170 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



lake, and that lake was once the channel of the Mississippi ; but the 

 river got choked up and turned off at St. Charles and it is what is 

 termed the loess formation. And here I find the alfalfa crop a profit- 

 able one. I cut about five crops each year and 8 or 10 tons to the acre. 

 This year, being short of help and not cutting as often as I should, 

 I only got four crops. I like it better than clover because it is not so 

 much injured by rain. Generally when you cut red clover you have 

 a good deal of rain ; rain comes at that season of the year, and I have 

 had a great deal of red clover spoiled by rain, but have never had any 

 alfalfa injured by the rain — that is, materially injured. Alfalfa is the 

 best crop that can be grown for the feeding of young colts and mares ; 

 and they eat it with greater avidity even than they eat red clover. I 

 am compelled to stack some of my clover and some of my alfalfa and 

 also some oats, and I have one lot in which I stack these different 

 things and I sometimes turn my colts into the lot where these stacks 

 are; and if you should visit that lot, you will find the stacks of alfalfa 

 almost ready to fall down because the colts will go and take it in 

 preference to the red clover and the oats or any other crop that can 

 be raised; so if you want to please the appetite of your stock, feed 

 them alfalfa ; it is the most desirable feed that you can give to your 

 cattle, your horses, your sheep or your swine. 



I know that many farmers have a good deal of difficulty ui get- 

 ting the crop established. Now my fields have been established for at 

 least fifteen years, and I am almost ashamed to say that I have not put 

 one single pound of manure Upon my alfalfa fields ; but I am very care- 

 ful to save all of my manure, and I have a manure spreader which I 

 use in carrying out all my manure; but I put the manure on my corn 

 land instead of my alfalfa land. I use phosphate rock on my corn 

 land, and I find that where I use it my ears of corn are heavier and 

 better than on the land where I did not use the phosphate ; and I think 

 that phosphate is an important fertilizer which our farmers should 

 purchase and apply to their lands. I do not want to see our lands 

 wearing out. I want to see returned to the soil that which has been taken 

 from it. The bane of our farming in Missouri and the bane of the farming 

 in the older states of the Union has been in exliausting the land of its 

 fertility, taking crop after crop until it will no longer produce them, and 

 the lands are turned out as waste property and abandoned farms as 

 is the case in Virginia, Maryland and the New England states ; and 

 we nnist institute a different system here. I find alfalfa to be equal 

 in fertilizing qualities to red clover. Now, I don't want to be under- 

 stood as going back on red clover. I think it is the farmer's salvation ; 

 but I believe that every farmer can raise alfalfa. I should be glad to 



