Show DRY FARM ALFALFA Expected to Do Much Towards Benefiting Crops in West loots of Plant Go Deeply Into Soil Improving Its Texture and Giving It Greater Capacity to Absorb and Hold Water Prof A M Ten Eyck superintendent superinten-dent of the Fort Hays Branch Expert mont station In a recent address do livered before the Western Kansas Farmers Conference spoke at length on drouthresisting crops In speakIng speak-Ing of alfalfa ho said Tho second great crop of central ana western Kansan and also In some sections of Nebraska Oklahoma and Texas Is alfalfa To bo sure the crops crop-s most successfully grown In those counties In Kansas which have sufficient suffi-cient rainfall to produce good corn crops and In fact these two crops corn and alfalfa fit well together both In their relation 10 the soil and I as a combination feed for stock of all kinds Wherever It thrives well there Is no other crop grown which will produce so much forage of so high fooJlng vnluo as alfalfa Throughout central Kansas four cuttings of hay are usually harvested each season and a total ylold of four tons per acre In a season Is considered only a fair crop As rot alfalfa Is not grown extensively exten-sively In tho western counties of the stale except In localities where Irrl gatl n Is practiced but the crop Is gradually creeping up the river valleys val-leys and Into the creek bottoms each I year nushlnz ItS area of succetmm culture a little farther west and It has even succeeded on the uplands In many of tho counties where It was not thought possible to grow It a fow years ago The method of planting tho crop In rows and then cultivating promises to make this crop a safe and profitable ono In those semiarid regions re-gions where tho soil Is suitable to alfalfa al-falfa growth Alfalfa starts slowly and it Is rather rath-er difficult especially In the more unfavorable un-favorable ocatlons to get a stand but when the plants are once established they are extremely hardy surviving drouth and hot winds more successfully success-fully than almost any other crop DurIng Dur-ing periods of extreme drouth alfalfa does not grow much Sometimes only ono cutting Is produced In a season on the uplands In western Kansas but time plant through Its deep and extensive exten-sive rootsystem Is able to get a sufficient suffi-cient supply of water to sustain life and when rain comes It revives and grows anew At the Kansas station alfalfa roots have been traced to a depth of overtime over-time foot while at the Colorado Experiment Ex-periment Station Dr W P Headden has washed out the roots of an old alfalfa plant to the depth of nearly twelve feet Various reports have boon made without good authority of finding alfalfa roots at even greater depths It Is without doubt one of tho deepest rooting plants grown on thn farm I believe that alfalfa will do more for western agriculture In the next 60 years than all the other crops which farmers may bo able to grow In this region The soil of western Kansas Kan-sas and of much of the western plains Is usually rich In the mineral elements of plant food but as stated before It Is often lacking In humus which becomes be-comes especially noticeable If the land has been farmed continuously to wheat for a few years By growing alfalfa It Is possible to Increase the supply of humus In the soil and the roots of the plants penetrating deep Into the subsoil disintegrate and deepen deep-en the soil and altogether greatly improve Im-prove Its texture giving It greater capacity ca-pacity to absorb and hold water The beneficial effect on the soil of growing alfalfa ts only incidental to the rapid introduction of the crop throughout the west The great value of the crop as a monoymaker Is the main factor which is Introducing It Into the agriculture agri-culture of the central west Where alfalfa can bo successfully marketed or fed no other crop grown In the west will yield so great a net profit per acre in a series of years |