El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-11-15
r-IITH each seasons close as the

] 4
M accounts Of the Mimbres val
lev farmer are cast up, 1t be-
comes more and more apparent that al
falfa and beans lead in produetlVeness
and as money makers all other farm
crops in this section. While phenomenon
Yields in garden truck indicate a great
future for various vegetables in the
Alimbres valley, and while the ulsSOE- :
cry that casabas. for instance pIO4u,S
a quality equal to the best Ihal al
fOrnia puts on the market, sun the
farmer who desires to cultivate larg
acreage must look to the two stdplo
crops of the valley for his ready money
He may experiment as much as ne
Dleases with other things, but ne relles
mainly upOn alfalfa and beans to meet
his bills
The variety Of alfalfa grown in the
AIimbres valley is known as the CoIu-
mon alfalfa" and so far no variety mas
been discovered that excels II. EXperl-
ments made with Turkestan aIIalId
show that It produces only ABOUT one
third or one half what the cOlIlli.Sn a. ~
falfa does, and experiments with the
Arabian variety have demonstrated tnat
it also is unsuited to conQllons mere
The Best Time to Plant.
The time to plant alfalfa in the MINI
bres valley can be varied to suit the
convenience Of the farmer. but the pest
time has been found to be in the mon ms
Of March, April and May altnOush a u
been known to do well. Alfalfa IN or
der TO Weld five full crops in the Min
bres valley must be pushed along- ALs
hay must be gotten out OF tne leu -, =
the field. Two Waterings to the cuttlnS
seems best, unless, of course, rams rem
der irrigation unnecessary
Thorough cultivation mas oeen 1Ounu
to Increase the yield 250 pounds per
acre per cutting. The alralIa sh0Nel
cultivator has been found better than
the tooth cuitivatOr, since the tooCL
cultivatOr scars up the plant ana OIteA
tears I'D large chunks OF dirt containing
roots. The shovel cultlvator cohslsts VI
small. rounded shOvels set on Deans
which give from one side TO the oIueI'
so that the alfalfa. roofs are not m
tured and still the ground IS given d
thorough cultivation
Alfalfa and FrijOles.
The crop that is found on most MlI IlL
bres valley farms in conjunction WIN
alfalfa is friioles beans. These Two
crops go well together. The bean crop
takes but 90 days. It requires little
water (about is inches this year, Il Il = =
a safe crop. never known TO ran. " Is
a staDle and rOtates well with altaALa-
While the gross return from a pedn
crop is not so large as the gross return
from the same acreage or alIalLe, So -
the expense Of the acreage IN oeans IS
not nearly so large With field OF al
falfa and a field Of beans the II Il5
can so adjust his work tnaI the Two
The profits upon these two crops In
an unfavora Bile year are indicated Dy
the data given below upon ~ acres IN
alfalfa upon the farm OF John 6unq'
two and a half miles southeast or DEM
ing. and &c acres Of beans upon the
same farm.
is one and TWO years old. Owing to the
fact that the heavy rains during July
interfered with the system Of work on
the place this 20 acre field went Win
out water after cutting is days. This
cI1f the final crop a little short, so that
instead of getting five full cuttings,
only four and One-half cuttings were
secured.
The gross weld from this 20 acre
field this season was 1880 pounds per
acre, or a total for the field OF 10
tons. The average price at which
this alfalfa was marketed was
s14 so So that the gross return
from 90 acres amounts to SlSl2.5O
On the other side Of the ledger
we find the following items. of expense;
Water $500, cutting, Daltngs pll1ng,
cuItivating, hauling and incidental eN-
penses for the 90 acres. $500; making
a total expense of $500 Deducting this
expense from S1Sl2.50, we find the net
yield S1292.5O, o IA net yield of S64.62
Twenty-six acres of beans WELDED
goo pounds of beans to the acre. This Is
CONSIDERED a very Sll0AA EAOb Al AAAN
AIimbres valley. a yield of HOO to 1900
being much more usual. The gross yield
was 25.4OO pounds. Beans are now worth
between 1-2 and cents. but Mr.. Humid
has not yet sold his beans, being con-
fident that beans viii go higher. The
war in China will undOub tedly, so Mr.
Humid thinks influence the market for
the better within the next few months
Counting the beans worth cents. the
%, 400 pounds is worth Sll7O. The items
of expense chargeable against this crop
are as follows
Water (1S inches) $1,000. $3.50 90
lrlSator ---...--- ..-.-.-..- 5t-VU
Three civilizations .--...-....- g 90
LhI eshlhs ----''-'' 100000 20 ~ ~
Cutting and piling -.-..--....-. 24-OO
ro+o7 s2eA al
Deducting the total expense from the
gross yield we have net S905.20, or net
yield per acre of S34.S1.
Alfalfa for Hogs.
Mr. Humid in discussing his plans for
next year said that he would feed most
of his alfalfa to hogs in the future
This he intends to do by means Of
10 acre panel fence. The panel fence is
so constructed that 1t can be readily
moved. and mile of it set up IN a day.
When the alfalfa is about half grown,
hogs are turned in on it and kept with
in the 10 acre enclosure for four or five
days. The fence is then moved to take
i'm another 10 acres of the field and the
hogs turned In to feed while the alfalfa
which has just been fed upon for four
or five days Is Watered. This operation