232 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



with regard to alfalfa : " Has any one in Connecticut had 

 experience with alfalfa, and with what result ? " 



Prof. Brewer. I would like to say a word about that. I 

 have made a good many inquiries and I cannot find that it 

 has ever been grown successfully in any cold country. Many 

 years ago, when I was on the geological survey, I sent com- 

 munications to Australia, Syria, the Mediterranean, Egypt, 

 and northern Africa, inquiring in regard to the best forage 

 plant in hot climates, and the answer came back from many 

 places, "lucerne," or alfalfa, which is the Spanish name for 

 lucerne. I cannot find that it has been grown successfully in 

 any country that has cold winters. It is not as good as 

 clover. Now and then you will find a j)lace where it will 

 last a few years, but it goes out. 



Mr. Augur. I tried a very little at one time, but it was 

 not a success. 



Prof. Brewer. I ought to say that alfalfa^ under the name 

 of lucerne, has been tried over and over in New England, for 

 more than 150 years. You may find any number of accounts 

 of its being introduced from the old world, particularly from 

 Germany. Here in New England, in Colonial times, before the 

 days of agricultural papers and agricultural societies, by 

 means of which men come together and compare notes with 

 each other, one would try it here, another would try it there, 

 but they all failed, for the reason that it is a plant that 

 belongs to a warmer climate, or, at least, a climate with 

 warmer winters than ours. 



In the third Essay on Husbandry, by Jared Eliot, 1749, p. 

 69, he tells about trying lucerne and sainfoin as forage 

 plants on his farm (at Killingworth, near Clinton). Ho says 

 " they will flourish a while, but others have found as well as 

 I that it will not bear the Rigours of our Climate." He says 

 that he has procured seed from England, and from Philadel- 

 phia. 



Question. Is not potash most economically supplied to 

 the soil by using a high grade of muriate of potash ? Are not 



