expicrimp:nt station bulletins. 



227 



Utah had a p:ood stand without poor spots. The same was true of the Colorado. 

 The Turkestan in one plot was poor, in the other fairly good. It was farther 

 noted on the fourth of May that the Sand Lucern was making a rather more rapid 

 growth than the other varieties. 



On the eleventh of May, after a hard frost on the night of the tenth, the 

 alfalfa drooped but soon straightened up and showed no permanent injury. There 

 were hard frosts on the fifteenth and sixteenth of the month. The alfalfa leaves 

 turned yellow on the edges and some of them shriveled up and dropped but the 

 plants soon recovered. The crop was cut June 7, .July 11, and August 30. The 

 plots were one rod wide and fourteen rods long. There were sixteen plots in the 

 experiment altogether, numbered consecutively from the north to the south. The 

 whole area was lacking in homogeneity and it was necessary to separate the 

 plots of each variety that the comparison might be fair. The following table 

 records the height of the alfalfa on the date of the cutting and the weight of 

 dry hay on each plot: 



These are the yields of a single season and do not represent conclusions as to 

 the relative values of these varieties. 



In the spring of 1905 the Sand Lucern and Turkestan plots are quite notably 

 better than the others. Plot 15 was badly winter killed while plot 13, Turkestan, 

 maintains an almost perfect stand. Plot 3, Colorado seed, is visibly poorer than 4. 

 Sand Lucern, or 5, Turkestan. A glance at the heights of the plots on August 30 

 does not indicate that up to that date the Turkestan alfalfa was much shorter 

 than the other varieties, but after the last cutting it seemed to recover more 

 slowly and was much shorter throughout the rest of the season. In the late fall 

 it was the least promising of any of the varieties tested, but in the spring of 

 1905 it gives evidence of greater hardiness than its competitors. It did not yield 

 as much as the Sand Lucern and much less than any of the American varieties. 

 Which of the many kinds of alfalfa shall be jfinally selected for general use in the 

 State is an open question. 



LATE CLIPPINGS. 



In 1904 the season was wet after the last cutting, August 30. There was. 

 consequently, a tall and fairly thick after-growth. By the seventh of October 

 this after-growth was fully knee high. The question then arose whether for the 

 sake of the crop in 1905, this growth ought to be clipped. To test the matter 

 the west half of all plots was clipped, using the mower with the guards set as 

 high as possible. The clippings were left as a mulch. They were not thick 

 enough to smother the plants. 



