30 
COLORADO EXPERIMENT STATION 
try to keep sixty or seventy-five head on the same supply of water; 
and it is equally ridiculous for him to attempt to crowd plants in soil 
where the moisture is limited. 
Some plants may develop with less moisture than others, but 
alfalfa is not one of these plants; on the other hand, it is conceded by 
all western farmers that an abundance of moisture is the key to 
success in growing alfalfa for hay. 
When it is well established, alfalfa will endure long droughts and 
still revive when water is applied; to that extent, it is adapted to “dry 
farming,” and its deep rooting tendency may enable the crop to grow 
without irrigation, if the roots can penetrate the moist soil. 
There are some localities on the Plains where the run-off from 
heavy showers could be collected and diverted by ditches upon soil 
suited to alfalfa. Often in a draw, where moisture from the surround¬ 
ing prairie is inclined to center, good encouragement for seeding to 
alfalfa is offered. 
The number of plants to the acre that can be maintained in the 
dry farming district has not been determined; but at Rocky Ford, 
Colo., in 1908, an alfalfa nursery plat, without irrigation for eleven 
previous months, produced at the rate of two and three-fifths tons 
per acre the first cutting; and then made a second growth, equally as 
good, that was left for seed. The plat had been seeded, iniqoy, to 
Turkestan alfalfa, and thinned to single plants twenty inches apart 
each way. It received one irrigation and was thoroughly cultivated 
that year. In 1908 the growth was made from the moisture that was 
stored and conserved in the soil; but such phenomenal yields can 
hardly be expected without irrigation. In the favored spots, before 
mentioned, alfalfa can certainly be grown if once established and 
properly managed. 
The growing of alfalfa seed offers great opportunities to the 
farmer on dry lands, because the fact has been well demonstrated that 
alfalfa yields seed best when the plant makes a slow, dwarfed growth, 
when it really lacks for moisture, but has enough to set and fill the 
seed. 
Seed grown under dry conditions has more vigor and vitality than 
seed produced with an excess of moisture, and it is usually free from 
dodder and other noxious weeds, if the field has had any cultural care. 
There is a demand for dry land alfalfa seed that far exceeds the 
supply. 
In establishing alfalfa for seed production, under dry conditions, 
it is recommended to sow in rows eighteen or twenty inches apart, 
with two or three pounds of good seed per acre. A thin, uniform 
stand is absolutely necessary, even to thinning, as in beet culture, but 
the stand can usually be regulated by the amount of seed sown. 
It has been found that plants twenty inches apart will support 
each other and not lodge or lay on the ground, as in thicker or thinner 
stands. With a good stooling variety like the Turkestan, plants six 
