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208.8 pounds per ton of the former and 126 pounds per ton for the latter. 

 These investigations show Alfalfa hay to contain about fifty per cent, 

 more digestible protein than hay made from common red clover. It is 

 certainly true that well cured Alfalfa hay is exceedingly nutritious. 



Influence of Alfalfa Roots on the Soil. 



In the years 1900, 1902 and 1903 experiments were conducted to 

 ascertain the comparative value of the sods of Alfalfa and of Timothy 

 After the crops were removed from the plots the land containing the roots 

 of these crops was plowed. On the sods of 1900 winter wheat was sown 

 in the autumn of the same year; on those of 1901, barley was sown in 

 the spring of 1902, and on those of 1902 corn was planted in the spring 

 of 1903. The average yields of the crops produced per acre are shown 

 in the following table : 



In 1902, the test with Alfalfa and with timothy sods was repeated 

 four times. Barley was sown on each of the eight plots in the spring of 

 the year. The detailed results of yields per acre are very interesting, and 

 are as follows : 



In comparing the mechanical condition of the soil on which Alfalfa 

 and different varieties of clovers and of grasses had been grown, it was 

 found that there was a marked difference resulting from the action of the 

 roots of the different crops on the soil. This influence was shown in two 

 ways in particular : first, by the difficulty or the ease in plowing the 

 land, and second, by the stiffness or the mellowness of the upturned sods. 

 In the spring of 1902, twenty-eight plots of sod were plowed. These 

 were made up of four separate tests, each consisting of seven plots. Each 

 test contained the sods of one variety of Alfalfa, and three varieties each 

 of clover and of grass. When the plots of each of the four tests were 



