Introductory 



BY 



Former Governor W. D. Hoard, of Wisconsin 



Editor Hoard's Bairyman 



I am exceedingly gratified by the preparation and 

 publication of a new and larger work devoted to the sub- 

 ject of Alfalfa The earlier effort by Mr. Coburn upon 

 the same subject was in many respects a classic, and I 

 am sure farmers everywhere will now hail with joy the 

 advent of a kindred work by him, still more complete. 



It is strange, this late awakening all over the Union 

 and in Canada to the feeding value and possibilities of 

 this marvelous plant. Again, it is wonderful to me that 

 within a few years farmers everywhere are being com- 

 pelled to revise their judgment as to their chances of 

 success with it. A large correspondence on this subject 

 comes to me from every state in the Union and the prov- 

 inces of Canada, and success is being had in the growing 

 of alfalfa where not more than three years ago it was 

 deemed impossible to make it live. Of course the ques- 

 tion of growing alfalfa contains a thousand or more 

 chances for good or poor judgment. Men who are not 

 too conceited, too ignorant or too stubborn to learn by 

 reading other men's experience will go ahead rapidly 

 and soon make a success of it. 



I believe this alfalfa movement is the most important 

 agricultural event of the century. For the production ot 



