256 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



There is another variety (the French) which grows coarser in stem, 

 and leaf, and is not relished so much by stock, and that sometimes winter 

 kills. Farmers from all around watched suspiciously the habits of this 

 plant. Some thought it would be a success, but others doubted. The old 

 German went right along and sowed one field after another. It proved to 

 be a success. Soon other farmers tried it, cautiously at first, and then 

 with confidence. When there came a dry season and clover and timothy 

 failed, the alfalfa fields were as green as June. It has now long since 

 passed the experimental stage and forms a part in the rotation of the best 

 farms. 



The fact that three or four good crops of the very finest of hay can 

 be cut each year from the same field commends it to every thinking man. 

 It is no unusual thing to cut two to three tons per acre at least three 

 times a year. 



Since southwest Iowa farms have reached $100 per acre (and even 

 more) we cannot afford to keep forty acres in timothy and clover to 

 obtain what can be raised on twenty acres if sown to alfalfa. I have 

 grown quite a plot for the past ten years, and must confess that it beats 

 all other forage plants two to one. There are various methods of pre- 

 paring the soil and sowing the seed. Perhaps the most common (and a 

 safe way) is to wait in spring until all danger of frost is past, then plow 

 the ground as for corn, harrowing immediately after plowing until the 

 soil is very fine and mellow. Then sow ten pounds of seed broadcast or 

 drilled, lightly. If sown broadcast, harrow after sowing, the same as for 

 wheat. Sow no nurse crop with it, but cut and haul off the weeds say 

 about three times during the summer. 



You may get quite a sprinkle of hay at the third cutting. The fol- 

 lowing season you should get at least two good cuttings. There is 

 another way to sow it, which I like better, and that is to clear a field 

 of small grain as soon after harvest as possible and plow and thoroughly 

 pulverize and then drill in with pressed drill five to eight pounds of seed 

 per acre. If the season is favorable you will get a fine stand, and it will 

 get such a vigorous start before freezing weather that it will not winter 

 kill. By this method you can grow a small grain crop (barley preferred, 

 as it gives a chance to get your alfalfa sowed earlier), and you do not 

 have any weed crops to mow the first year and you should get two pretty 

 good hay crops the first full season. 



The twentieth century farmer must be an intensive farmer, more 

 than an extensive, and I know of no way in which you can nearer "make 

 two blades of grass grow where one gred before" than by growing alfalfa. 

 Alfalfa has come to stay. It is the ideal feed fed to fattening cattle. It 

 is great feed for all growing stock. Even hogs in winter eat nicely cured 

 alfalfa with avidity, and for milch cows I know of nothing better in the 

 forage line to increase the flow of milk. 



Before I leave this subject I wish to state the only fault I have to 

 alfalfa and that is, it is not safe to use it as pasture for cattle, as it is 

 more liable to cause clover bloat than red clover, but horses can pasture it 



