Show ALFALFA CROP ON DRY LANU LAND colorado farmer relates how he secured good stand without use of irrigation in the spring of 1909 1 I had 4 two small patches of native sod plowed on my ranch writes L W cunningham in campbells Camp beirs scientific farmer after the sod was plowed and harrowed it was waa sowed bowed to alfalfa I 1 had little confidence in the result but was agreeably surprised when I 1 visited the ranch in the late summer to find in the magnificent cro crop p of weeds a good stand of alfalfa I 1 had the weeds cut but not raked they should I 1 think have been cut earlier in the early part of march of this year I 1 again visited the ranch the snow llad disappeared and the ground was fre free e from frost except in the draws for the purpose of determining the depth of moisture in the soil I 1 prospected my alfalfa patches with pick and shovel while engaged in this work I 1 was amazed at the depth of the young alfalfa roots my city neighbors know a great deal more about my reputation for veracity than they do about the habits of alfalfa hence I 1 concluded it kasnot wise to rely solely upon my unsupported word as to what I 1 had discovered in my alfalfa patch so I 1 procured a long handled shovel or spade and set about with the help of another to go to fo the bottom of things with the result that I 1 came into town with alfalfa plants having roots 36 inches in length and at that they were broken 0 it was impossible to go 0 to the very extremity of any root if alfalla alfalfa roots attain a length of three feet in one summer on sod ground I 1 feet feel con vinced that if sown on ground plowed much deeper and free from weeds as mine was not even better results will follow the great depth to which these roots have and will penetrate must of necessity greatly fa ciliate the percolation and storage of water in this land to a greater depth than ever before I 1 found these roots had penetrated two feet below the moisture line and into ground that was almost as solid as a grindstone it would be an interesting problem to figure out the number of tons of fertilizing material this underground crop of roots contains contain s fertilizing g material without a superior I 1 do not anticipate a yield from my alfalfa equal to that from irrigated lands but ut I 1 do expect every acre upon which i A succeed in establishing a good growth of alfalfa to be worth much more than twice what the adjoining acre now in buffalo grass cost me moreover when 1 I shall finally again crop this land I 1 confidently expect an increase in grain production sufficient to repay the expense of seeding the land to alfalfa and repay what the land originally cost me |