VALUE OF ALFALFA HAY 237 



hasten it to the mow. In general, we try to get the hay 

 as dry as we can before housing. We seldom make in 

 Ohio any alfalfa hay of the bright green color so com- 

 monly seen in the West; but we find that animals relish 

 the brown hay as well as the green, and perhaps relish 

 it more. 



Value of Alfalfa Hay. Thejre are three principal 

 hay plants in the United States; timothy, red clover 

 and alfalfa. At present there is probably a good deal 

 more alfalfa grown than red clover, since in 1899 the 

 production of each was about the same, though of red 

 clover the acreage reported by the I2th census was about 

 double for clover what it was for alfalfa. The produc- 

 tion stood: alfalfa, 2.5 tons per acre; red clover, 1.3 

 tons; cultivated grasses (mainly timothy), i.i tons. 

 Since then alfalfa has made great advance. It has passed 

 the experimental stage; there are now no serious prob- 

 lems of alfalfa-growing to be solved, and men are sow- 

 ing it more largely than ever before, while at the same 

 time the demand for the hay increases faster than the 

 production. For all classes of animals it is the best for- 

 age that can be grown in America, and at the same time 

 it is the most efficient soil-enricher. Spillman reports 

 that in Nebraska alfalfa has increased the yield of corn 

 grown on sod 75 per cent. In Ohio we have repeatedly 

 grown 100 bushels of corn per acre and more on alfalfa 

 sod. The same land would have produced about 60 bush- 

 els before it had been sown to alfalfa. In Idaho wheat 

 has increased in yield from 25 to 75 bushels per acre 

 after alfalfa. In California orange groves 25 years old 

 show markedly where alfalfa once stood, the portion of 



