, 1908-07-13

suggestions to my friends. the irriga'
tors. | must first tell you that | know
very little about irrigation but | find
so many irrigators stealing methods. I,
am advocating for dry farming, deep
blowing and cultivation. that | feel
obliged to help them, when l get a
chance. These suggestions / wish to
say are p~ract!cal/ones. N well worth
your while to study and to do them.
of alfalfa off, disc Dr. even spike harrow
1t. Winter or rather fall irrigate every
acre of land that you can. Let me I'M
press upon you the Importance Of not
covering your alfalfa with water and
getting caught by frost, irrlgate only
such ground that you can handle, be
cause II you let water stand on and
above the crown Of your alfalfa and
his water freezes, your alfalfa VIII
die. Tho result of fall irrigation will
give your crop a start in the spring
that the alfalfa not irrigated never
catches or gets up to. Learn to irri-
gate or cultivate your alfalfa more and
thereby irrigate less. l would suggest
that you get on to your alfalfa after
irrigating as soon as your soil Is dry
enough, and cultivate it, with disc har-
row or any implement which turns up
ground. You will thereby prevent a
large loss of what water you have put
into your soil, loss caused by immedi-
ate evaporation. Cultivation such as l
have suggested will to a certain extent
stop evaporation, will give you better
quality of hay and also put your
ground in better shape to absorb water
when you next irrigate, or from rains
that fall. Cultivation means. that you
will use less water, have less work to
do and get better quality of crops, and
last but not least, ne weeds. ~foxtail,
etc. There Is no necessity for your
alfalfa fields running out as they do.
and | feel sure II you will do your part
that your alfalfa fields will do theirs,
and will continue to eiye big crops
after we are all dead.
Don't any of you believe what some
people say about alfalfa running out,
il won't If you recoTlect that by first
getting a good stand and then cultivat-
ing and fertilizing 1t that we ought
rather to improve it, instead of its de-
t~eriorating. Alfalfa will last 100 years
II attended to. Kindly recollect that l
am speaking from an experience of
over twenty years (not of experience
IN Wyoming or of the 100-year PROPOSE
t;pr \ h,,t that urhtrh -tua, m oJtootAS
man the right to express an opinion
YER those who have not made 80 called
dry farming a special study. Wyoming
has advantages and some disadvant-
ages and so has every other state in
the union. Let us study our conditions,
make up our mind that We are going
to succeed and half the battle Is o
The farmer, let him De a wet or dry
one. is a necessity to the stockman.
The stockman of Wyoming will find
that it pays to feed, he who feeds his
cattle will be able to sell one month
to six weeks earlier and thereby get
b~etteGTrices than those who never feed.
The sheepmen will get more and
stronger lambs and a better quality OF
wool. l am just repeating history, a
part OF the history Of eastern Oregon
and eastern Washington in early days,
twenty-five to thirty years ago. No
stockman aver thought Of feeding. To-
day they are all prepared to feed and
the wet and dry farmers are as a rule
the lei who raise the feed, principally
the so called dry farmer. / have said
that the state of Wyoming a keep
more stock than 1t has done II 1t will
do that which l believe 1t eventually
must. and will do. namely, supplement
winter range with feed. Other states
west of us are doing this and 1t pays
them, and why not us? There is moth
ing to prevent our raising winter wheat
and rye, alfalfa, bronze grass, spring
wheat and barley, oats, millet, etc.
Root crops of all kinds. | claim and
assert all of the above can and will
be raised in Wyoming by so called dry
farm methods. We must make up our
minds that we a do this, learn to DO
our work thoroughly, learn to study
cause and effect, cut out that any old
way Is good enough. Recollect scien-
tifc farming Is using ones common
sense. Mix brains with muscle and
success is oTs.-Dr. V. T. Cooke.
The eynerimant farm con1ucted nv