The Author's Foreword 



This volume, however strong its statements in favor 

 of alfalfa may appear to those unacquainted with that 

 plant's productivity and beneficence, is by no means pre- 

 sented as an argument that everyone should raise alfalfa. 

 It is intended rather as a conservative setting forth of 

 what others have found alfalfa to be and do under wide 

 variations of soil, climate, condition and locality; of its 

 characteristics and uses; the most approved methods of 

 its raising and utilization, and the estimates of it by 

 those who have known it most intimately and longest 

 as a farm forage crop and a restorer and renovator of 

 the soil. 



The author believes in alfalfa; he believes in it for the 

 big farmer as a profit-bringer in the form of hay, or 

 condensed into beef, pork, mutton, or products of the 

 cow ; but he has a still more abiding faith in it as a main- 

 stay of the small farmer; for feed for all his live stock 

 and for maintaining the fertility of the soil. 



To avoid the appearance of both special pleading and 

 exaggeration the statements have been guarded, and 

 many of a laudatory nature, which fully authenticated 

 facts seemed to justify, have been omitted, as neither the 

 author nor the publishers have desire or willingness to 

 extol unduly a commodity so little needing it as that of 

 which the volume treats. Alfalfa's strongest commen- 

 dations are invariably from those who know it best ; none 

 are incredulous who know it well, and none have grown 

 it but wished their acreage increased. 



F. D. COBURN. 



Topeka, Kansas. 

 1906 



IV 



