190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc 



right kind of soil on our farm. We haven't any soil where 

 we can go down 12 or 1"> feet without finding water. Prob- 

 ably on the most of our farm we should find water at 

 almost any month of the year certainly within 6 feet of the 

 surface, and in many places within less than that. Now, it 

 i- of no u<e to try to grow alfalfa where it hasn't a chance 

 to get its roots way down deep. If von aentlemeu 

 have that kind of soil where, if vou should di«- a hole and 

 let it remain open through the growing season, the water 

 wouldn't come in and stand, within less than about 10 or 1:? 

 feet, try alfalfa there, especially if the soil is of open texture 

 all the way down. Otherwise. I would not try any more 

 than an acre, any way. 



Mr. E. II. Forbush (of Wareham) . I would like to ask 

 Governor Hoard two questions. The 6rst is, can a man 

 raise alfalfa on light, sandy soil with a gravelly sub-soil, and 

 water 12 or 1") feet down? Secondly, do I understand (jov- 

 ernor Hoard advocate- the hauling out of manures in the 

 winter and spreading them on the soil? 



Ex-Governor Hoard. In answer to the first question, I 

 am not prepared to say. yet. My soil is sand, and an ash 

 clay a- a sub-soil, and very deep. Alfalfa grows nicelv 

 there. I have another piece of land, that is bottom land, 

 lying next to the R<>ek River. That has a very black, 

 alluvial soil, and underlying it i> blue clay, but not so very 

 tenacious, and alfalfa does finely there. Anywhere it can 

 get down. Now, in this question of soil, the sandy soil 

 with a gravelly sub-soil, it would seem to be deep? 



Mr. Foebush. I think so. 



Ex-Governor Hoard. If you can make it rich. Alfalfa 

 needs plenty of nutriment, particularly the first year of its 

 life. If I can get it through the first summer, it is usually 

 all riofht. Whenever I have sowed alfalfa on the land, I 

 have given it a top dressing, and plenty of it, 300 or 400 

 pounds to the acre, and I give it a dressing of lime, nurse it 

 that way, and atop-dressing of manure. 



In reirard to drawing out manure in the winter, we have 

 to have a certain number of men working on the farm, and 

 I never can use those men for this work so cheaply, at so 



