14 



seventeen months old. For the details of the results of the composition 

 of Alfalfa roots from which these figures have been quoted, the reader 

 is referred to pages 20 and 21 of the Annual Report of our College for 

 1908. 



Alfalfa Grown in Combination with Grasses and Clovers. 



Five distinct tests have been made at the College in comparing 

 twenty-one different mixtures of grasses and clovers for hay production. 

 One test was started in 1897, one in 1898, two in 1900, and one in 1906. 

 Each of these tests have been completed with the exception of the last one 

 mentioned, which will be finished in 1908. Crops of green fodder and of 

 hay were obtained from the four tests in each of two years. Alfalfa was 

 included in seven of the mixtures. Of the twenty-one different combina- 

 tions the six highest yielders of hay contained Alfalfa — the greatest yield 

 being produced by the mixture of Alfalfa and tall oat grass. The details 

 of the entire experiment will not be presented until after the results of 

 1908 have been secured. The following table, however, gives the average 

 annual yield in tons of green fodder and of hay per acre of four of the 

 mixtures in the four tests already completed : — 



Although Alfalfa and tall oat grass gave an average annual yield of 

 1.2 tons of hay per acre more than common red clover and timothy, it is 

 doubtful if even this mixture will equal Alfalfa alone for hay production. 



Permanent pastures have never occupied as prominent a place in the 

 agriculture of Ontario as they have in the agriculture of Great Britain. 

 The scarcity of labor and the great development of our live stock industry 

 are factors which are causing some of our most thoughtful farmers to 

 consider the advisability of securing a hrst-class permanent pasture instead 

 of relying so much on timothy for pasture purposes. Fields which are 

 located long distances from the farm buildings or which are difficult to 

 work on account of the presence of steep hill-sides, crooked rivulets, low 

 spots, etc., might be converted into permanent pastures and thus prove 

 of great economic value. This arrangement would not interfere 

 materially with the regular crop rotation of the farm. From more than 

 twenty years' work in testing different varieties of grasses and clovers, 

 both singly and in combination, I would suggest the following mixture 

 for permanent pasture on an average soil in Ontario : Alfalfa, 5 lbs. ; 



