INTRODUCTION. 7 
advent of the alfalfa changed the animal life too of 
the canyon. Before alfalfa came there used to be little 
animal life save the chipmunks and lizards; all had 
fled that could flee to the green mountain tops. 
After alfalfa deer came to stay down in the meadows 
all summer long; some of them had their little fawns 
down there. The boy foreman used to see the old 
does standing deep in alfalfa nibbling daintily very 
early in the morning as he went up to change the 
water. He would not shoot them; they were his 
companions. Humming birds too came in great num- 
bers to sip the sweet nectar of alfalfa bloom. They 
would sit in quaint rows along the wire fence, peer- 
ing curiously at the boy as he passed by smiling, 
shovel on his shoulder. Bees he had none, else there 
would have been great stores of honey made there. 
It was joy to grow the alfalfa, because the grow- 
ing of it was so very easy. The method of sowing 
was very simple. The fields were first made fairly 
level. There was a strong slope so that it was easy 
to get water to any part of them. Then furrows 
were made with a common turning plow run shallow, 
or else with a furrow marker that made a number 
of shallower furrows parallel with each other. Then 
the alfalfa seed was sown, sometimes brushed in 
with a brush drag, and then a tiny stream of water 
turned in each furrow and kept running there for 
days and days, since under that burning sun one 
could not count on sandy land holding moisture at 
the surface very long. Sometimes the alfalfa was 
sown in March, oftener in April. It did not make 
