\<>. I.] DAIRY ECONOMICS. 187 



is equal to 8 pounds of mixed grain, as a milk producer, — 8 

 pounds of mixed grain, usually corn, oats and bran. He 

 could produce 4 to 6 Ions per acre. 



I will now give you a few points. In the first place, } r ou 

 need good seed. In the second place, you need to sow 

 double what any man has ever told you you ought to sow, — 

 not less than 25 to 30 pounds to the acre. In the third 

 place, the land should be put in the proper, the very best 

 condition. It should be plowed at least twice. The better 

 the soil, the better the alfalfa. It should be land that will 

 readily and easily drain, land that is deep, that the alfalfa 

 can make a growth in, for in three years 3^011 will find the 

 roots twelve or fifteen feet down. You must have a dee}) 

 soil, it must not be underlaid with rock within two or three 

 feet, or you will have only a short season of alfalfa. Re- 

 member, alfalfa is perennial, — it lives forever. I can show 

 you plots planted in Colorado one hundred years ago. It 

 must not be within ten, or fifteen or eighteen feet of the 

 water line, — that is, water-bearing strata. It likes mois- 

 ture and goes deep for it, but it must not have wet feet, and 

 it should be dressed every time with at least from 30 to 50 

 bushels of lime to the acre. 



The Chair. Every year? 



Ex-Governor Hoard. No, when you prepare the soil. 

 It is well to give it a light dressing of lime every year. It 

 is also a great lover of potash, and I buy all the ashes I can 

 find in two towns, and pay 10 cents a bushel for them and 

 do the hauling, and I get all the ashes, and everybody 

 laughs to see poor Hoard drawing ashes. You know } r ou can 

 afford to let some folks laugh. Then, another thing. When 

 you sow it you must either sow it alone entirely or with a 

 nurse crop ; and if you sow it with a nurse crop, sow it 

 with oats or barley, and cut it just as quick as it heads out. 

 Don't wait for them, because it takes 500 pounds of water 

 to mature 1 pound of grain. That was demonstrated by 

 the Wisconsin Experiment Station and others. You take 

 an average yield of 50 bushels of oats to the acre, and 3011 

 are taking 80,000 pounds of water out of the soil ; and add 

 to that all the water being drawn out by the sun, and no 



