Alfalfa Criticisms Answered 



^"""1 "LL tell you why I don't grow alfalfa. It's because I've tried 

 it!" A number of farmers were on their way to a Pure-Bred 

 ^ ^ Grain Show which was being sponsored by a progressive banker 

 in the southern part of the state. That they were having a lively 

 discussion was indicated by the rather loud tone of the conversation. 

 A short, robust fellow with a cigar of the same build was doing the 

 talking: 



"I got inoculated with the alfalfa bug three years ago. It's a 

 mighty bad disease, I'll tell you. Cost me more'n a hundred dollars 

 to get cured." 



They all laughed. 



"You see, there was so much being written and said about this 

 blasted crop it naturally got my goat, and I began to dream about 

 getting five or six tons to the acre of a kind of hay that's twice as 

 good for stock as timothy. And the more I dreamed about it the 

 more acres I wanted to plant. So I struck out the next spring with 

 twenty acres. Seeded with oats, just the way I did my timothy and 

 clover. Got an awful big crop of oats, but alfalfa well, it looked 

 all right in the fall ; in fact I was pretty much tickled and I bragged a 

 little to my neighbors about it. 



His Alfalfa had the Jaundice 



"But, sir, the next May I was plumb disgusted, and the alfalfa 

 looked just the way I felt. It didn't amount to a whoop. It was 

 thin, yellow and sickly. It had the jaundice! Wouldn't grow. I 

 was sore, and plowed the whole business up and put it into corn. 

 Maybe I wasn't guyed some by the neighbors. They haven't for- 



?otten about it yet. I haven't either, and it'll be some time before 

 do. It's easy enough for some of these fellows to come here and 

 talk more alfalfa, but it's another thing to grow it." 



The last thrust hit the mark, for it was just exactly what I was 

 going to do. But I kept my peace. A rather tall member of the 

 group, smooth shaven and well dressed, who had had little to say, 

 spoke up: 



"I live eight miles from here, over at Winton. My name is Wil- 

 liams. We are growing alfalfa over there. I've got thirty acres of 

 it right now as fine as you ever saw. Let me tell you my experience: 



"Five years ago I put in ten acres just the way you did and I got 

 the same result. But I didn't quit. I made up my mind to grow 

 alfalfa or bust. Lucky enough we had an institute that winter, 

 and they had a fellow who was an old hand at alfalfa growing in 

 this state. I'll never forget what he told me: 'If you think that 

 this lime and inoculation business is all humbug, leave alfalfa alone. 

 Stick to timothy and clover.' " 



Inoculated with Right Ideas 



"Well, sir, I've realized since that he inoculated me with the right 

 ideas about growing alfalfa. I bought a carload of lime that winter, 



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