THE BEST LEGUMINOUS PLANTS 183 



better than a shallow rooted plant. Experiments in the culture of alfalfa in 

 the Eastern States have, as a rule, not been successful, but in some instances 

 there has been great success. It seems evident that a soil underlaid with a 

 compact clay subsoil is a poor place for alfalfa, since it cannot strike its 

 long roots downward. Where there is a permeable subsoil, and the land has 

 a sufficient amount of fertility, there is no doubt that good crops of alfalfa 

 can be grown in the eastern part of the country. Mr. J. E. Wing, of Ohio, 

 recently told me that he had found that the chief difficulty in getting a good 

 start with it is the fact that in the first season's growth the plant is rather 

 feeble, and the weeds are apt to crowd it to death; but that if, as the plants 

 start and the weeds start, the mower is run over it, the plant takes on new 

 life and energy, and success follows. He thinks it will inevitably fail if not 

 mown off the first summer. Then, if in the fall a dressing of lime is applied, 

 we are of the opinion that in any ordinarily fertile soil alfalfa may be made 

 to succeed. But it is not a plant suited to use in a short and improving rota- 

 tion, and should be allotted a place where it can remain permanently. The 

 Colorado Station places the manurial value of the stubble of alfalfa, after 

 the crop is cut, taking this to include six inches below the surface, to be $19.28 

 per acre. From the heavy stooling nature of the plant the stubble is heavier 

 than in other legumes, and the Colorado estimate is based on the assumption 

 that there will be 2.86 tons per acre of this organic matter. Rather a large 

 estimate, it appears to us, but perhaps not too large for Colorado. Bulletin 

 No. 35 of the Colorado Experiment Station is a very exhaustive treatise on 

 the alfalfa plant, and can be referred to by those interested. After failing 

 with the plant all our life we will try again with Mr. Wing's suggestion about 

 the summer mowing, and hope to be able to have a patch of alfalfa. 



We take the following from the Report of the Kansas Board of Agricul- 

 ture for 1900. In regard to experience with alfalfa on thin, sandy soil the 

 report quotes from the letter of Mr. Patch as follows : "Our soil is sandy, jack 

 pine land, and badly run out of nitrogen and humus. I sowed two and a half 

 acres to alfalfa, securing an even stand, which at first looked very promising. 

 After a slow growth, it seemed to come almost to a standstill, with a sickly, 

 yellow appearance. Before seeding, a strip of perhaps half an acre, was given 

 a liberal dressing of lime. When winter set in, the plants had reached an aver- 

 age height of six inches, while on the unlimed portion they should scarcely 

 average more than two inches. I searched in vain for tubercles on the roots. 

 When Prof. King saw the field he offered to send some earth from the alfalfa 

 field at the Experiment Station. It wintered with a slight covering of snow, 

 enduring on two nights a temperature of 48 degrees below zero. When the 

 earth arrived from Madison, I sowed some of it broadcast, and some I trailed 



