- 

 ing the experiment from the first cutting, 

 while the best results were from the cut- 

 ting made vafiUl blooni\ and that cutting 

 made 500 lbs. more hay per acre than any 

 other. 



Are not these results exactly what any 

 sober minded person would expect ? Is 

 there not a time in the development of 

 any plant when there would be the least 

 amount of evaporation during the curing 

 process, and when there would be the 

 greatest amount of nutritive properties 

 contained in the plant, and would not 

 common sense teach that these conditions 

 could only take place just at maturity, 

 and before the consuming process of nat- 

 ure had set in ? 



There is only one sensible excuse for 

 a farmer cutting his alfalfa before matu- 

 rity, and that is when, in years like this, 

 he sees that he may be short of water for 

 irrigation, and by cuttinga little too soon. 



he can water his land, and thus secure 

 better after crops. 



A SUGGESTION TO BEE KEEPERS. 



Much good could be done by the hun- 

 dreds of bee keepers in the West who buy 

 hay, if they would bring this matter be- 

 fore the farmers, not arbitrarily, but can- 

 didly, and insist that the hay they buy 

 shall have been cut when in full bloom; 

 and offer to pay a dollar per ton more for 

 it. They can afford to do this because it 

 is worth it for feeding purposes. 



Much good, too, would come if bee- 

 keepers, and writers, and editors, would 

 cease talking this "tommy rot," which 

 in fact, is only another "Wiley" cnaard. 



THERE WILL ALWAYS BE ALFALFA 



HONEY. 



Again, we read, occasionally, that the de- 

 licious alfalfa honey will soon be a thing 

 of the past. Let me say that if any one 

 "unter der linden" in Wisconsin, among 

 the clover and buckwheat fields farther 

 East, among the mangrove and orange 

 fields in Florida, or even in the great for- 

 ests of Cuba, is laboring under this delu- 

 sion, let him be at once undeceived. 

 Alfalfa has been the "sheet anchor" of 

 the great arid West, and is her hope for 

 the future, as it not only feeds all animal 

 life, excepting man, but it feeds and re- 

 deems worn out lands in a manner uneqal- 

 ed by any other vegetable, or chemical 

 fertilizer, and will even add to the fertility 

 of the virgin soil. And I want to say to 

 those few who think that we should lay 

 away a specimen of alfalfa honey, and 

 label it among the defunct things of earth, 

 that so long as the snow falls on our 

 grand old mountains, and old Sol sends it 

 in liquid form down their ruggid slopes 

 to the plains below, just so long will there 

 be alfalfa honey on the markets, in pro- 

 portion as nature dispenses her blessings 

 to all other portions of our country. 



LONGMONT, Colo. July 29, 1902. 



