LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 169 



with my little boys, dressed just as well. And on that old farm there 

 are several single men working part of the year. Think what that 

 means. We have increased the producing capacity many, many fold 

 since taking hold of that old farm and putting alfalfa on it. 



I have been asked a hundred times since at this meeting whether 

 you can grow alfalfa in Missouri. Why, of course, you can. There 

 is not a man here who cannot grow alfalfa on his farm. It wants a 

 soil that is fairly dry; not necessarily dry every day in the year, but 

 one that is not water-logged for a long time during any part of the 

 year. You must have that. I am not going to tell you how to get it 

 dry. I tile-underdrain mine. You should manure the ground thoroughly. 

 And you must have the land sweet. Now, on our soils we have not 

 found it necessary to use lime ; but on many soils, especially in New 

 York and in Northern Ohio and Pennsylvania, they find it necessary 

 to lime the soil to make it sweet. Now if it is sweet and dry, there 

 is only one more thing necessary to make the alfalfa grow, and that is to 

 get plenty of humus in that soil, plenty of vegetable matter. This 

 humus decaying in the soil makes plant food. You must have the soil 

 rich before the alfalfa will start at all. But, more important than 

 that: the humus in the soil makes a home for the bacteria and they 

 will not grow very well without it. In all the region this side of the 

 Mississippi river, you cannot usually get the inoculation to take place 

 without manure. That's the experience in Iowa. Now, those are 

 the three things necessary to make the alfalfa grow : the soil must be 

 dry, it must be sweet, and it must have plenty of humus. 



. i 



DISCUSSION. 



Governor Colman: The subject of alfalfa is one of so much import- 

 ance to the farmers of Missouri that I cannot refrain from saying a word 

 or two in regard to the importance of cultivating this crop. I have 

 had some ten years experience in raising this crop, and I consider it 

 by far the most profitable crop I produce upon my farm. I raise it 

 chiefly for horses. I have a large farm devoted to the production of 

 horses and keep about loo head. For ten years I have tried this crop. 

 I had some difficulty in getting the first crop established. My farm 

 produces immense crops of crab grass and foxtail which nearly smother 

 the alfalfa out the first two years, and the only way to prevent that 

 is to run the mowing machine over it frequently. I have about twenty 

 acres of it ; I sow it in the spring. My neighbors, who sufifer from 

 crab grass as I do, sow it in the fall, or about the last of August, and 

 have very successful crops. My farm is situated on the Creve Coeur 



