DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 4II 



Dr. Woods : I would like to have every farmer keep playing 

 with alfalfa and then sometime somebody may discover here 

 in Maine a method by which we can handle alfalfa profitably, 

 and when we can it will undoubtedly be valuable. But the 

 farmer should not attempt to grow one, two or three acres ; only 

 the agriculturist can do that, who earns his money in the city 

 and spends it on the farm. 



Ques. In your experience with alfalfa, have you been able 

 to make any headway without using bacteria? 



Ans. You can grow it, but you cannot grow it to advantage. 



Ques. Can you continue it for any length of time? Isn't it 

 more apt to die after two or three years? 



Ans. We have not had much experience in that line as we 

 can get almost no seed but will have some of the bacteria, or 

 soil which has not been inoculated. For instance, down in 

 Princeton we did not do any inoculation but the root nodules 

 began to develop. 



Ques. You have not continued to grow it in that place ? 



Ans. No; there are so many other things that are so much 

 more important for us to do that we have not done anything 

 with alfalfa for ten years. 



Mr. Holston : One crop has not been mentioned and that is 

 sweet clover. Has anybody had any experience with that ? We 

 are reading a good deal in the dairy papers about sweet clover. 



Dr. Woods : If sweet clover is allowed to get a foothold in 

 good shape it might be one of the fibre crops. It has to be cut 

 pretty young for feed. If you let sweet clover grow up, as I 

 have seen it, so that it is nearly as tall as I am, it would make 

 pretty good paper. 



Ques. I would like to ask Mr. Holston if he has raisec 

 sweet clover? 



Mr. Holston : I have raised it for a fibre crop but I have 

 never fed it. In raising other fibre crops I had trouble in get- 

 ting rid of it. I have sold some to dairy farmers and they 

 like it very much when cut early. You have to cut it by the 

 middle of June. You may get another crop in six or eight 

 weeks and you may be able to get a third crop. 



Ques. Did you use any inoculation for your sweet clover? 



Ans. Not at all; it does not need it. The best stand I ever 

 had was on an ash heap where ashes had been dumped. 



