ALFALFA IN ROTATION 71 



lip the alfalfa fields every few years. One of the most 

 extensive and successful growers in Araphoe County 

 was asked : ' ' Can you afford to plow up your alfalfa 

 fields after getting the crops of but three seasons from 

 them ? Does not the heavy expense of reseeding, in- 

 volving the almost total loss of the use of the land for 

 a year, make it necessary that you should allow it to 

 remain in alfalfa longer, to make it profitable ?' ' 



The reply was : ' ' We certainly cannot allow alfalfa 

 to stand much longer than three seasons. We must 

 have land on which to sow oats and plant corn and po- 

 tatoes, and we have found that there is no other half so 

 good as alfalfa sod. It seems almost too bad to plow 

 alfalfa under so soon after it has cost us a year's time 

 to get it established, but it really is the best thing that 

 we can do. We lost perhaps $io an acre through not 

 having any returns from the land during the season 

 the alfalfa is sown, but the same amount expended in 

 manuring would not benefit succeeding crops nearly so 

 much as growing them on the inverted alfalfa sod, so 

 we feel justified in turning under the alfalfa and seed- 

 ing other fields." 



There is not a crop that will not make good and 

 profitable use of the fertility stored by the alfalfa, pro- 

 viding it is properly managed. It would not be wis- 

 dom to turn under alfalfa in September and Odlober 

 and sow at once to wheat, for the ground would be so 

 loose as to dry out rapidly and render the outcome of 

 the crop very problematic, but alfalfa may be turned 

 under in July, after the first crop has been cut, and the 

 land sown to fall wheat at the proper season with a good 

 chance for success. Some of the farmers around 

 Greeley prefer a three-crop rotation — alfalfa, potatoes. 



