Irrigated Agriculture in the San Luis Valley 
31 
SWEET CLOVER. 
Sweet clover has usually been looked upon as a noxious weed. 
Stockmen and farmers are finding, however, that under proper con¬ 
ditions it is capable O'f making nutritious pasture or valuable hay. 
During the past three years the acreage in sweet clover has been 
greatly extended thruout the Valley, the discovery that it 'was 
valuable for feed coupled with the fact that the crop would grow on 
many of the alkali or partially seeped lands which would not pro¬ 
duce other crops, has assisted in its wide distribution. 
The two varieties of sweet clover are distinguished by their 
yellow and white flowers. For Valley conditions the yellow flow¬ 
ered variety is to be preferred because it is the earlier maturing, 
and will produce good crops of seed as well as hay. Sweet' clover 
seed is almost exactly the same size and vet*y similar in shipe Ao 
alfalfa seed.’ ' ^ , ■■■n 
Land for sweet clover should be prepared the same as for al¬ 
falfa. The seeding can preferably be done in the spring by exactly 
the same methods as those used for alfalfa seeding. Eight to fifteen 
pounds of the hulled seed is sufficient. If the unhulled seed is used, 
twenty to twenty-five pounds must be planted to produce approxi¬ 
mately the same stands. 
Irrigation should be the same as for alfalfa. When intended 
for hav, sweet clover should be cut before the stems have become 
unduly woody. To accomplish this it is usually wise to cut when the 
crown shoots for the next crop appear. The first cutting after seed¬ 
ing should be made with the cutter bar of the mower set rather 
high, and may be begun when the first bloom appears. It is usually 
unsafe to cut earlier than this, as earlier cutting may result in kill¬ 
ing the crop and necessitate reseeding. Methods of hay-making are 
the same as for alfalfa. 
Probably no crop will prove more beneficial as a soil improver 
than sweet clover. In the short seasons of the Valley it is probably 
destined to considerably wider use than it now enjoys, both for hay 
and for pasture. 
RODENTS. 
Rodents such as prairie dogs and kangaroo rats do an enor¬ 
mous amount of damage to new lands as well as old lands which 
have uncultivated sections lying adjacent. The damage is two-fold. 
Prairie dogs and kangaroo rats dig deep holes in the fields, increas¬ 
ing the difficulties of irrigation and sometimes starting very severe 
soil washing. Unless their numbers are kept down they are also 
very destructive to crops. In some places it is almost impossible to 
start any of the garden crops or alfalfa because of the depredations 
