, 1900-06-05
ALfA[FA|N WYOMING.
TWO INTERESTING BULLETINS ON
THE SUBJECT BY PROF.
BUFFUM.
One of Them Deals With Alfalfa
as a Hay Crop and Its Gull
ture at High Attitudes, While
the Other Treats Of its Value
as a Fertilizer.

as a Fertilizer.
Bulletins Nos. 43 and A of the Wyo-
ming Experiment Station have JUS
bean issued. Both treat of alfalfa and
both were written by Prof. b. C. Buff
fun, agriculturist and vice director Of
tLs station. No. 40 bears the title, AL
falfa as a Hay Crop" while No. A is
entitled Alfalfa as a Fertilizer"
Both bulletins are illustrated by half
tone plates and together contain GA
pages of interesting and valuable mat
ter. They will be sent free upon re-
quest to the director of the experiment
station at Laramie.
The experiments conducted during
the past nine or ten years have lemon
strated that alfalfa, with proper treat
ment, can be made a highly profitable
crop on the Laramie plains.
Space forbids a lengthy review Of the
bulletins in these columns, but the fol
lowing summaries Of the two publica-
lions will giva a fair idea of the results
Of the experiments:
ALFALFA AS A HAY CROP.
Alfalfa succeeds in all parts of Wyo-
ming under 5000 feet altitude where
il can be irrigated and makes more
fodder to the acre than any other hay
plant yet introduced.
Under proper care and right treat
ment. raising alfalfa may be made pro-
ftable up to nearly OF quite 5000 feet
altitude. 1t does not require special
culture where grown below 5000 feet
altitude.
Between 1000 and 5000 feet above
the sea, alfalfa can generally be cut
twice. though only the first cutting
may produce a full crop. Where cut
twice in the season the yield is from
two and one-half to our tons per acre.
Below 5000 feet altitude it is cut three
and four times each season and yields
from four to ten tons of cured hay per
acre.
At high attitudes alfalfa requires
careful treatment to secure a good
stand and become well established
Heavy seeding and planting with the
press drill are recommended.
Two seasons are required ITO put the
alfalfa into good producing condition
On the Laramie plains.
Alfalfa grows better and produces
larger crops for two or three years af-
ter planting if sown alone instead OF
with oats or other nurse crop. This
may be due to securing better stand.
However, it may be planted with grain
and when sown with nurse crop the
seeding of grain should be light, and
Iearly, small strawed varieties used.
Turkestan alfalfa has stood the win
tiers better and produced heavier crops
than the common form at Laramie.
The principal cause of winter killing
seems to be the freezing Of water
around the crowns of the plants.
Alfalfa will not grow on wet
land where the ground water stands as
near the surface as n or two feet.
No one should expect to obtain good
hay crops of alfalfa without regularly
~irrigating it. 1t requires occasional ir-
rigations through the growing season,
and fall irrigation is beneficial.
The average amount Of irrigation
water which has been used on alfalfa
at Laramie would cover the land 2.22
feet deep. This is a little less than the
amount used to irrigate grain and much
less than is used on native hay.
Alfalfa grows better where there is
some alkali salt in the soil but will
not stand more than one per cent of
our common white alkali in the first
six inches Of soil. 1t should not be
planted where there is enough alkali
to form white incrustations on the sur
face of the soil during any part of the
year.
The principal enemy of alfalfa in
Wyoming is dodder, which may be pre-
vented by using clean seed.
Alfalfa is not only a valuable hay
crop but improves the land by taking
nitrogen from the air and fixing it in
the soil. 1t is considered the greatest
boon to the west of any plant we cul-
tivate.
ALFALFA AS A FERTILIZER.
The most important fertilizer for the
arid region is nitrogen.
Some plants, of which alfalfa is one,
have the power to fix in the soil free
nitrogen of the air. They do this by
means of heterogeneous which form
punches or nodules on the roots.
Therefore growing alfalfa on the
land increases the amount of nitrogen
in the soil and practically solves the
fertilizer problem for the west.
Alfalfa also improves the soil filth
by shading the ground and adding hui
mus to the soil by the decay of its
large, d~eep-growing roots.
Growing alfalfa destroys weeds.
The value of alfalfa harvested from