150 Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



Osage county: "There is a certain stage of curing alfalfa when if 

 stacked it will pack together and turn brown, but not mold. It is then 

 very palatable to stock. I have read a great deal about this kind of hay 

 being better than any other, and also have been told that it is sought 

 after on the market." 



Pottawatomie county: "Alfalfa should be put up green enough to 

 make it light brown in the- middle of the stack. Then it makes the best 

 feed." 



BEES AND ALFALFA. 



The benefits from bees in alfalfa, where a seed crop is raised, are 

 mutual. The bees are most efficient pollinizers and cause an excellent 

 "set" of seed, while the nectar from alfalfa blossoms makes honey of the 

 highest quality. The benefits to be derived are limited, however, to the 

 period of blossoming. When hay is cut, and the plants are allowed to be- 

 come only 10 per cent in bloom, the pasturage is especially limited. 

 Those alfalfa growers who keep bees are, as a rule, well pleased with the 

 results. (See pages 401 to 403.) 



EFFECT OF ALFALFA ON SUCCEEDING CROPS. 



That alfalfa has, in the long run, a beneficial effect on succeeding 

 crops is the opinion of practically all growers. In the first few seasons 

 immediately following the plowing up of an alfalfa field, however, the 

 crops planted have a tendency to grow too luxuriantly and to suffer there- 

 for in times of little moisture. When there is an abundance of moisture, 

 crops immediately following alfalfa give phenomenal yields. After two or 

 three years, crops grown on alfalfa ground are reported uniformly to 

 give much higher yields than those grown on other similar ground, and 

 the difference is noticeable for some time afterward. 



To show the effect on the soil, the following reports are quoted : 



Chautauqua county: "Alfalfa is the best and cheapest fertilizer Kan- 

 sas has." 



Washington county : "Alfalfa is a great soil builder. The first succeed- 

 ing crop is not usually as good as the following crops." 



Greenwood county: "It makes the ground loose and rich. It is better 

 the second year than the first." 



Nemaha county: "Alfalfa enriches the soil in nitrogen, but seems to 

 exhaust the subsoil moisture, so that corn suffers in a dry year following 

 alfalfa." 



Chautauqua county: " Alfalfa materially improves the soil." 



Decatur county: "Alfalfa enriches the ground and causes it to produce 

 large yields of corn." 



"Reno county: "I think alfalfa makes the ground as good as if thirty 

 loads of manure had been applied." 



Crawford county: "Alfalfa builds up land and saves the farmer from 

 buying commercial fertilizer." 



Riley county: After ground has been in alfalfa a few years it is as 

 good as new." 



Montgomery county: "It simply puts the land back in its original 

 stage." 



