548 * ANNUAL UKl'OUT UF THE Off. Doe. 



do to turn down a good aUaUa sod wlieu three years old. For this 

 reason then 1 don"l like to leave it stand longer tlian tliat. I have 

 had the experience of turning down an older sod and it is almost 

 an impossibility, and so on this account 1 do not like to leave it 

 stand longer than thiee years. Then again 1 like to think of it and 

 compare alfalfa witli red clover in rotation, because I believe the 

 time is fast coming when alfalfa will, to a great degree, take the 

 place of red clover. However, 1 am surprised even at the present 

 time to notice the slowness with which the farmers of I'ennsylvania 

 are taking hold of such a valuable i)lant as alfalfa, but 1 believe 

 the time is coming, and it is coming rapidly, Avhen it will take the 

 place of red clover, because w'hen we compare the value of both 

 plants, both crops, first of all with the humus, the vegetable matter 

 that each crop gives to the soil. This.last Fall 1 had the opportunity 

 of comparing very favorably a three years' stand of alfalfa with 

 that of red clover. I w^ent over the one field and after having plowed 

 the alfalfa sod I went wdth the men to the red clover sod and I 

 wish I just could give you the difference in the vegetable matter that 

 is turned into the soil from the alfalfa sod as compared with the 

 red clover sod. And on this account, the great difi'erence, the im- 

 mense amount of vegetable matter we have from the alfalfa com- 

 pared with red clover is very striking. 



Then again I like to have the rotation short in alfalfa because of 

 the value that I get from turning a sod down each Fall. My method 

 is this: In the Fall of each year I sow about twenty acres and turn 

 that many acres down each Fall, leaving it stand three years. Now 

 then when I turn down a sod in the Fall, for instance twenty acres, 

 1 am turning down part at least of these twenty acres wdth the fourth 

 cutting. I only use about half of these tW' enty acres to soil my cattle 

 up to the first of September, and in that w^ay I have soiled my cattle 

 up with the exception of two weeks — I am soiling sixty head — and 

 these two weeks I might have supplied the alfalfa as well. And now 

 I make only three cuttings for hay and the fourth cutting, one-half 

 of it I use in feeding from about the 15th of September until the 1st 

 of November, and if you are not going to turn down the sod you 

 don't have that corn feed from the middle of September on to the 

 1st of November; because you dare not cut alfalfa in my country 

 after the 15th of September with safety. 



There is an important point in cutting alfalfa. We should not cut 

 it, if we wish to save the crop for another year, too close to winter. 

 And so I have this advantage w hen I turn down the sod I can soil 

 my cattle up to the 1st of November, which otherwise I could not. 

 And then I have the advantage of turning dow^n on these twenty 

 acres a great amount of humus or vegetable matter. I took from 

 twenty acres this summer an average of six tons to the acre, in three 

 cuttings. And after taking off three cuttings of six tons to the 

 acre, I was able to turn down a sod of fifteen to eighteen inches at 

 least, may be twenty inches; and that amount of vegetable matter 

 with the root system that the alfalfa gives, I tell you there is some- 

 thing going to be doing wdien you turn down a substance like that. 

 So that I thoroughly believe in short rotation on this account, be- 

 cause it adds to our soil more organic matter, more vegetable mat- 

 ter, gives more humus, and that is what we want in our Eastern 

 soil. 



