| Show 4 fruim AN ALFALFA among easiest eadies t crops to raise on dry land sa says ys expert well known western horticulturist gives reasons for stating they can easily be raised in an arid country at the recent dry farm congress held at billings mont mr ER par sous sons a well known colorado horticulturist a farming who has made dry farming a close study and has been quite successful cess ful gave an interesting talk among other things he said said it may surprise some af of you to know that ciany if any man were to ask me what I 1 considered the easiest crops to raise on the dry farm my answer would be fruit and alfalfa trees and alfalfa are both deep rooted and this is half the battle e in fighting drought 0 oh n my ranch we plow from ten to twelve inches for all our crops in order that their roots may get down as deep as possible in the shortest possible time we first secure the moisture for fruit trees by plowing a year ahead of time and digging holes in the fall before planting and with two or 1 three feet of moisture in the ground we do not care whether a dry year comes or not at the last congress I 1 explained how to handle an orchard so that no loss could possibly result from drought and I 1 wish I 1 could say the came a ame of winter killing but though we cannot actually prevent vent this we can almost eliminate it by careful choice 0 of tested varieties in different parts of the world even in deserts we find trees growing sometimes where nothing else will grow in the dry orchard the farmer can give his tree almost as much water as the irrigator if he wants to it is simply cimpl y a question of area the greater Jh the earea area the larger the supply of mols turo ture and the roots will penetrate almost any distance to obtain this moisture and in h a very short space of time when the trees are young it is impossible for them to use up all this thia moisture and tile the surplus to is stored in the subsoil for future use and when we have haap our trees standing in 16 15 feet of damp soil as is 19 actually the case in my dry orchard at the present moment we care little or nothing for dry years yearn the trees in the dry orchard seldom winterkill winter kill because they do not become too sappy you can not fill an iron or any any other pipe with water and expect it not to burst when the frost comes so with trees thousands ot trees are killed in the west every year by late irrigating and I 1 want to tell you that in the deadly winter of 98 and 99 when thousands of apple trees were lost in the irrigated ranches we hid did not lose one now if it were not for the warm spells which cause the sap to rise this would not happen in canada for in instance stance it does not matter how wei wet the trees become the south side of the tree suffers ers the most because it is the warm side some of our agriculturists and experimenters peri pert menters tell you not to plant alfalfa on sod they knoy too well how sod Is usually plowed n this country three or four inches deep like ribbons spread out to dry but you can raise alfalfa on sod and on sandy land wili do better than any other way we never wait for sod to rot we rot it with the disc we start in the first wet day and disc it and cross disc it cutting it all to pieces as deep as the disc will go then we plow it eight inches turning it completely over and disc it the othor other side then work it as fine as old land before planting fall plowing and spring planting are best and the seed should be put in during the wettest period of the year about half an inch to an inch deep there is always a certain risk rink of sprouting and drying out before the be next rain cornea comes 1 l t f A y I 1 when small seeds are planted durl during ng the heat of summer pummer the press drill is much better for this work than the 1 disc drills I 1 am not much in fay bayor 0 r ot of rolling or packing except for seed germination my experience being that the first good storm will pack your lahd and settle it more than you could do it in a weeks work this crop is of vital importance to the diversified farmer tor for with the gaind same amount of work he can raise twice as much feed as Is possible with any other crop |
