154 Soiling. 



it to seven cows and five horses. To my surprise it 

 fed them fifteen days, equal to feeding one cow 180 

 days. The two succeeding years I tried the same 

 experiment, feeding only cows, one of which proved 

 equal to feeding one cow 170 days, the other 165." 



LUCERN OR ALFALFA. 



My experience with growing lucern was at first 

 most discouraging, and, finally, most satisfactory. 

 In 1877 I made a trial of an eighth of an acre with 

 another crop on land near the barn, but it turned 

 out to be such a foul piece of land, and the weeds 

 were so much in the majority, that in the last of July 

 I sowed the piece to buckwheat to subdue the weeds. 

 I found it a shy plant at starting, and that on this ac- 

 count I had made a great mistake in plowing in the 

 spring and top dressing with stable manure, which 

 itself was, no doubt, full of weed seeds. I was de- 

 termined, however, to have a patch of lucern. I 

 cultivated the lucern patch and sowed it to buck- 

 wheat, increasing the amount of land to an acre. 

 The buckwheat came on well and did the weeding 

 thoroughly. That fall I plowed as deep as possible, 

 deeper than ever before, and sowed the piece to 

 rye. This rye crop I plowed under in the following 

 spring, and fitted the ground with great care by 

 cultivating and harrowing, until I had a seed-bed fit 

 for a garden, and sowed twenty pounds of good fresh 

 seed per acre. I felt certain that only a small por- 

 tion of my first seeding germinated. Here, I be- 



