MEADOWS AND HAY OROPS. 29 
sown, when this is possible. When once the plants have become estab- 
lished and a soil cover is obtained the battle appears to be nearly won, 
for with a very moderate amount of water these soils produce much 
better crops than the lighter better drained nonalkaline areas. Con- 
stant care is necessary, however, for the breaking of the soil cover 
over a small area, due to imperfect seeding or too great an accumula- 
tion of salt in the surface layers, soon allows salt grass to get a foot- 
hold, and this needs no encouragement in such soil to take possession 
very rapidly. With such a limited supply of water as has been avyail- 
able during the past few years it has evidently been exceedingly dif- 
fecult to get a crop established. Mr. A. F. Campbell showed some 
areas in one of his fields where it took five years to establish the crop. 
It is a common thing here, it is said, to see portions of a field which 
raise fine crops having a very noticeable accumulation of salt on the 
surface in the early spring. This disappears with the establishment 
of a soil cover. Indeed, several such areas were pointed out, and in 
one case unmistakable crusts of salt forming after the cutting of the 
second crop were seen. Of course the margin between success and 
failure under such conditions is very narrow, but the successful cul 
- ture of alfalfa on such lands points to this legume as the leading and 
most promising alkali-resisting forage crop. 
The greater part of the alfalfa in the valley is raised for sale, although 
there are many large holders who feed all and more than they can pro- 
duce themselves. In August, when this region was visited, the crop 
was selling at $5 per ton in the stack, or $7.50 per ton baled, f. o. b. 
at Lovelock. Information from several sources indicates an average 
yield of 4 tons per acre, and the cost of handling it is estimated at 
about $6 per acre. This leaves a clear profit of about $14 per acre. 
It is not surprising under the circumstances that alfalfa land com- 
mands high prices, nor is it strange that more land is brought under 
cultivation than the water supply justifies. 
TIMOTHY AND REDTOP. 
The methods of handling timothy and redtop, especially along the 
upper courses of streams and narrow bottoms, and the reasons for the 
same, are of interest. A very large proportion of these two crops, 
except in the Ellensburg region, in Washington, along our line of 
travel from Wenatchee to the British border, in the Blue Mountains, 
along the Blitzen River, and in the Warner Mountains of California, 
is raised on uncultivated land. The small amount of Jabor involved 
doubtless accounts for this method of handling the crops, but in many 
localities it is rendered necessary by the difheulty of getting on the 
land in the mountain regions until very late in the spring, because of 
the excessively moist condition of the soil. Again, in many situations 
where magnificent crops of timothy and redtop are raised it is rather 
