took three things to plow an alfalfa field a good sharp plow, a strong 

 team and a Christian man." The old man chuckled. "I guess he 

 was right too. Oh, I tell you, gentlemen, alfalfa like any other crop 

 has its good points and its bad points. It's for the beginner to weigh 

 the evidence on both sides as applied to his farm conditions. Per- 

 haps his land is too flat and sour for alfalfa, or the necessary lime is 

 too costly to haul and apply, or he may have a hard-pan sub-soil 

 and poor drainage. (See Fig. 40.) 



"In all events we should be open-minded on alfalfa not like 

 some who will stare a beautiful alfalfa field square in the face and 

 still say 'It ain't adapted round here.' Nor should we be like some 



Fig. 4. Cornfalfa. Farms, Waukesha, Wisconsin 

 grow over 200 acres of alfalfa. 



of these city farmers who hear all about the great merits of the crop 

 and want to put their whole farm into alfalfa. One is just as bad 

 as the other. 



"We have got to be fair about it both in boosting and in knocking it. 

 It has its objections and its big advantages. It's going to come, 

 gentlemen, but that's up to you. Down in my own section not 

 more than ten years ago everybody was talking against silos. There 

 were all kinds of stories going round about silage eating out the cows' 

 insides and making their teeth fall out and their ribs cave in. In 

 spite of this the silo has come. I look on alfalfa the same way. It's 

 going to come, boys." 



At this moment the train arrived. I met the group of men on 

 the platform. 



"Gentlemen," said I, "you have covered this alfalfa proposition 

 so well in your discussion that I'll know exactly what to say this 

 afternoon. Do you know that there are only 980 acres of alfalfa 

 in this entire county against 70,000 acres of timothy? I don't be- 

 lieve it will hurt some of us to get inoculated a bit. That's what I 

 am here for." 



