- 48 - 
all circumstances until they reach permanent water. In 
choosing a place at which to dig up alfalfa roots, several 
things had to be considered, especially as my original plan 
was, after having found plants of some age, to make an ex¬ 
cavation of sufficient size and depth and then to remove the 
plants by washing away the soil. I succeeded in finding the 
plants and water favorably located, but a little examination 
of the manner in which the soil had withstood the action of 
the waste water from an irrigating ditch suggested that it 
would be utterly impractical to wash out the roots; and this 
was the case. The site chosen was about twelve miles from 
Fort Collins, on the place of Mr. J. H. Walter, in Weld 
county, at a point where a ditch had been cut through a hill, 
making a cut at the deepest point of rather more than 
twelve feet with a flume crossing it at this point. The lake, 
or reservoir which the ditch had been cut to empty had not 
been filled, so I was informed, for several years and the soil 
at the bottom of this cut had had no other than rain and 
snow water to wet it in that time. I do not know at what 
depth the water plane lay at this point; but unless the water 
plane was somewhat above the level of the water in the lake 
near by, which, after making allowance for the damming 
back of the water in the soil, seemed to me very improbable, 
it must have been a good way below the bottom of the cut, 
so that the roots had most favorable conditions to seek it if 
they did not get enough moisture otherwise. These plants 
were either five or six years from the seed, were growing a 
few feet from the edge of the cut, were exceptionally vigor¬ 
ous, and were at that time in full seed, not having been cut 
that season. I do not know how much water they had re¬ 
ceived, but judging from the condition of the corn and al¬ 
falfa growing within a few feet of them, the supply had not 
been very liberal, and I inferred that,they owed their luxu¬ 
riant growth to the fact that it had probably been made 
during the time of early rains and to their advantage of 
position, in that they were growing in a little sag in the 
surface of the ground. A section of this soil was as follows: 
about three inches of blown dirt, leaves, dead stems, etc., 
from previous years; in other words, soil made about the 
plant subsequent to their establishment there; then followed 
twenty-one and a half inches of a black, compact soil which 
had not been disturbed by the plow except very superfici¬ 
ally. This was so firm and tough that it had to be removed 
with a pick. Succeeding this was six inches of a white marl; 
next a calcareous clay, three feet; then a hard, tough clay of 
three inches, followed by a rather sandy clay of three feet 
thickness; and then a second band of tough, hard clay, three 
