92 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



does not grow. Would alfalfa or sweet clover be all right? 



A. Alfalfa would, but I haven't had experience with sweet 

 clover. The main thing is to keep out of the orchard, any kind of 

 grass that forms a sod. 



A Member: I would state this, that what little I know of sweet 

 clover, it has a good strong root, and I am afraid it would sponge up 

 loo much after you get it seeded all over, and be different from what 

 alfalfa would be. 



Mr. Marshall: I would like to say just a word about alfalfa. 

 Now while I have never seen it tested out yet, I would hesitate to 

 put alfalfa in an orchard. Alfalfa will take more moisture out of 

 the ground than almost any crop we grow. Alfalfa will keep green 

 and stay growing when the moisture content gets down to from 6 or 

 8 per cent, and clover will die when it gets down to 12 per cent. I 

 believe that alfalfa would take the moisture out of the ground ami 

 leave your soil actually dryer than a stiff blue grass sod would. I 

 do not believe I would recommend p'anting alfalfa in an orchard, 

 because it is a deep rooted plant, and it is something that will keep 

 sapping a soil all the time. 



A Member: If I were asked what to substitute instead of clover 

 in western Nebraska, I would say substitute cultivation. I do not 

 believe in alfalfa, I am the same as Mr. Marshall. After all theso 

 rains we had in December, at the farm, now the ground is found to 

 be saturated six feet deep in wheat fields. But in alfalfa ground, it 

 is only saturated two feet. I do not like alfalfa at all in an orchard. 



A- Member: I think we, as a society, should be very careful 

 about our recommendations. Everything should be well tried and 

 gone over and known to be all right. 



A Member: I would like to ask the gentleman how he would 

 put fertilizer in the sod? 



A. Where it is so dry you can't grow any crops like clover, 

 and so forth, I suppose the only way is to put manure on. 



A Member: This is the second time I have had the pleasure of 

 meeting with parties who were interested in fruit. They say there 

 is no fool like an old fool. As a boy my uncle was interested in 

 fruit, and I became interested in fruit in that way. I never saw an 

 orchard but what I admired it. I saw an orchard near Omaha of 

 about 55 acdes, and I thought that was just what I wanted. I bit 

 off more than I could chew, and for the past four years it has been 

 anything but a pleasure. Well, I would like to speak about something 

 that may be old to all of you but it was new to me. In some of the 

 reading I had understood that in the case of the alfalfa, which was a 

 good plant, to get some of the soil of the sweet clover and spread 

 it under the ground of the alfalfa where it wasn't doing well. In 

 the past year there has been considerable said about sweet clover; 



