86 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



the barn the next. Alfalfa can be mowed away pretty green. It 

 will heat of course, but there is no harm in that. It must be spread 

 evenly as it goes in the barn, and I use about two gallons of salt 

 to the load. Sprinkle salt evenly as the hay is spread, then shut 

 the doors to keep the cold night air out. The result is a very nice 

 green hay, of fine aroma, and free from dust. This is the kind of 

 hay that makes the horses laugh and the cows give milk. As soon 

 as the field is cleaned off I hitch on to the disk or spring tooth har- 

 row, whichever I think best to use, and work up the ground in good 

 shape. Cultivation is absolutely necessary in this section, and in 

 my opinion would be beneficial most anywhere, for it is the only 

 way to keep the field clean. The disk and the spring tooth harrow 

 will keep undesirable plants in check, and there is practically no 

 harm done to the alfalfa plants. In fact, they will do better, grow 

 more vigorously, besides the advantages of a loose cultivated sur- 

 face are numerous and well understood. Ninety-eight per cent of 

 my hay is fed out on the farm, very little sold. This enables me to 

 practically cover my land each year with the very best manure, 

 hauled direct from the stable to the field and spread without loss of 

 any kind and no extra handling. This means better crops, and 

 my land improves every day I farm it. Results speak for them- 

 selves. Twelve years ago, when I bought this place, it was referred 

 to as an old worn-out farm, for it has been in cultivation as long 

 as any land in this section, and in fact would not produce more 

 than ten bushels of wheat per acre, and other crops in proportion. 

 I had ten acres in clover, which was sown on growing wheat in 

 March, 1905. I manured it heavily during this winter; sow it to 

 cowpeas next May. Harvest them in August and disk and harrow 

 the ground until I have it in the very best possible condition to sow 

 alfalfa. I repeat what I have so often said, "there is no better 

 way to prepare land for alfalfa than by sowing it to cowpeas ;" 

 but the growing of one crop of cowpeas does not insure success 

 with alfalfa — that depends on the condition of the land. As most 

 of our soils are sour or acid to a remarkable degree, lime must 

 be applied in sufficient quantities to correct that abnormal and un- 

 favorable condition. I hope to live long enough to see some alfalfa 

 growing on every farm in this section. It can be done, and by do- 

 ing so, you don't make "two," but four or six blades of grass grow 

 where only one grew before. So you had better be at it and do 

 something. I was born and raised in a county where alfalfa grows 

 well, learned its feeding value, and its even greater value as a soil 

 builder. In my boyhood days and during the twenty-four years 



