- 5 - 
crop, ears and stalks, weighed 15,500 pounds per acre. The analysis 
showed 35.62 per cent, of dry matter, so that the crop contained 
5,539 pounds of dry matter per acre. 
The alfalfa growing on a neighboring plot was not fertilized and 
was three years from seeding. It was irrigated twice and cut three 
times, yielding at the first cutting 4,600 pounds of hay per acre, at the 
second 3,350 pounds, and at the third 3,250 pounds, a total of 5.6 
tons of hay, containing 10,304 pounds of dry matter per acre. 
The alfalfa therefore yielded almost twice as much dry matter 
per acre as the corn. But this is not quite a fair comparison, for a 
pound of dry .matter from the corn crop is more digestible and has a 
higher feeding value than an equal amount from the alfalfa. The 
corn crop contained 3,605 pounds of digestible feeding material, 
while the crop of alfalfa contained 5,611 pounds, or a little more than 
half as much again. The corn crop per acre in feeding value was 
equivalent to three and a half tons of alfalfa hay. 
There is no doubt but that it costs much more to grow and 
harvest the corn than the alfalfa. Moreover, while the corn crop 
rapidly exhausts the soil, the alfalfa sends its roots deep into the soil, 
and gathers stores of plant food from the air, so that it seems, tor the 
present at least, to benefit rather than deplete the land. 
It is evident that in the irrigated portions of Colorado, alfalfa 
is a mere profitable crop than corn. 
YIELD PER ACRE OF CORN AND ALFALFA. 
TOTAL. 
DIGESTIBLE. 
Corn. 
tt>8. 
Alfalfa. 
ft»8. 
Corn. 
tt>8. 
Alfalfa. 
ft>8. 
5,539 
405 
3,263 
1,472 
84 
315 
10,304 
1,602 
4,782 
2,800 
246 
829 
3,605 
296 
2,186 
1,060 
63 
5,611 
1,198 
3,114 
1,198 
101 
. 1 . 
