The Arizona sentinel., 1897-05-29
The Financial Lessen of Alfalfa.

1 DuIlDS all tllt udiu lilu6o tIe alfalfa grower hes come as near 10 smiling at the ruin around him as if living on a salary out of the public treasury He has certainly suffered less than the banker, law yer, ur any of the others who are supposed by many to fatten on the sufferings If the rest. You find him today about where he was five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago, scarcely affected by changes in market, railroad freights, copmis- sion men, politics or war. lie does not have to join any associations to help market bis product; he cares not.a cent what tbe East thinks of it's quality, and cannot have the reputation of his goods injured by the raseally packing of his neighb bors. From Arizona, New Mexico, and even Utah and the lands where the growing season IS but half what it IS here, comes sub stantialjy the same account about the steady results the alfalfa grover enjoys through good and bad times, We can see.in the alfalfa sections about this city,the principal reason for this. And but little investiga- tion is needed to show it is about the only reason. It is impossible, and always has been, to speculate to any extent in alfalfa. There have been a few little corners of the world where one might, for a short time, but they were always .rare. Though the grower may have his whole place'in alfalfa he is not calculating on hauling it to some distant market to sell for money with which to buy provisions to haul back home to eat. He may expect to sell some, but in the mean time a considerable portion goes into pork, milk, butter, eggs, chick ems and cattle. From these alone he has two thirds CT more of his living, with surplus enough to buy the other third. This leaves him as clear profit whatever he gets for his alfalfa. either fra5h for dairy if near town, or in hay, or both. Where he has twenty or thirty acres this profit will be enough to give him more solid comforts than his father enjoyed, keep him out of debt and allow him to hand down the place to his children we'll inn proved, bered, and with a soil actually richer than when he began to work it, if, as is generally the case, he has plenty of water for irrigation.
 The first point in the alfalfa growers favor is that he cannot possibly make enough out of it to turn his head. He hardly eyer becomes speculator.
 It is so easy to feed lot of ani- mals that the alfalfa grower almost unconsciously becomes a farmer of diversified products. If some more farmers would do the same thing consciously they would have far less worry about the rate of interest and spend much less time looking for a stranger'to buy them out.
 The alfalfa grower is also com pelied to turn his own time into produce, partly because 1t rarsly pays to hire labor, unless the farm is large, and partly because he finds he might as we'll be workin 2
 as watching some enc else. The
 latter conclusion would be especial
 ly profitable to 8 large army of 1 producers in other lines. They might also initiate to advantage
 some of his other methods, such as
 spending most Of his time On the
 ranch instead of in town, and cspe-
 cially returning the same night
 instead of putting up at hotel.
 The care of the animals on the
 place makes this necessary. so that