428 ANNUAL- REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



The disappointing results of the field experiments, together with 

 the apathy of the farmers, as a whole, toward a new crop requiring 

 so much extra labor and care, rather discouraged further experiments 

 at that time, but the leaven of enthusiasm introduced bj a partial 

 realization of the possibilities of a plant making such enormous yields, 

 possessing such a high feeding value, and indicating the indirect bene- 

 fits to be derived from growing so large a leguminous crop was still 

 working, and phases of the problem was studied in other ways until 

 1897, ten years after the first crop was seeded at the experiment farm. 



In the fall of that year, an acre of laud, naturally well drained 

 and which was reasonably free from weeds, was selected for the pur- 

 pose of seeding it in the spring with alfalfa. It was deeply plowed, 

 and subsoiled in the fall, and seeded with rye as a cover crop. In 

 the spring, the rye was plowed down, the land thoroughly prepared, 

 limed at the rate of a ton per acre, liberally fertilized with a mix- 

 ture of ground bone, acid phosphate, muriate of potash and nitrate 

 of soda, and sown with varying quantities of seed on the 14th of May. 

 The germination and early growth was good ; the weeds were clipped 

 early, and by the middle of summer a fine stand was obtained, and in 

 that same season two cuts were made, yielding a total of 8 tons of 

 green forage. In 1899, 20.2 tons were obtained, and in 1900, 26.6 tons, 

 equivalent to 6^ tons of hay. 



This acre continued to yield well for five years or more, and at 

 the end of the fifth year there had been harvested 96.61 tons of green 

 forage, equivalent to 24.15 tons of dried hay, or an average yield per 

 acre of 19.32 tons of forage, or 4.83 tons of hay, and at a cost of |26.57 

 per acre, an average of $5.50 per ton of hay. The yield in itself was 

 quite remarkable, for at the prevailing prices for hay, the average 

 selling value for the five years was |72.50 per acre, and this without 

 re-plowing or reseeding, or any other labor than manuring and har- 

 vesting. 



In addition to its producing a large yield, it was found to possess 

 other advantages not possed by all other forage plants — it was 

 palatable for all kinds of farm stock; it was as rich in protein as 

 wheat bran, thus making it a feed capable of balancing the deficiencies 

 of corn in this respect, and in proportionately reducing the necessity 

 of purchased feeds ; it possessed the power of gathering the nitrogen 

 needed for its growth from the air, and, therefore, indirectly supplying 

 nitrogen for the corn and other cereal crops, which can obtain it only 

 from soil sources, and it was practically a perennial, servinir for from 

 three to eight years without renewing it, and left the soil in better 

 condition for other crops than it was when the alfalfa was seeded. 

 These characteristics among other (many possibly not yet fully under- 

 stood) led to other experiments, which were quite as notable in show- 

 ing the extraoT'dinary value of this crop. 



In the first ])lace, it was believed that owing to the composition 

 of the plant, chiefly its high content of protein, it should in many ways 

 serve as a substitute for a number, at least, of the fine feeds, which 

 it is generally necessary to purchase upon the dairy farm. Experi- 

 ments were, therefore, carried out to determine its value as a source 

 of protein, in the making of rations for dairy cows. These experi- 

 ments were highly interesting and suggestive, because they showed, 

 first, that satisfactory rations could be made from corn silage, the 

 chief cereal crop, and alfalfa; and second, that the yield of milk was 



