232 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



nicely for a time until tlie drouth came. We had no rain all summer hence the 

 alfalfa only attained a height of four to ten inches. Few weeds grew and these 

 were pulled out by hand. The alfalfa was not cut the first season. 



The following spring that alfalfa grew first and faster than any other crop on 

 the farm, rye not excepted. On June 1st we cut three good loads of nice hay. 

 Forty days later we cut two large loads of hay. The plot was cut again, about 

 the last of August but was not raked. The following year the alfalfa patch pro- 

 duced about the same sort of crop. The third year it was pastured. The low 

 temperature of the following winter with the ground bare killed half of the 

 plants." 



In Wayne county a correspondent writes from Belleville under date of April 

 ?>. 190.5, that he sowed ten acres to alfalfa in 1903, rolling and top dressing with 

 fine manure. He secured a fine catch; ran the mower over it twice in 1903. The 

 next winter killed nearly all of it. 



Mr. George C. Peterhans of Plymouth reports that in 1903 he seeded a plot of 

 ground at the rate of sixteen pounds per acre, but regrets that he did not apply 

 twenty pounds. On the tenth of April, 1905, the crop was in fine condition. 

 He had a good crop of hay in 1903, cutting it in September. 



Mr. Fred Rocker, also near Belleville, cut thirty tons of alfalfa hay from ten 

 acres of sandy soil in one season and then pastured seventeen head of cattle on 

 the meadow all the fall after cutting this hay. As a result he found the alfalfa 

 in bad condition in the spring of 1904. N. A. Clapp of Northville reports on April 

 1, 1905, that the field of alfalfa of which he was proud in 1904 was entirely de- 

 stroyed by the winter. 



William H. Bailey of Hart, in Oceana county, reports good success with alfalfa 

 after five years' experience. He finds the worst enemy to be the June grass. 



Mr. P. B. Reynolds of Shiawassee county reports that he sowed an acre at the 

 rate of twenty pounds of seed and secured a good stand, but the crop was entirely 

 destroyed by the winter. 



It is impossible to print all the letters received concerning this crop, but enough 

 has been given to show the present condition of alfalfa in the State and the atti- 

 tude of the farmers toward it. Perhaps the most significant fact brought out by 

 the correspondence has been that winters are a serious menace. Alfalfa is pecu- 

 liarly a crop to be left in somewhat permanent possession of a field. It requires 

 two seasons at least to secure the needed root development. It is undoubtedly 

 true that thereafter it will draw a large per cent of its plant food from strata 

 below the reach of the roots of the cereals. It is illy adapted to a short rotation. 

 It is an expensive crop to start. For all these reasons the winter-killing is a 

 serious matter. It is to be hoped that strains of the most promising varieties will 

 be developed which will become as thoroughly acclimated as clover and timothy 

 and better able to endure Michigan winters. 



