280 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



West. Alfalfa hay feeds the teams, the stock mares 

 and foals, the family cow, the calves, pigs, bees, 

 poultry. In Utah at one time half the Mormon 

 population in certain southern valleys was saved 

 from starvation by the use of alfalfa greens in 

 early spring, before gardens could be grown, and 

 after a season of grasshoppers the year previous. 

 The writer can testify that alfalfa greens are good; 

 nothing is any better, cooked as one cooks spinach, 

 taken when fresh and tender and growing rapidly. 



Starting Alfalfa by Irrigation. — There are various 

 soils in the irrigated sections and each may need a 

 somewhat different treatment. Soils differ im- 

 mensely in their physical character and in their 

 slope, and regularity of slope as well. I can not 

 here give all that I know should be given to the sub- 

 ject of irrigation of alfalfa. Alfalfa should be pre- 

 pared for irrigation in such a way that the water 

 can be put on in large volume, the more the better, 

 so that it will run quickly over the field and then all 

 of it drain away. This can be accomplished in one 

 way on one soil and with one slope, another way on 

 a different soil and on a different slope. 



Irrigation by Contour Levees. — There are lands in 

 California so level and irregular in contour that the 

 most practicable system is to flood them all over. 

 To do this long dams or levees are built up, running 

 along contour or level lines. Each levee is so high 

 that when the water is turned in above it fills that 

 part of the field till it has backed up to the foot of 

 the next levee above.' Thus it makes a little lake all 



