356 LUCERNE. ALFALFA. 



must not be sown with another crop, neither mowed nor pastured 

 during the first j^ear. The dangers which threaten it most are 

 the common mole and pocket-gopher; the latter burrowing 

 among and cutting the roots, has destroyed several acres on the 

 college farm. AVe have cut three and even four large crops 

 from the same ground in one season.'* 



Early in 1885 Prof. Shelton states in the Rural New Yorker 

 that Alfalfa has proved with us the most useful of all clovers for 

 the purpose of pasturage. It endures uninjured, close cropping, 

 all kinds of stock consume it greedily, and it has never winter 

 killed. It requires much field room in curing, and soon spoils 

 with light rains. For hog pastures I know of no other plant so 

 valuable. 



Prof. A. E. Blount reports for Colorado: ''J. S., near the 

 college, keeps large herds of sheep, some cattle, horses and hogs. 

 When fed on Alfalfa cattle grow faster ; cows give more and bet- 

 ter milk ; horses are more healthy and do more work with a 

 fourth of the grain ; sheep make better mutton and lose less 

 wool ; and hogs fatten, almost ready for market, without any 

 grain. He cuts his crops three times, averaging about two tons 

 to the cutting. By letting the first crop grow until July he 

 raises from 5 to 10 bushels of seed per acre." 



He says he has samples four feet long, grown in thirty days. It 

 does not spread except by seeding. It is too tender to sow in the 

 fall, but should be sown in spring after the frost has gone. Har- 

 row it in with or without a crop. 



President Ingersoll, of the same place, told me that Alfalfa 

 was the only forage plant that would grow at their place and 

 keep green without irrigation. Jt is a favorite forage crop in 

 Colorado and its cultivation is extending very rapidly. 



For Mississippi and vicinity Prof. D. L. Phares considers Lu- 

 cerne very valuable. It sometimes gets two feet high by the 

 middle of February. He knows some plots of it now in fine con- 



