468 Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



diminishing rapidly. On ordinary soils it can scarcely be doubted that 

 when alfalfa is grown for a long series of years the productivity can 

 be maintained only by surface application of manures that will restore 

 these elements, though the humus that the alfalfa provides will assist 

 in unlocking the soil stores of these elements contained in difficultly soluble 

 minerals. So, too, when alfalfa fields are broken up and put into other 

 crops, while the nitrogen may be more than adequate, the other critically 

 essential elements may have been reduced to insufficiency. 



Study of Table 55 will be profitable from several points of view. It 

 gives results of the analysis of two soils, three samples from one and 

 two from the other. The first is located in the west central part of 

 Montgomery county. The samples a, b and c are from points in close 

 proximity, which have been very differently treated ; a has been in alfalfa 

 for thirteen years, b in corn, kafir corn and small grains, and c was 

 unbroken native grass meadow. The second soil is located in the south- 

 east part of Montgomery county. The part from which a was taken 

 had been in alfalfa for ten years, while b was from a field that had been 

 used for general grain farming. With both of these soils the fields to 

 be compared lay in such a way that it seems that they were very similar 

 in composition originally. The results of the analyses are not consistent 

 in all cases with what might be expected, and possibly this is due to 

 original soil differences. The table shows the composition of the upper 

 seven inches, the next thirteen inches, the next twenty inches, and all 

 of these together, or the surface forty inches. Doubtless alfalfa roots 

 penetrated to a greater depth, but those of other crops would do so to 

 but a very limited extent. 



The figures show that in almost every case the native meadow was 

 richer in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and organic carbon, 

 the last of which represents the humus, than the field in alfalfa, or that 

 which had been cropped to grains. When the fields in alfalfa are com- 

 pared with those used for grain farming it is seen that the figures for 

 nitrogen are slightly higher for the alfalfa fields; those for phosphorus 

 and potassium are almost identical; those for calcium lower for the al- 

 falfa fields; those for the organic carbon notably higher in one case and 

 slightly higher in the other case for the alfalfa field. Considering the 

 difficulties of such investigation, the analyses are, on the whole, a re- 

 markable confirmation of what should be expected, viz., that all crops 

 exceed native meadow in their draft upon the minerals of the soil; that 

 grain crops reduce the nitrogen and the organic matter greatly; that 

 alfalfa, while removing metals as rapidly as do grain crops, tends to 

 maintain the nitrogen and the organic matter. (See "Soil," in index.) 



The secretary of the Kansas City Hay Dealers' Association says: 

 "Ninety per cent of our inquiries are for pea-green hay, and of these in- 

 quiries only about 5 per cent can be satisfied. This causes buyers to pay 

 $3 to $4 a ton premium for color, and until such time as the inquirers 

 learn that color is not the most important element it is to the producer's 

 interest to preserve the color, if possible." Farmers Mail and Breeze. 



