THE AGRICULTURAL FUTURE OF THE REGION. 



37 



it is spread the better. It should always be disked or otherwise 

 worked into the soil before the ground is plowed. If these precau- 

 tions are observed, only good results should be expected. The best 

 place in the rotation to apply the manure is probably just preceding 

 the sorghum. The sorghum will generally be listed, and so the roots 

 will be below the manure. What manure is not incorporated with 

 the soil is near the surface and will help conserve moisture instead 

 of burning out the crop, as it is very likely to do if a heavy dressing 

 is plowed under before it has time to rot. Summer tillage following 

 the sorghum gives another full year for the manure to rot before a 

 small-grain crop occupies the land. If the land is poor manure may 

 be spread very thinly on the winter wheat to good advantage, but if 

 the land is rich and a wet season follows the wheat is almost sure to 

 lodge. Manure may safely be applied on ground that is to grow 

 corn, or it may be spread lightly on the stalk ground before it is 

 disked for spring grain. When used in this way it is often of great 

 benefit in preventing the soil from blowing. 



None of these rotations provides for a protein feed, but no satis- 

 factory high-protein feed crop is available. Any land that will 

 grow alfalfa should be seeded to it, and probably with proper care 

 this crop can be grown to some extent on every farm. The experi- 

 ments with alfalfa in rows 3 or 3^ feet apart and cultivated as regu- 

 larly as corn are giving flattering results, and wdiere it is too dry for 

 the ordinary seeding it seems almost certain that this method will 

 produce valuable seed crops and at the same time some feed. 



Most of the soils of the dry region are short of nitrogen and humus, 

 and if alfalfa can be grown for a few years the land will produce 

 better crops of other kinds. The writer is personally familiar with 

 a small field of alfalfa in northeastern Colorado which died in 1894. 

 In the summer of 1908 the native grasses which had taken possession 

 were more than twice as thick and tall as on the remainder of the 

 field. In irrigated fields on the plains of Colorado yields of grain are 

 frequently doubled where alfalfa has been grown. Alfalfa, however, 

 leaves the ground very dry, and for that reason the first crop following 

 it often suffers severely from drought and makes a light yield unless 

 the season is very favorable. 



In much of the sand-hill country and on some of the rough land 

 nothing but stock production seems possible; but even here, where 

 in reach of a market, the small stockman will find it almost necessary 

 to sell cream. In the sand hills hay is usually plentiful, and where 

 the settler has valleys that will grow alfalfa or peas milking should 

 be profitable. In many of the better valleys potatoes may be pro- 

 duced, but in some places the difficulty in getting them to market 

 makes them impossible as a market crop. 



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