322 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



QUESTION: ''Has not alfalfa been grown successfully for years on 

 river bottom land that is subjected to annual overflow, extending 

 over several days?" 



PROF. MENGES: Not successfully. 



QUESTION: "Do not horsemen prefer hay from timothy cut late?" 



PROF. MENGES: Not if they know their business. 



MR. RAYMOND: A friend here indicates that in his practice he 

 found that the cattle did not eat the dry red-top that you indicated 

 as growing, and usually on low-bottom land. 



PROF. MENGES: I don't advocate using dry red-top. 



MR. SEEDS: There is one thing I would like to ask. If you had 

 a field that you wanted to get into grass for pasture, would you 

 plow it without putting it to rye or wheat or anything else? 



PROF. MENGES: I would, yes. 



MR. HUTCHISON: In a meadow clearing? 



PROF. MENGES: Yes. 



QUESTION: "Is it not a fact that the great majority of the best 

 .timothy meadows in this country, yielding two tons of hay per acre, 

 are gotten by sowing the seed with wheat or rye?" 



PROF. MENGES: Probably that is the case now, but I do not 

 think it is the best way; at any rate, in all the experience that I 

 have had and the observations that I have had, I have found the 

 other way vastly better. 



MR. WYCKOFF: Would you recommend the inoculation of soil 

 to be sown with alfalfa by growing soil from a growing alfalfa field? 



PROF. MENGES: Yes; I would. 



QUESTION: "About how much soil would you recommend to be 

 sown from the already growing alfalfa field?" 



PROF. MENGES: That would depend upon the distance I would 

 have to bring it. 



QUESTION: "What is the least you think would be advisable?" 



PROF. MENGES: Well, I don't know; I would not like to say 

 that a bushel would be enough, but if I were doing it I would do it 

 in this way: I would take, say, a hogshead or barrel of soil and I 

 would soak it in water, and would draw the water off clear and 

 I would soak my seed in the water for the purpose of inoculating 



