12 
Colorado Experiment Station. 
The same method was followed in obtaining the machinery 
cost of harrowing. Where the harrow was used only once, the 
charge would be only one-third as large as where the harrow was 
used three times for a particular crop. It is thought that this meth¬ 
od has resulted in a fair distribution of the expense of the different 
specific crops, as each crop was made to share its proportion of the 
total cost for that particular charge. 
Cost of Growing Alfalfa. 
With alfalfa, a perennial crop, it is recognized that two sepa¬ 
rate sets of conditions were to be met: first, the cost of caring for 
alfalfa already established, commonly called old alfalfa; and sec¬ 
ond, the cost of starting, establishing and caring for new or young 
alfalfa. Table No. 4 gives the separate and total cost of caring for 
established or old alfalfa. 
Table No. 5 gives the cost of establishing new alfalfa. The 
cost of establishing alfalfa varies quite markedly, because of sea¬ 
sonal conditions. With the weather just right a stand can be es¬ 
tablished much easier and more cheaply than when difficult weather 
conditions are to be met. In the case of certain fields, due to the 
fact that at least two and sometimes three failures occurred before 
a stand was obtained, the cost was markedly increased. 
These separate costs have been further computed to show a 
total cost and cost per ton of growing alfalfa in the different years. 
These figures are presented in Table No. 6. It will be noted by 
checking up the figures in the different tables that the cost per ton 
very greatly increased in years of poor yield, and fell off markedly 
in years of high yield. In other words, acreages considered, the 
total cost of producing alfalfa remained remarkedly uniform; the 
cost per ton, however, went up and down with the yield of crop 
produced. 
TABLE No. 6. 
TOTAL COST AND COST PER TON OF ALFALFA. 
Year 
Tons 
Total Cost 
Cost per Ton 
1910 . 
192.43 
$ 980.78 
$5.10 
1911 . 
361.59 
1,623.24 
4.49 
1912 . 
439.29 
1,699.76 
3.87 
1913 . 
444.85 
1,608.37 
3.62 
Table No. 7 brings out this comparison very well, because it 
shows the total yield of alfalfa and the yield per acre for each year. 
