No. 4.] ALFALFA IN NEW ENGLAND. 155 



hood it cost me, with freight charges, $3.50. I used three car- 

 loads of that Hme on my farm this last summer. I have fol- 

 lowed pretty much the plan of getting the land ready that 

 was suggested by the speaker. If you want big crops have 

 the land rich; sow your alfalfa in August, as I do, after a 

 crop which has been highly cultivated. I inoculate every- 

 thing, — clover seed, vetch, peas, etc. I use "Nitragin," made 

 by the German-American Nitragin Company, at Milwaukee, 

 and have great success. I have used the northern grown seed, 

 and never until 1914 had I time to use Grimm, but in 1914 I 

 sowed a small piece in front of my house, covering 2f acres, 

 which had been well manured and fertilized, where peas and 

 oats were grown. I sowed one-half of that in Grimm, and 

 since last summer we have taken off that 2| acres over 10 tons 

 of pure hay. I have had 16 acres of alfalfa this year and I 

 have had 46 tons of hay from it. I sowed about 12 acres more 

 in August. 



Last year I got my lime at the low price of $1.50 a ton; 

 delivered, it cost me a little short of $2.50 from the lime com- 

 pany at 92 State Street, Boston. 



Question. You bought your lime in bulk? 



Mr. Andrews. In paper bags. 



Mr. Sanborn. I would like to know definitely whether any 

 one here has grown alfalfa successfully for a series of years on 

 a hardpan subsoil typical New England hill farm. I qare nothing 

 about other details. 



Mr. NiCKERSON. It has been my pleasure, with immense in- 

 terest, to pick up alfalfa in front of my house, and never was 

 I more surprised in my life to see the extent of those roots and 

 the size of them. I would like to inquire how you can grow 

 such roots naturally on anything but exceedingly deep soil. 

 What do you consider deep soil? 



A Member. I am growing alfalfa on a piece of land where 

 the subsoil comes pretty close to the. top. Nothing else grows 

 there, it is such poor land, so I thought I would grow alfalfa. 



Mr. NiCKERSON. How deep roots do you get? 



A Member. I never dug them, but have found roots an 

 inch through. That land was very ledgy, and I planted the 

 alfalfa to go down after that manure and it went down, and I 



