1906.] DISCUSSION. 235 



a height of six inches. It is said if you try to mow it before 

 it gets up to a certain height that it will slip right over the 

 machine. Have you ever had any experience w^ith that ? 



Alfalfa has a tendency to grow too much top unless it is 

 cut. It needs to be cut at the right time or the stalks become 

 woody. When it is cut at the right time you cannot get any 

 better hay. 



As for feeding purposes it is most excellent, and it is highly 

 relished by most all kinds of stock, pigs as well as cattle. They 

 have grown it to some extent in the Housatonic Valley, w^here 

 I am still interested. Just what kind of land will do the best 

 for it I am not quite sure, but I apprehend it needs a good 

 quality of land. I think it would be almost useless to attempt 

 to start it on some of the old cold river plains over there. I 

 would not want to do that. I think we must prepare perhaps 

 the best land to be inoculated with the proper bacteria, and 

 then the prospect for getting a crop is pretty good. 



I am intensely interested in this subject, and would like to 

 hear from any others who have tried it, and especially with 

 reference to the kind of ground it seems to do the best on. 



Mr. Phelps. The gentleman has touched on a very im- 

 portant point, and that is the necessity of taking some good 

 soil. I think that is where a great many of the failures with 

 alfalfa have come about. Farmers have thought that alfalfa, 

 being a legume, would gather its nitrogen from the air and 

 would 'thrive even if put in rather poor soil. I think that is 

 a great mistake. Alfalfa, especially the first year, gets very 

 little nitrogen from the air, and the soil really wants to be a 

 rich soil. After it gets well established we have got a different 

 condition to deal with, but you want a rich soil the first year. 



Mr. Strawhecker. I have heard it stated that the bacteria 

 needed for red clover is the same as that for alfalfa. I am not 

 sure whether they are or not. I would like to ask Dr. Jenkins 

 if he has any information about that. 



