756 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



secured only by having the best stock to begin with, the best blood, 

 and hence 1 say (here is a very bright prospect in the near future for 

 (hose of you who are engaged in breeding, in producing the very 

 best stock for breeding purposes. 



Now, Mr. Chairman, as I said at the outset, I do not expect to take 

 much of your time. I know that you have your program and that 

 every moment of your time is precious. But it has afforded me great 

 pleasure to look in upon you, even though it be for this one session 

 only. I must return tomorrow to the work at which I have been 

 engaged, attending hearings in other parts of the State, so that T 

 only hope to be with you at this session, but I am very glad indeed 

 to have been here, and it has been an inspiration to me, it is an in- 

 spiration to me, to look into your faces and to see men such as I see 

 before me, earnestly engaged in the work in which you are engaged. 

 I will return to the work of the Department better qualified for that 

 work because of the opportunity of meeting with you here. 



ALFALFA IN THE EAST. 



By MR. WILLIS O. WING, Mechanicsburg, Ohio. 



Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen: It gives me great pleasure, and I 

 feel it is one of the great honors that has happened to me, to talk to 

 a body of men like this. I have attended a few meetings, and I do 

 not think I ever looked into the faces of as able a lot of men. I 

 want to say right now, gentlemen, that I am not a speaker. My 

 brother is the speaker. I have just come down here to tell you a few 

 truths about the alfalfa plant. I will try to confine myself to the 

 truth, and maybe if you do not get a literary treat you will get some 

 real good out of it. 



Gentlemen, if you went into a field of clover and you knew that it 

 represented eight tons to the acre; if when you got through cutting 

 your oats and piling the sheaves, you knew that it represented 160 

 bushels to the acre; if when you looked at that field of corn, you 

 knew that it represented 120 bushels — as we speak of bushels in 

 Ohio — if you approached crops like that, which meant that amount 

 of wealth, and it had been established by the traditions of your 

 state and your farm, when you approach a crop like that, then what 

 would your feelings be? Gentlemen, that is the sort of crop I 

 have to present to you in the crops of alfalfa. Now, those sound like 

 strong figures, but let me make that a little clearer. We raised 

 there at home on our land about four tons average per acre on about 

 a hundred acres. We raise no better than our neighbors, not as good 

 as some a little ways off from us. We are able to trade this alfalfa 

 very nearly pound for pound for ear corn. Figure for yourselves, 

 and see how much corn I can buy with an acre of alfalfa. I can buy 

 just about two acres of 60 bushels of corn as we speak of corn. You 

 may say that this alfalfa is a new corn, that it may have this value 

 now, because we have been able to dupe some people into selling it. 

 But I want to say to you that alfalfa has an intrinsic value. I have 



