156 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



raised alfalfa for ten years. I have seeded it this fall for the 

 fourth time. I have to keep my land moving, but it has grown 

 stronger every time, and it is ten years since I put it in first, 

 and I never inoculated any seed until this last fall. 



Dr. Brooks. I notice that the last speaker said his land 

 was ledgy. That would hardly meet the requirements of Mr. 

 Sanborn's description. Way down in southwestern Connecti- 

 cut I have a son-in-law on a farm where the subsoil comes 

 within a few inches of the surface, and he is having some trouble 

 with alfalfa sown in the late summer of 1914 on a field of 5 

 or 6 acres, not far from his house. I walked over it with him 

 last spring, and we picked up a great many roots where the 

 crown was over 6 inches above the top of the ground. Alfalfa 

 culture under conditions described by Mr. Sanborn is difficult, 

 but perhaps not impossible if there is not stagnant water in the 

 soil. The roots cannot live in stagnant water. 



Mr. Prescott. [Exhibiting specimens of alfalfa.] That was 

 grown on a heavy clay subsoil, with a pretty good loam. That 

 was planted the sixteenth day of August and pulled the twenty- 

 first day of September. It was almost 18 inches long when I 

 picked it out. These were grown on sandy subsoil. It is not 

 hilly. The subsoil here is first 8 or 10 inches of loam, then 2 

 or 3 feet of yellow subsoil turning into a fine white sand, going 

 still deeper into a coarse white sand, and at 11 feet is gravel, 

 with stones as big as an egg. That alfalfa has been growing 

 on that piece of land since 1908; never had any manure since; 

 never been fertilized with any kind of fertilizer. These here 

 [indicating specimens] are two samples of Grimm, picked last 

 summer, which Mr. Wheeler wanted me to bring in. I don't 

 know why they are different in color. 



I don't see any reason why we cannot grow alfalfa in Massa- 

 chusetts as well as we can in New Jersey. 



U. S. Bates. I came here with a question in my mind. My 

 own experience has been very small. Until I heard Professor 

 Brooks, I had not encountered any one from whom I could 

 get the information I wanted. He speaks of leaf spot. I sup- 

 pose that is what is the matter with my alfalfa. I have called 

 it rot and blight. I did not begin unti two years ago. I planted 

 a small patch of alfalfa which did pretty well, and I was en- 



