EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 231 



C. A. Jewell, of Hudson, reports his experience briefly, as follows. Two experi- 

 mental fields were sown in the spring of 1903. One was a strip across a corn 

 field, rolling and uneven, the soil varying from light sand to heavy clay. The 

 seed was sown without a nurse crop early in the spring. A heavy rainstorm came 

 on, on the day of sowing, preventing harrowing and making the stand very uneven. 

 The second field was an old pasture cut off from the farm by a railroad. It had 

 not had manure for years. It was plowed early and frequently harrowed until 

 after corn planting, when the ground was in perfect tilth. Twenty pounds of seed 

 was sown per acre after two barrels of air slaked lime per acre had been applied. 

 The seed came up quickly, thickly and evenly, and made a very rapid growth. 

 "Following the orthodox teaching, I clipped it with a mowing machine, I think 

 three times, whenever the heads began to blossom, running the mowing machine 

 four inches high, cutting off the plants mostly below the leaves and checking the 

 root growth every time. A few handfuls of alfalfa seed being left, it was mixed 

 with red clover and timothy and sown on the small, irregular shaped patch out- 

 side of this acre. It was not handy to mow and was left to take care of itself 

 throughout the season. The winter following, 1903-4, was the severest in some 

 ways ever known in this section. A thick sheet of ice lay upon the earth through 

 December, entirely destroying the red clover and injuring the alfalfa very badly, 

 killing it all in the hollows and at least half the plants in other parts, except the 

 little patch not clipped, which was entirely uninjured, every plant seemingly 

 alive, though all the clover amongst it was killed. I shall never clip alfalfa the 

 first season again." 



Alfalfa has been tried in Manistee county and in other sections of the State 

 in that latitude. It has not done very well notwithstanding the fact that the 

 ground is usually covered v/ith a good coat of snow. Reports from Mecosta county 

 indicate that the same statement is true for that region. 



From Newaygo county the reports are quite discouraging. One farmer near 

 Fremont reports success for a single year while others agree in condemning alfalfa 

 when grown under present methods. 



In the upper peninsula, besides the reports from the State Station at Chatham, 

 there are letters from Menominee county showing that the crop is doing well 

 there. Ira Carley of Ingalls reports that he has one and a half acres of alfalfa 

 which was sown with oats in 1903. Three crops were cut in 1904 on June 19, 

 July 24 and August 28, the last crop being the best. The hay is fed to all kinds 

 of animals including hogs, which do well on it. He also sowed a field in 1904 

 which survived the winter in good shape and both fields are promising in the 

 spring of 1905. 



From the letters and official reports from the upper peninsula it is safe to draw 

 the conclusion that alfalfa is a safe crop to experiment with north of the straits 

 and that there is reasonable assurance that it will become a leading forage crop 

 for as much of the upper peninsula as has good soil and a certainty of a con- 

 tinuous cover of snow during the winter. 



In Oakland county alfalfa has been tried a great many "years. Mr. C. W. 

 Bennett of Milford sowed one-half acre of alfala twelve years ago on rich, well 

 drained clay loam. It has been cut two and sometimes three times each year 

 since, furnishing good yields of hay. The June grass is crowding out the crop 

 to such an extent that the field will be plowed this year. Mr. Harper Gardner of 

 Oxford has a small field which has been mowed three times a year for six years. 

 The alfalfa hay has proven invaluable. Fred M. Daines of Farmington reports 

 success with alfalfa both for hay and pasture. He recommends the crop for situa- 

 tions where the field is to be permanently seeded. 



Perhaps the man who has had the longest and most successful experience in 

 Oakland county is A. D. De Garmo of Highland. He writes under date of March 

 29, 1904: "I have sown a little alfalfa seed nearly every year for twenty years 

 to see what it was like and to learn if it would withstand our winters, and con- 

 clude that it is as hardy as our June clover. Neither will stand severe cold after 

 being pastured short, on our light soil. At one time 1 had thirty acres of alfalfa 

 and the same amount of red clover. I pastured this field one season; then came 

 the hard cold winter of six or eight years ago and killed the whole area, both 

 clover and alfalfa. 



Some six years ago I sowed one and one-quarter acres of alfalfa on the first 

 of June at the rate of twenty pounds of seed per acre. The field is a sandy loam 

 near the barn and was in good tilth. The seed germinated readily and grew 



