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. Hach levee is so high 
that when the water is turned in above it fills that 
part of the field till it has packed up to the foot of 
the next levee above. Thus it makes a little lake all 
