550 ANNUAL REFORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Alfalfa in Pennsjlvania and what it will do is what is interesting 

 to us. It is only a few years since it was introduced, and behold 

 the multitude today that stand criterions to its culture. There 

 seems to be an unwarranted alarm that our soils are not adapted 

 to it; that we need inoculation; that our July and August suns de- 

 stroy it; that it is not worth the effort it takes to get it. We will 

 take exceptions to any man who says it is a failure for us and prove 

 to him conclusively that it is one of the necessary adjuncts to suc- 

 cessful agriculture and dairy husbandry. 



Allow me the privilege of another assertion, if you please, sir. 

 That we, the people of Pennsylvania, can produce anything that will 

 grow in a Temperate Zone as good as can be grown in the world 

 if the right nmii is behind the gun. We don't turn our backs to 

 Kansas for bushel corn, nor the JJakotas for bushel wheat. Neither 

 to any other place for any product of the soil in quantity or quality. 

 More than that, we have within easy success four of the best markets 

 of the world. 



The question has been asked many a time to my kuowldge, "What 

 piece of ground shall I select to grow Alfalfa?" Select ground of an 

 upland nature with good natural drainage, sandy sub-soil that is 

 not water-logged, and various other instruction that the average 

 man would forget one-half of before home was reached. 



The following question: "How shall I prepare my ground for 

 the seed?" They would be instructed to plow, harrow, disk, roll, 

 etc., not called for in any sense whatever to the average intelligent 

 farmer. Then it would be followed with the third question: "How 

 shall I fertilize?" Lime abundantly. Fertilize with complete fer- 

 tilized lime the second year, etc. until the instruction the applicant 

 had received would seem of such magnitude that he would abandon 

 the project of alfalfa culture forever. 



If you c(mtemplate alfalfa culture in the short way, permit me 

 to explain how 1 have seen successful results. Select from your 

 soils any piece of land that you know will grow common red clover, 

 and it is a fact that where one will grow so Avill the other. 



In your selection you can take any piece of land you think is not 

 giving the projjer return from prior crops, plow and cultivate thor- 

 oughly by July 15th. It is very necessary that this should be thor- 

 oughly limed with fresh slacked lime at this time, following with 

 thorough cultivation until August lOtli. If you will treat your 

 land liberally to cultivation before seeding, it is a plant. that re- 

 sponds very quickly and you will reap handsome returns from the 

 expenditure you have made. 



With your ])ermission I would like to say something in reference 

 to cultivation of any crop at this point. Is it not a fact that we 

 people, meaning farmers, attempt to do too much with too little. 

 It is very vivid in my mind that our soils are like the college man's 

 brain. You take the average college man, load his brain to the utter- 

 most. Grant his diploma and turn him into the Avorld to earn a 

 livelihood at the mercantile business. What will become of all the 

 scientific training that brain has had? To a great extent it will 

 diminish and fade away, profiting the Avorld nothing. Where, on 

 the other hand, if that scientific training is cultivated it will ex- 

 pand to the credit of the individual, showing the world the necessity 



