PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES 32 1 



find much prejudice and ignorance still existing among 

 farmers relative to the merits of this magnificent forage 

 plant. When we ask a farmer why he has not seeded an 

 area of land to alfalfa he almost invariably answers by 

 another question; viz., *'Do you think I can make it 

 catch?" And it is this doubt so generally existent that 

 keeps down the area of alfalfa, and hence the profits of 

 many a man who could make it a wonderful success. 



To our mind there has been too much alleged scien- 

 tific talk relative to ''nitrification," *'root nodules" and 

 ''soil inoculation" for alfalfa; so much of it, in fact, as a 

 fad, that the average farmer has become possessed of the 

 erroneous idea that it requires a deeply scientific know- 

 ledge of the subject and much trouble of various sorts 

 to secure a stand of alfalfa. For this reason many a man 

 has dismissed the subject from his mind and deemed it 

 best to think most of the simple things within his ken, but 

 in so doing he has missed some of the greatest boons and 

 blessings possible in his business. Alfalfa will grow on 

 most any good land that will produce clover and that is in 

 no way waterlogged. There is little mystery in its suc- 

 cessful cultivation, and the "tricks" of the business are 

 easily learned from the literature mentioned. We be- 

 lieve it to be one of the very finest of forage plants and a 

 grand adjunct in the feeding of hogs ; a crop in fact that 

 is bound to become common and that should at once be 

 given far more general attention than is now the case. 

 It is neither difiicult to obtain a catch nor make the crop 

 a success if the farmer will but try and in starting fol- 

 low the simple instructions now published by many of the 

 agricultural experiment stations. 



