Clovers and Drought.

I have sandy loam with some alkali.  In wet years it is regarded as too damp in some places.  Can you give me any information on the following points?  I have practically no water for irrigation and I feel sure that alfalfa would not grow without it.  Do you think that clover would make one or more cuttings without water?

Red and white clover are less tolerant of drought than alfalfa, which, being a deep-rooting plant, is especially commended in dry-farming undertakings.  Red clover will grow better on low wet lands than will alfalfa, but the land must not dry out or the red clover will die during the dry season.  None of the plants will stand much alkali.

Clover for Wet Lands.

What kind of alfalfa will do best on sub-irrigated land which is very wet?  I have sown it in alfalfa and it grows finely for two or three years, but then the roots rot and die.

It is impossible to make any kind of alfalfa grow well on very wet land, that is, where the water comes too near the surface.  Alfalfa has a deep-running tap root which is very subject to standing water.  You can get very good results from the Eastern red clover on such land, because the red clover has a fibrous root which is content to live in a shallow layer of soil above water.  But red clover will not stand drought as well as alfalfa, because it is shallower rooting.  It is necessary, therefore, that water should be permanently near the surface or surface irrigation be frequently applied, in order to secure satisfactory growth of red clover in the drier sections of California.  It is also necessary that neither land nor water carry alkali.

Frosted Grain for Hay.

The freeze struck us pretty severely.  I had 125 acres of summer-fallowed wheat which I had estimated to make 20 sacks to the acre of grain.  It was breast high in places already, and was just heading out.  The frost pinched the stalks of this grain in several places and the heads are now turning white.  It is ruined for grain.  There is lots of fodder in it, and it should be made into hay.  If so, should it not be cut and cured at once?  What is the relative worth of such hay as compared with more matured hay?  Would the fact that it is frozen make it injurious to feed?

If the whole plant seems to be getting white, the sooner it is cut the better.  If the head is affected and the leaf growth continued, cutting might be deferred for the purpose of getting more of it.  Hay made from such material will not be in any way dangerous, although it would be inferior as containing less nutritive and more non-nutritive matter.  Such hay would seem to be most serviceable as roughage for cows or steers in connection with alfalfa hay or some other feed which would supply this deficiency.

Forage Plants in the Foothills.

We have 3,000 acres of foothill land and hope to be able to irrigate some land this spring and wish to know the best forage crops, for sheep and hogs, especially.  Kafir corn, stock peas, rape, sugar-beets and artichokes are the varieties about which we desire information.