PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES 2/7 



alfalfa on our place as long as I can remember — nearly 

 thirty years. At first it was a small piece, just for exper- 

 iment's sake. Finally we sowed about nine acres on good 

 soil and had it well manured before sowing. The result 

 was immense crops, as high as four cuttings ; and, really, 

 the worst feature was to harvest the crop so often, since 

 it came just as regularly as clock-work. It actually stood 

 in the way of alfalfa, for I asked one of our neighbors, 

 who had very little hay, why he did not sow alfalfa, and 

 all he could answer was : ''Well, I have to harvest it too 

 often and I haven't the time to do it." 



We did not sow more of it until we got more improved 

 methods of handling it, and we have had as high as fifty 

 to sixty acres on a i6o-acre farm here at home. Some 

 fields run out in about ten years. Our plan is to then 

 plow it up. The first thing you learn is to have a very 

 sharp plow, and it must have a strong cutter bolted to the 

 share, being long enough to reach well through the sod. 

 Then if you have three good horses you are fixed out. 

 A riding plow that we tried w^as thrown out too easily 

 or pulled too hard. Others had the same experience, and 

 the old reliable fourteen or sixteen-inch walking plow 

 fills the bill best. We plowed some of it quite early in 

 the spring and after harvesting the oats we had a won- 

 derful stand on the field in the fall. All the inconven- 

 ience the clover had was to take a little time to start work 

 at the crown and start sprout at the other end; that is 

 the root end. 



I do not know of any other plant that is not a weed 

 that has this peculiarity. Planting corn on alfalfa sod 

 cannot work well, because the roots are so tough that no 



