84 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



gust or the first of September, if you have sufficient moisture, you 

 are pretty sure to get a crop next year. 



There are some things which have kept farmers from sowing 

 alfalfa which were not intended to do so. For instance, one of our 

 agricultural papers made this statement a year or two ago: "It is 

 useless to sow alfalfa on ground where posts are heaving out." 

 Now, of course, many a farmer seeing that statement would be- 

 lieve it. Sometimes we think alfalfa is killed off when it really 

 is not. You have heard the statement that if you have taken off 

 the crown of your alfalfa you have killed it. I have found that is 

 not true. That happened to my crop at one time and I supposed 

 it was gone; but was surprised later to see little white sprouts 

 starting up on the stalks all over the field. So you cannot believe 

 all you hear. Another statement I have recently heard made is, 

 that red clover is a weed in alfalfa. I know that is not true. Red 

 clover is no detriment to alfalfa whatever. In fact it only lives a 

 little while. It dies out in two years, while alfalfa is of perennial 

 growth. Red clover would not stand three consecutive cuttings 

 either, while the longer you cut alfalfa the better it seems to get. 

 If you cannot grow alfalfa, then grow red clover or blue grass. 

 I want to say this, that red clover is not only not a weed, but red 

 clover, alfalfa and alsike make a perfect paradise for hogs. There 

 is no doubt about that. I have it on my own farm and it is splen- 

 did. I sowed five acres of alfalfa last year for my brood sows and 

 small pigs' and secured a partial stand. I am going to disk the 

 ground lightly in the spring and sow alsike and red clover with it. 

 1 1 will make it as thick as I can and I will have an ideal hog pas- 

 ture. I could not get a better one. 



Now as to ground. I began growing alfalfa in an experimental 

 way on second bottom land. Then I increased on the same kind of 

 land until I had five acres sown there. Then I thought the question 

 of growing alfalfa on our place was settled, and I named our farm 

 "Alfalfa Glen," and then made my first mistake next spring by 

 sowing 18 acres. That was too much. I had to mow it five times 

 and I lost half of it. Alfalfa won't succeed on land where water 

 will stand within three feet of the surface all the time. Water 

 may run over alfalfa and stand on it as long as three days, but 

 where the water stands on the ground all the time alfalfa will not 

 grow. If you have upland you will just have to try alfalfa and see 

 if it will grow. I was told that it would not, but it did for me, the 

 difference in the crop being about the difference there would be in 

 a crop of corn on rich lowland and on upland soil. Common sense 



