ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION 1 93 



"When the alfalfa half-acre was plowed and planted 

 to wheat it produced $8 to $12 more value in wheat per 

 acre than the land which had grown potatoes and grain 

 before. 



"When the alfalfa half -acre was plowed and planted to 

 oats it produced $16 worth of grain more than land 

 which had grown potatoes and grain before. 



''When the alfalfa half-acre was plowed and planted 

 to potatoes it gave $16 worth more of potatoes per acre 

 than was obtained from land which had grown potatoes 

 and grain before. 



"By growing alfalfa the increase of yields and values 

 were produced with absolutely no cost for fertilizing the 

 land." 



This gain, it will be noted, cost nothing in the way of 

 fertilization, as the alfalfa had every year been more 

 profitable than the other crops. A Marion county, Kan- 

 sas, manager of large estates reports that a field of wheat 

 after alfalfa averaged forty bushels per acre while an 

 adjoining field of equal original fertility averaged but 

 fifteen bushels. These results have been duplicated in 

 innumerable instances where alfalfa fields have been 

 plowed and planted to other crops. A Colorado man 

 who farms 1000 acres, with 200 acres of it in alfalfa, says 

 he cannot afford not to plow his alfalfa after he has had 

 from it four years' crops ; that it is necessary to maintain 

 the general farm fertility and obtain big crops of corn, 

 oats and potatoes. In the potato districts of Colorado 

 alfalfa is used systematically as a rotation to maintain the 

 yields and quality of their potatoes, both of which are so 

 famous. 



