136 ALFAI^FA 



crop for fowls, swine, sheep, cattle, and horses. If 

 allowed to stand until the stem has become woody, and 

 is then handled so little reaches the stack except the 

 woody stems, it is a trifle better than hazelbrush and 

 not so good as bright oat straw or wheat hay cut a 

 little green. Alfalfa has great value to all lands pre- 

 disposed to alkali. This works in a twofold way. If 

 alfalfa can be sown on land prior to the alkali develop- 

 ing to where it encrusts upon the surface it will pre- 

 vent incrustation or crystalization of the alkali by 

 shading the surface of the ground. Again, alfalfa 

 takes up a large per cent, of alkali into the plant; ten 

 times more alkali salts are present in alfalfa-ash grown 

 on alkali land than is found in plants produced where 

 there is no alkali. Chemical analyses have proved 

 this." 



NKBRASKA 



Mr. S. P. Baker, of Curtis, Frontier County, in 

 sojithwestern Nebraska, writes: " Seventeen years ago 

 I heard about alfalfa, and sent to San Francisco for 

 my first seed, which I sowed, ten pounds to the acre, 

 on 'bench '-land; that first field is standing to-day, 

 vigorous as ever. I have eighteen acres that I have 

 had for five years on sandy ' bottom ' and dark loam 

 ' second bottom.' The soil is the same to a depth of 

 two to five feet, and bears evidence of being washed 

 from the hills. On the 'table' or 'bench' land 

 water is 160 to 240 feet from the surface, on the 

 ' bottom ' thirty two feet, and on ' second bottom * 

 fifty feet. On well-cultivated land deep plowing is 

 sufficient preparation, and seeding may be done as 

 soon as the frost leaves the ground. The best 



