314 *^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ALPALI^A 



to six feet deep, and below this soft rock, water being 

 found at depths of 20 to 200 feet. I plow or break the 

 soil the first year, and raise a crop of wheat or oats ; the 

 second year plow deep, sow about half a crop of oats, 

 and when this is well harrowed, sow 20 pounds of alfalfa 

 seed and cover it about two inches deep. To get the best 

 lesults, this seeding is done about April ist, and there is 

 no trouble here with weeds. In cutting the grain, the 

 alfalfa is cut off too, but it does not grow tall enough for 

 hay the first year. The plant does not winterkill, and 

 reaches its full yields by the third or fourth year; I have 

 found no necessity for reseeding any of my land. We 

 irrigate from streams, the quantity of water used depend- 

 mg on the season. There are generally three applications 

 of w^ater, about six inches each time. After the first two 

 or three years, only about half the quantity used at first 

 will be needed. After the first year I cut twice, and 

 obtain about i}i tons to the acre each time. The first 

 crop is best for seed, and is harvested when the top bolls 

 are dead ripe, raked the day after cutting, bunched for 

 two days and then stacked, to be threshed with the com- 

 mon threshing machinery, putting through twice. Five 

 bushels to the acre is a common yield of seed, and the 

 cleaning and threshing cost 50 to 75 cents a bushel. The 

 hay is cut when the greater part is in bloom, allowed to 

 lie about a day before raking, cured about three days, 

 and then stacked, 14 to 16 feet wide, 60 feet long, and 

 20 feet high. It does not seem to heat or mold here. The 

 total cost in the stack is about $1.50 a ton, and baling, in 

 lOO-pound bales, costs $2 a ton. Selling price of loose 

 hay in this section is $5 a ton, and the seed, 10 to 12 cents 



