78 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



done, and they assured me in Pettis county that we could not 

 grow alfalfa. A teacher's report from one district said, "There 

 is no alfalfa growing in this district; the soil is not adapted for it, 

 and men tried it a few years ago and failed." 



I have been running down the men who did try alfalfa prior 

 to 1912. I have discovered sixteen men who put out a field of 

 alfalfa and ten of them made good. Six failed. Sixty-two and 

 one-half per cent were successful. I found men in Pettis county 

 growing as good alfalfa as a man need desire to raise, and every 

 one of them was doing exactly what my good friend Miller and 

 some more folks over here told him he had to do, yet people 

 within one mile of this man did not know how they were doing 

 it. I am telling it on them. That is part of my business. A 

 man within a mile of "Uncle Nick" Gentry did not know how 

 he was getting such a splendid crop of alfalfa every year ofT the 

 ground, and how Judge Sneed was getting such a splendid crop 

 of alfalfa, and how Mr. Brandt, south of town, was doing the 

 same thing. A man a mile away did not know how they were 

 doing the work; some of them do not yet. 



Since 1912 and 1913 the number of fields put out according 

 to the census that we have was forty. Forty fields put out in 

 1912 and 1913 and four of them failed. Thirty-six were suc- 

 cessful, or ninety per cent were successful. Some fields may 

 die during the winter. I don't know; I cannot prevent the 

 weather from heaving the plants out of the ground, but if they 

 will let me help them next summer, if there is any trouble brew- 

 ing, I can cure it. I can avoid their alfalfa trouble if they will 

 tell me about it. 



I want beginners to let me select their ground for them, 

 unless they think they know. One man said, "I don't know any- 

 thing about alfalfa, but I would like to grow it. I know it is a 

 profitable crop. I wish you would come up and tell me how to 

 do it." I went to him, picked out his ground and told him what 

 to do. I think I wrote the directions on a piece of paper. He 

 followed them to the letter, just as closely as it is possible for a 

 man to do. When he cut his crop last spring the first time, 

 when it was ready to put into the barn — that was ofT of two 

 acres — he called some neighbors in to estimate the weight as he 

 did not have 'scales. The estimated weight by himself and his 

 neighbors was four tons of alfalfa hay — the first time it was ever 

 cut. 



