COLORADO
Jacob Downing, Arapahoe county.—I introduced alfalfa into Colorado in 1862, and have between 500 and 700 acres. It is on upland, clay, sandy and loam soil, with some adobe subsoil, but mostly sandy loam; it is generally dry to sand rock, and then it is necessary to drill 50 to 100 feet to get water. The plant will not thrive where there is hardpan, but will grow in any soil that is dry. Unlike most other forage plants it derives considerable nourishment from the air and water, though too much moisture will kill it. After deep plowing and thorough pulverizing of the soil, the land should be scraped thoroughly smooth, as this cannot be done after sowing, and is needed to make the mower work smoothly. I sow about 25 pounds to the acre, drilling in about two inches deep, 121⁄2 pounds one way, and the other 121⁄2 pounds across it, thus making an even stand. Prefer to sow in the spring, early. After the plant is eight inches high, it may be cut and used for feed, but is not very good. After this there will be no weeds. It matures in three years, and after that is good for seed. I have seen, near the city of Mexico, fields of alfalfa 300 years old that had been constantly cropped and never reseeded. It will last 1000 years, and possibly forever. Irrigate from streams, as is required; when there is a great deal of heat and wind, probably three times. The water must not run too long, or the plant will be killed, and the land should be kept as dry as possible during the winter, particularly in cold climates, as on wet soil alfalfa winterkills. Well water is better than the stream, provided it is pumped into a reservoir and allowed to get warm. Water is brought from the streams by ditches. Less water can be used the first year than after the plant is matured. I am five miles west of Denver, and 500 feet above the city, in warm valleys. With plenty of water, I can obtain three cuttings a year. Have raised as much as 31⁄2 tons to the acre at one cutting, and my highest yield of seed per acre has been nine bushels. Hay is cut when the plant is in bloom, cured until it is dry to the touch of the hand. Stacking by hand makes the best hay, as machinery is likely to pack it in bunches, causing it to heat and become dusty. Hay in the stack costs about $1.50 per ton. Baling costs $2 per ton; 100-pound bales are well esteemed, but it is probable that large bales keep better than small, if properly cured. The seed pod assumes the form of a cornucopia, and, when the seed is ripe, it is of a rich brown or mahogany color. The first crop is preferable for seed, and should be cut and stacked as the hay is. It can be left and threshed when most convenient, but the longer it remains in the stack the more easily its threshes. The ordinary threshing machine does for the alfalfa, but the seed must be fanned to be marketable. Six bushels is a common yield, and the cost of threshing and cleaning is probably 25 cents per bushel. The price of hay has ranged from $5 to $15 per ton, and of seed, from 8 to 20 cents per pound. The straw has almost no value, as it is cut up very fine, and can be used only where it is threshed; if fed there, it is very fattening. For feeding horses for slow work, the hay is better than clover or timothy. For fattening purposes, it is the best in the world, for, while the animal lays on fat, it is never feverish, but always healthy. For pasturing cattle and swine, alfalfa is superior to anything else, and, after it is mown, it makes very excellent feed for horses and sheep. If the alfalfa is wet, ruminants pastured on it bloat and die very quickly. It is not properly a pasture plant, and such animals should be kept away from it, but the hay, properly cured, is superior to any other food raised for fattening purposes. There is no difficulty in ridding land of the plant, as a good team and sharp plow will cut it out without any trouble. I have plowed fields of alfalfa under and put in oats, obtaining three or four times the usual yield, and have known of 50 bushels of wheat to the acre on broken alfalfa land.
L. W. Markham, Prowers county.—I have had four years’ experience with alfalfa. Have under my charge 500 acres. It is on both second bottom and upland; part has clay subsoil, other dark loam, and all has more or less sand. Water is reached at from 10 to 40 feet, and on land not irrigated the soil is dry all the way down to the water veins. The preferred time for sowing is either April 1 or August 1. Have as good success right on the sod as on old land. If to raise seed only, 10 pounds is sufficient to the acre; for hay, 20 pounds is not too much. Seed not more than two inches deep. About June 15 cut weeds and tops of young alfalfa, and then irrigate well, and you get one-half to one ton of hay in September. It is best to not try for seed the first year, but give all the strength to the roots. It does not winterkill here. We irrigate from the Arkansas river, and the number of irrigations depends on the soil. The first year requires twice as much water as later ones. Usually three applications are needed: in early spring, mid-summer, and late fall. I have 160 acres not irrigated for three years. We have three cuttings, yielding 11⁄2 to 2 tons per acre each. Cut for hay just when coming into full bloom, and stack in the field—never in barn—in long ricks, 12 feet wide by 80 to 120 feet long. It will not heat in the stack. Let all pods become dark brown or black before cutting for seed. The second crop is preferable, unless there is a large acreage, when I take one-half the first crop and one-half the second, in order to help the farmer out with work. Have men follow the machine closely, and cock up, to remain four or five days before stacking. Never cut for seed with a mowing machine, as you will lose one-third of the crop in trying to gather it. The cost of alfalfa in the stack is not over $2 at the outside. To bale—preferably in 80-pound bales—costs $1.50 per ton. An ordinary yield of seed is five bushels per acre. The cost for threshing is 60 cents per bushel. There is a special alfalfa huller, as even the ordinary clover huller is not a success. For a number of years the average price paid the farmer for alfalfa seed has been $4.50 per bushel, and hay in the stack has sold for $3.50 to $5. For feeding farm animals, alfalfa hay is far more valuable than timothy or clover. Horses will work and do well the year round on the first cutting of alfalfa, and no grain whatever. The pasturage for hogs and cattle is far better than clover, and is profitable and satisfactory for horses and sheep. I have 250 hogs now, and raise them to weigh 200 pounds on green alfalfa alone; turn the sows in the lot in early spring; they raise their young, and I never bother them for eight months at a time, as they have plenty of alfalfa and water. Put cattle on the pasture in early spring and let them run, and few, if any, will bloat; but when they are not used to it, they eat too fast, or too much, and bloat. The hay is not so good after it is threshed as that cut earlier for hay alone, but the straw sells readily at $1.50 in the stack. The stand gets better every year for hay, and I know of fields in old Mexico 60 years old that have never been reseeded. There is no difficulty in ridding land of the plant if it is plowed under eight inches deep while green. It makes far better green manure than does red clover. On the same quarter section, wheat grown on old wheat land produced 20 bushels per acre, and that on broken alfalfa land 50 bushels per acre.