160 ALFALFA. 
checked the wheat to some extent. It still made a good 
crop of wheat by harvest. This patch was located in the 
bottom along the Minnesota River, slightly sloping towards 
the southwest and bounded on thesoutheast and southwest 
by tall timber. About 1% acre of the southwestern as well 
as the lowest portion was very sandy. The rest was very 
rich, black loam accustomed to clover. This upper portion 
seemed very promising the first fall but the sandy lot seemed 
rather weak. I left the stubble and did not pasture the first 
fall. In the winter the creek overflowed some of this sandy 
portion completely andsmothered it. Thenext March, during 
nice weather, the alfalfa started to grow very nicely but dur- 
ing the alternate cold and warm spells about one-half of the 
plants seemed to rot off just below the crown, this made a 
poor stand. However, it made a fair hog pasture that year 
except the very sandy and poor soil, and I also used it for 
pasture in the spring and part of the summer of 1901, but 
as soine more of the plants had damped off in the same way 
that spring, I decided to plough it up and seed to rape. 
“The year 1900 I seeded about two acres just on the 
other side of the timber (southeast side) on quite, if not very 
sandy, very rich potato land, formerly clover. This time I 
seeded it alone. It grew very fast. I cutit down when 6 
inches high and in addition to that I cut it three times for 
hay. The first time, it was only alfalfa hay, the next time 
it was more pigeon grass than alfalfa, and the third 
time, mostly alfalfa hay. 
“During the very shifting weather of the next spring 
(1901) about one-half of the plants damped off in the same 
way as described. We therefore seeded about 12 Ibs. more 
to the acre while the first seeding was only 10 lbs. That 
year, we took one good crop from the patch after which a 
long velvetish black bug took complete possession of the 
crop. It was kept eaten down all summer. By the way, 
this bug also attacked the soy beans and red clover to some 
extent and also some of the wild leguminous shrubs. 
‘“‘As the blue grass which had remained in the land had 
stooled wonderfully during the summer, I thought it best to 
break it up, which I did last fall. I used the common Utah 
