114 



THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



advantage. In order for any plant to make grain or forage, there must 

 be a considerable quantity of waiter somewhere within its reach. 



Alfalfa and Brome Grass. 



"The soil in an alfalfa field on table land, did not show more than 12 

 per cent, of moisture in the first six feet, at any time it was sampled 

 during the, past season. The alfalfa drank up the water of each rain 

 storm within a few days after it fell. A brome grass field never showed 

 as much as 9 per cent. The tonnage was fully one and a half tons of 

 alfalfa and less of brome grass. The rainfall in these fields was recorded 

 in the growth rather than in the moisture content of the soil. 



"These two plants are drouth resistant, not because they build up 

 forage without water, but because they can wait for water. This is as 

 much as we should hope from any plant that may be discovered. The 

 alfalfa field has been sampled where it showed as low as 6 per cent, of 

 moisture in the sub-soil. All the available water had been used. If the 

 alfalfa were broken up and the land seeded to some other crop, that crop 

 would be dependent absolutely on the rainfall of that season. Thero 

 would be no reservoir from which it might drink during the period of 

 extreme drouth. 



Crop Rotation. 



"With plenty of moisture available we would expect a large crop 

 following alfalfa. This work is explained more fully in Bulletin 109, 

 and other bulletins that will be published later." 



DRY FARMING AND LIVE STOCK FATTENING. 



W. L. Carlysle, formerly Dean of the Agricultural College and one of 

 the leading live stock experts of the West, was called upon and spoke as 

 follows : 



"Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: I think T am the most surprised 

 man in Cheyenne at the present time. I was sitting over there in a box 

 with some fellows from Washington and really enjoying myself, and 

 enjoying the excellent addresses from the representatives from the various 

 experimntal stations, and I was just congratulating myself that I was 

 out of college work and wouldn't have to give an address. I didn't think 

 I was on the program and I didn't have an idea in my head to present 

 to the convention, so that what I will have to say will be very impromptu 

 and very brief. If I had thought about this any length of time I might 

 have given something. I want to say, Mr. President, and I think it is 

 due the good people of Cheyenne that it should be said, that I appreciate 

 more than I can say the excellent entertainment being provided for this 

 convention. In the past sixteen years of my life, that I have spent more 

 or less in public life, I have attended a great many conventions, in a 

 great many places, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and never before 

 have I seen such perfection in arrangement as you seem to 'have^ here 

 for the accommodation and pleasure and interest of the people of this 

 convention. 



