1906.] DISCUSSION. 231 



are we going to do with the nitrogen question ? What are we 

 going to do for this food element for our plants ? 



We find the same condition of affairs when we study the 

 question from the standpoint of feeds for our animals. Ten 

 years ago we could buy plenty of cotton seed meal for from 

 twenty to twenty-two dollars per ton. Xow we are lucky if 

 we can buy a carload for twenty-eight or twenty-nine dollars 

 per ton, and all nitrogenous feeds have pushed upwards in the 

 same way. We are face to face with a very serious problem, 

 in fact, with a double problem. How can we buy nitrogen for 

 feeding our plants and how can we obtain protein for feeding 

 our animals? It seems to me that along the line of growing 

 legumes on our farms, and the conservation of soil nitrogen by 

 using certain crops as a means of drawing nitrogen from the 

 air lies our best hope of success. I believe, for that very reason, 

 that, in a careful, conservative way, every dairyman should ex- 

 periment with alfalfa, and make it a success, if possible. I 

 have been experimenting with it more or less for the past six 

 or seven years, but more particularly in the last two years. 

 When I went onto the farm where I am now located I found 

 a very nice field of alfalfa. My predecessor was interested in 

 the question, and he had foreseen the need of alfalfa. How 

 good the crops were before I took charge of the farm I do not 

 know, but I do know this, that we cut three very good crops 

 in the year 1903, and used it for soiling purposes. You will 

 remember what a severe winter we had in 1903 and 1904. 

 During the summer of 1904 we cut three light crops. The 

 clover and other grasses came in, and crowded out the alfalfa, 

 but we used it for soiling purposes, getting, on the whole, a 

 fairly good yield. In the spring of 1905 we started a new field, 

 using about thirty pounds of seed to the acre. I got some 

 pure culture from Washington and attempted to follow their 

 directions for starting it. I should like to relate this because 

 I can see from my experience some difficulties ahead for the 

 average farmer in handling the pure cultures. The directions 



