STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATIOlSr. 



673 



We nearly always let the cutting lie till the next day, being careful 

 to cock it when tough, so that the leaves will not shatter. We keep 

 making the cocks larger as we do with the oats, but not so fast. We 

 do not spread it out to dry, after having once put it in the cock, until 

 thoroughly cured, and then we put it in the barn. 



It is encouriiging to know that it does not damage as much from 

 rain as other kinds of hay. We expect ours to be from four to six days 

 in curing, and to go into the barn with but little brown or bleached 

 bunches. 



We cut three times a year. It grows about 24 to 30 inches tall and 

 makes a dense mat all over the ground. Last year we hauled 174 large 

 loads into the barn from 31 acres, and our hay-racks are 18 feet long. 



We think it would be wisdom to chop it before feeding, although our 

 cows eat it readily. 



We believe a ton of alfalfa hay is worth 1,800 pounds of bran. We 

 know our cows have done better this year with a ration of ensilage and 

 alfalfa, and just a taste of bran, not over one or two pounds a day, than 

 they formerly did with ensilage and stover or other hay balanced fully 

 with bran and corn-meal enough to make a heavy grain ration. 



President Johnson: I will now announce the names of the gentle- 

 men who are to solicit memberships, and they may go right to work: 

 George Drischel, Samuel Dungan, Wesley Antrim, and W. N. Wilson. 

 The next on the program is J. M. T. Welborn of Bridgeport. 



J. M. T. WELBGEN, BRIDGEPORT. 



J. M. T. Welborn: My experience with alfalfa has not been very 

 satisfactory. In 1902 I soAved two acres of alfalfa and we got a splendid 

 catch, and it did nicely until it gi-ew a few inches high, and then it 

 began to turn yellow, and we went over it with the mowing machine 

 and clipped it off and it commenced to grow again and did the same 

 way. I tried to make everything right for the cultivation of the alfalfa, 

 but the second year Avas just the same as the first. I have not been able 

 to get enough alfalfa to pay to gather it up. I have learned this, that 

 I can not raise alfalfa and chickens together. The chickens love it 

 dearly, and they go for it if there is any chance at all. I think per- 

 haps if we had inoculated our land it would have made a crop suffi- 

 ciently large to have been harvested, but as it is we have not been able 

 to get any hay. 



When you are buying this seed you want to be very careful about 

 what you are getting. You are very likely to get red sorrel, and I think 

 that is one of the greatest pests I have ever seen. The only way you 

 can get rid of it is to dig it up. and then I think you are following the 

 safest plan when you burn it. I think it is one of the greatest pests I 

 have ever seen in the way of a weed pest. 



I think alfalfa would be profitable and the stock would eat it readily 



43-Agri. 



