638 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



probability, and even to a limited extent, to the use only of a hog 

 pasture it would prove an acquisition so valuable to the farmer as to 

 rank in importance to the introduction of the barbvi^ire or cream sep- 

 arator on the farm. 



WHAT IS ALFALFA? 



What is there about alfalfa that should make it so desirable for intro- 

 duction? Its value lies in the fact that it is a legume, a clover, yielding 

 a ton and upward per acre at each cutting, which is done three to five 

 times a year, of hay equal in nitrogen pound for pound to the best old- 

 fashioned bran. It is greatly relished by all live stock and its high per 

 cent of protein makes it particularly valuable for young growing stock, 

 imparting health and vigor in a remarkable degree. As it is a perennial 

 clover it is unexcelled for the purpose of a hog pasture. Fifty dollars 

 an acre gain in pork has been reported in favor of alfalfa alone. As a 

 forage plant i't promises to save our hogs from utter deterioration, a 

 deterioration that is becoming more and more apparent as the years roll 

 on, and is one of the serious consequences of excessive com feeding. It 

 is here where alfalfa comes in as a valuable counteractant and where it 

 will prove to be of particular interest to the Scott county hog raiser. 

 What may be said in favor of clover as a hog pasture may be four-fold 

 said of alfalfa. The feeders have realized and many experiment stations 

 bear them out with figures that don't lie that alfalfa with corn forms a 

 perfectly balanced ration for finishing live stock; is a palatable, nutritious 

 and wholesome, as well as the most economical feed for fattening cattle. 

 If alfalfa can be made an adjunct to the corn in the great corn belt region 

 it will not only add a fresh impulse to the live stock interest here as it 

 has already done in the west, but it means a vast deal for agriculture in 

 general — direct fertility to the soil where it grows and indirect fertility 

 through the agency of cattle fed upon it. It means a promising record to 

 the farming interest of the United States. As a fertilizer it has no 

 equal and is invariably followed by vast crops when broken up. Reli- 

 able cases are on record where after fourteen years of such ploughing 

 up the wheat still showed a greater height of straw on the old alfalfa 

 line. Incredible as appear the glowing accounts of alfalfa and its virt- 

 ues we never meet with any attempts to dispute or question the same, 

 but annually meet with recurring endorsements. If half of what has 

 been written or said about alfalfa were even true then an alfalfa patch 

 on a farm would be nothing short of a bonanza. 



MY OWN EXPERIEXCE. 



I have long entertained this notion, but as yet fail to see the bonanza. 

 To those who know me as an alfalfa crank, as well as to those who desire 

 to be some one day, it may be of interest to briefly summarize my ex- 

 perience and explain why my ideas failed to materialize into a fine alfalfa 

 field. 



The seed, imported from Turkestan, seeded in the spring of 1902, pro- 

 duced a very good stand, but a very cold and wet summer, followed by 

 two more similar summers, never allowed my alfalfa to get its feet dry. 

 This was a violent and abrupt climatic change from the dry steppes of 



