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Show WORTH MORE THAN SILVER. Colorado- Fields of Alfalfa Exceed Her Mines In Value. Great as is the wealth of the state of Colorado in silver she has a far more valuable product in the royal purple alfalfa that supplies fodder far the innumerable herds that roam the plains and feed in the valleys. Last year the value of the alfalfa crop -was placed at $10,000,000, yet that does not represent its contributory worth. In 1862 the introduction of this grass into the state solved the problem of forage, which up to that time had puzzled the pioneers, who had not been able to raise successfully any other form of forage. Alfalfa made possible the great stock growing industry of the state. Last year the aggregate number of horses, catttle, hogs and sheep, according accord-ing to the assessors' returns, was 4,000,-000, 4,000,-000, valued at $45,000,000. Excepting the range sheep and cattle and some horees in the cities alfalfa formed the greater part of the food of all these animals. Thus dairying, a new but rapidly developing industry, depends on the alfalfa. The great grain farms and potato ranches need this product as well. Alfalfa is peerless as a soil renovator ond enricher. Its long roots, penetrating to a depth below the surface sur-face that other plants cannot reach, gather the needed elements and, decaying, decay-ing, liberate them for the benefit of future crops. The Colorado farmer has learned that rotating crops of wheat and alfalfa make the average yield of wheat in Colorado 25 bushels to the acre, while the average for the whole country is less than 14 bushels. The same rotation has produced the famous Greeley potato, as inimitable in Its way as the Rocky Ford melon. The Colorado Colo-rado stock raiser has discovered that cattle may be fattened at home without with-out sending them to corn states, and that alfalfa produced beef, not tallow. He has discovered that pigs turned into the alfalfa patch during the summer are ready for market in the fall, and that "alfalfa mutton" brings the top price in the east. The small rancher knows that his chickens, geese, ducks and Belgian hares are finer for the alfalfa that forms part of their daily food, and that his alfalfa honey equals, if it does not excel, the delicious whiUt sage honey of California. |