42 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



X. — Alfalfa. 



Our experiments with alfalfa have been continued both 

 upon our own grounds and those of a few selected farms 

 in ditterent parts of the State. We are bringing to bear 

 upon these experiments information in regard to successful 

 methods from every possible source. We find in all cases 

 a distinct benefit from a heavy initial application of lime. 

 We have used from 2,000 to 3,000 pounds per acre. We 

 are enriching soils already naturally good by heavy api)lica- 

 tions both of manures and fertilizers, using materials which 

 experience has proved best. We are also giving the soil a 

 most thorough prepai-atory tillage. It has usually been 

 fall-plowed, and in addition it is plowed in the spring, and 

 repeatedly harrowed to destroy weeds which start in the 

 early part of the season. We have tried inoculating the 

 soil both Avitli earth ol)tained from a field in New York, 

 where alfalfa is successfully grown, and with the cultures 

 sent out by the Department of Agriculture and prepared by 

 private firms. We have not attained such degree of success 

 as justifies us in recommending the crop. We have occa- 

 sionally got a fair stand of alfalfix, but in all cases the 

 winters prove more or less injurious. In the course of a 

 few years the alfalfa is mostly crowded out by grasses and 

 clovers. The alfalfa almost every year suffers from leaf 

 spot, which tends to cut down the yield. 



We have found a very distinct benefit from the inoculation 

 with earth from the New York alfalfa field. We have not 

 found an equally distinct benefit to follow inoculation with 

 an}'^ of the cultures; and, although we are not as yet ready 

 to make a final report, it should be here remarked that the 

 most careful experiments on the use of these cultures in 

 sterilized soils, under conditions calculated to give accurate 

 results, indicate that they have little if any value. 



In our various experiments alfalfa has been tried on a wide 

 variety of soils. We have had a quarter of an acre field 

 upon a coarse-textured soil upon a farm in this neighbor- 

 hood where there is never any standing water within 50 

 to 60 feet of the surface. Even on this soil the altalfii, 



