No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 551 



of cultivation. It is just as necessary for us to cultivate our soils 

 to the uttermost, that the fibrous roots of the plant-life may per- 

 meate every part of such that we may derive the whole benefit con- 

 tained therein, and reap handsome returns therefrom besides the 

 satisfaction of mind that the work was well done. 



Keturning to my subject: Be careful in the selection of your 

 seed. Make the att(Mupt to sow on August 15, or as soon after as 

 possible, at the rate of eight pounds alfalfa, eight pounds common 

 red clover to the acre, sown with broadcaster and harrowed in with 

 a sixty tooth harrow. Sow fourteen quarts of timothy seed the 

 opposite direction. Treat likewise with the harrow. The following 

 year you will have red clover and alfalfa first crop ; then two cuttings 

 of alfalfa. The next year first crop you will have a fine stand of 

 timothy. You noAV have your ground inoculated ready for alfalfa 

 alone. If your red clover fails at the sowing, so will the alfalfa. 

 The bacteria that cultures red clover cultures alfalfa. Too 

 much cannot be said of the value of alfalfa. They are to be 

 divided into several classes. The feeding value of alfalfa is about 

 on the same basis as winter wheat bran, containing twenty-seven 

 per cent. Protein. This value needs no explanation. The second 

 value is nitrogen-gathering properties leaving the soil in a better 

 condition each succeeding crop, depositing on its roots through its 

 leaf surface the most expensive fertilizer known to agriculture. 

 The tliird value is the amount of nitrogen gathered in proportion to 

 am i>f its sister clovers. The leaf surface of a thrifty stalk of alfalfa 

 is aboi>t double that of common red clover. The fourth value is the 

 excrement from alfalfa fed stock contains about double the amount 

 ttt nitrogen, potasli, phosphoric acid as that from other fodder or 

 hay. 



Its fifth value is that once a stand is procured you need have no 

 concern for at least four years. Its life is about double the time 

 of average red clover as its life is two years; about four times the 

 life of Alsike. Thus it is a great labor saver in this respect. Its 

 sixth value: You rarely see noxious weeds in a field of alfalfa. 

 The constant cutting it will stand destroys other j)lant life. This 

 point makes it very valuable. I have in mind a field ten years ago 

 with an excellent stand. Garlic sown to alfalfa and resown in four 

 years. 



The garlic at this time is gone and everything else of noxious weed 

 kind. 



It is not worth my while to tell anything more of its feeding 

 value ; but, 1 will state one thing accomplished in the summer season 

 of 1909. The iiarty had a dairy of eight cows. The drought began 

 June 15 and lasted until the alfalfa season was done. By good feed- 

 ing of green alfalfa each day from June 15 to October 15 the pro- 

 duct of that dairy Avas increased |1,980.00 over any other year they 

 were ever in business corresponding with the same period of the 

 corresponding year. With your ])ermission I will state another feat 

 accomplished with green alfalfa. In the Spring of 1910 I saw 

 chickens fed on Otto Weiss Chick Feed, sour milk, cut short green 

 alfalfa make two and one-half weight in sixty-three days, with 

 chickens worth forty cents per pound. 



These are facts and not idle talk, for I know whereof I speak. 

 And if the gentleman who tries alfalfa and fails the first time will 



