268 THE BOOK OF ALFALFA 



MICHIGAN 



Prof. C. D, Smith, Director Michigan experiment 

 station. — Alfalfa has had and is having a checkered 

 career. Under favorable conditions it makes a good 

 stand. Some fields have produced crops for many years, 

 the ground being occasionally fertilized by manurial salts. 

 The difficulties that environ the crop are : ( i ) The severe 

 winters, w^hich sometimes kill off v^hole fields, leaving 

 scarcely a root alive; this has happened to fields two, 

 three, or four years old. (2) The Blue grass crowds 

 it out badly; (3) the ignorance of the farmers in regard 

 to the requirements of the crop and the consequent im- 

 perfect preparation of the soil in the matter of tillage or 

 fertilization, has made it difficult to introduce it in a broad 

 way. Notwithstanding tliese difficulties and the farther 

 consideration that alfalfa does not easily lend itself to a 

 short rotation, the crop is advancing in the state by 

 leaps and bounds. Hundreds of farmers are experi- 

 menting with it and are learning how to prepare the 

 ground, sow it and care for the crop afterwards. Statis- 

 tics are not at hand to show how many acres of alfalfa 

 there are in the state, nor can definite figures be given as 

 to the growth of interest in the crop and its actual acre- 

 age. When proper strains have been developed, it seems 

 fair to presume that alfalfa will be one of the staple crops 

 in Michigan. On the station grounds at the agricultural 

 college fields of alfalfa have been continuously maintained 

 from 1897 to 1904. There are fields here sown in 1903 

 bearing their three crops each year, yielding from 5 to 

 7 tons of dry hay annually per acre. There has been some 

 difficulty in getting pure and vigorous seed. 



