74 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTDEE. 



it. "When cutting is not done at the proper time there is also a shelling 

 out of the seed on the ground, and this insures a crop of annual weeds 

 next year. Millet should be cut while the seed is in the milk condition, 

 and it should be cured with as little exposure as possible. So much the 

 better if it can be put in shocks soon after cutting, as this helps to keep 

 the leaves and stems soft and also retains the aroma. When cured in 

 this way millet hay may be fed to all kinds of stock with impunity, pro- 

 viding a little judgment is used in the feeding. It is never advisable to 

 feed millet hay exclusively to farm animals. An experiment is reported 

 by the North Dakota Station in which horses were fed millet hay alone 

 for roughage. The effect was to produce an increased action of the kid- 

 neys, causing lameness and swelling of the joints, as well as producing 

 general unthriftiness. Because of this injurious effect upon animals it 

 does not follow that the crop should be discarded altogether, but rather 

 that more judgment is necessary in feeding it to animals. One feed of 

 millet hay per day is sufficient for work horses, while all farm animals 

 will thrive much better if other forms of roughage are fed in conjunction 

 with millet. 



While alfalfa is usually classed more as a hay crop than 

 forage, yet the enormous yield of this crop when it is grown 

 under favorable conditions, leads me to put it in this category at this time. 

 The area seeded to alfalfa in Iowa is exceedingly small, although hun- 

 dreds of attempts are annually made to get the crop established. Under 

 our conditions the crop should be seeded early in the spring on a well 

 prepared seed bed, without a nurse crop. A drill should be used in sow- 

 ing the seed, ten pounds being sown in one direction and a similar quan- 

 tity in the opposite direction. This insures a uniform covering of the 

 seed and a good stand. As a rule it is necessary to cut back the weed 

 growth once or twice during the first season. It does not seem to injure 

 the alfalfa even if the leaves and stems are also cut back somewhat 

 closely. If conditions are at all favorable the crop should produce two 

 or three cuttings the second year, but ordinarily one cannot expect a 

 crop the first year. My experience has been that alfalfa takes on a sickly 

 appearance in the spring of the second year and it is then soon affected 

 with leaf spot disease, to which it succumbs. The inspection of a num- 

 ber of alfalfa fields recently, however, in the state, convinced me that our 

 soil is lacking the organism that lives on the alfalfa roots. To the fields 

 referred to, these organisms had been introduced by making an application 

 of soil from the alfalfa fields of Nebraska. Shortly after the organisms 

 are introduced in this. way the alfalfa takes on a healthy appearance, 

 and it is not unusual when these are present to obtain four cuttings a year. 

 The fields referred to produced twelve tons of cured hay per acre. My 

 idea in speaking of alfalfa is not based on the belief that our farmers 

 are suddenly going into alfalfa growing, but I simply want to call atten- 

 tion to the fact that our failures in the past undoubtedly have been due 

 to the fact that our soils have not been properly inoculated. This may 

 be done chiefly by the introduction of small quantities of soil, and if we 

 do reach that point where alfalfa can be grown successfully it will 



