It is true that alfalfa is being cut green and dried by artificial heat, but this is only being done in preparation for grinding.  No one thinks of doing it for the making of hay for storage or for feeding.  This method is undertaken, not because the alfalfa hay does not dry quickly enough in the field, but because after drying in the field so many leaves are lost in hauling to the mill.  We have no trouble sun-drying alfalfa for ordinary hay purposes; in fact, we have to be very careful that it does not get too dry.

Cheap Preparation of Land for Alfalfa.

I am about to put a piece of land into alfalfa, and want to use the most economical system of preparing the land for irrigation.  My neighbors tell me that it will be necessary for me to have the land leveled; at a cost of $6 to $10 per acre.  Now I am informed that in Alberta, and some places in California, they do not go to the expense of leveling land, but use a system of preparing land for irrigation at a cost of about 60 cents per acre.

Nothing except a highly educated gale of wind, with discriminating cutting and filling ability of a very high order, could do it for that price.  The cheapest way to prepare land for irrigation is the contour check method, which is largely used, or the flooding in strips between levees at right angles to the supply ditch; but neither of these could be put in properly for that money, even if the land was naturally in such shape that a minimum amount of soil-shifting is necessary.

Where Alfalfa is Grown.

In what counties is alfalfa most successfully grown?  By this I mean where three crops of hay may be had each growing season.  Also, will corn grow good paying crops in same sections?

Alfalfa is grown all through the valleys and foothills of interior California; also to a certain extent in coast valleys.  On suitable lands, three crops can sometimes be secured without irrigation, while twice or three times as many cuttings are secured on irrigated lands where the frost-free season is particularly long.  According to the last census, we are growing alfalfa on 19,104 farms with a total acreage of 484,098.  The total value of the product is over $13,000,000.  Corn is widely grown, but is small as compared with alfalfa.  It is grown in alfalfa districts and in coast valleys where there is not much done with alfalfa.

Sowing Alfalfa.

What is the proper time to sow alfalfa?  Some advocate fall and others spring sowing.  What seasons are given for each sowing?

We shall undoubtedly soon get to sowing alfalfa all the year round except in the short season of sharp frosts and cold wet ground in November, December and January.  If you can get a good start in September and October, all right; if not, wait until February and March, according to the season.  Where it is never very cold or wet, sow whenever moisture is right.  There never can be any rule about it, for localities will differ.