4IO AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Ques. Did you ever think of the possibihties of seUing 

 timothy hay in this state and buying alfalfa? 



Ans. I should rather grow something than buy alfalfa. Of 

 course we have got to grow hay in our rotations and it may be 

 that it is going to be advisable for a man in some circumstances 

 to sell timothy hay and buy in concentrates in the form of 

 alfalfa. When we can grow clover as magnificently as we can 

 in Maine, I would not think much about alfalfa. That is a very 

 valuable crop where it can be grown, but our trouble here is our 

 winters. I do not know as we shall ever find out how to prevent 

 alfalfa from being ice bound by our melting snows. It will 

 stand our climate, and it will run along two or three years pretty 

 well and then we get a winter when the snow melts in the spring 

 and then it freezes and we get an ice blanket. I would rather 

 grow clover and fine grasses than pay for the removal of timothy 

 hay from the farm and the transportation of alfalfa. There is 

 a large transportation loss which we do not take into account. 



Ques. Have you had any experience in the protection of 

 alfalfa? Is there any protection that can be furnished arti- 

 ficially ? 



Ans. We have experimented with that only slightly. We car- 

 ried alfalfa in Aroostook county quite a little while because 

 there we have a snow blanket and we usually don't get the icq 

 conditions. The only protection we tried was to keep the last 

 cutting and let it serve as a mulch. It went along nicely for 

 three years and then we got a winter which destroyed every 

 plant. When we were experimenting with alfalfa I found out 

 that when they wanted to plow alfalfa in the irrigated districts 

 in Ohio they flooded it and let the ice form and that killed it 

 and then they could plow it out. Those are the conditions we 

 get in Maine by the act of God instead of the act of man. There 

 is another thing that we want to remember. Of course for the 

 dairyman alfalfa is a great crop, but if we want to put in pota- 

 toes for a cash crop, in a three, four or five years' rotation 

 alfalfa has no place. 



Mr. Adams : We farmers sometimes run an experiment 

 station of our own. I had lots of fun in trying to raise alfalfa 

 for quite a long series of years. I sent west and got the soil 

 and sent and got the commercial inoculation. I am satisfied to 

 stop now and let somebody else try it. 



