Practical experiences 247 



ordinary yield of seed is five bushels per acre. The cost 

 for threshing is 60 cents per bushel. There is a special 

 alfalfa huller, as even the ordinary clover huller is not a 

 success. For a number of years the average price paid 

 the farmer for alfalfa seed has been $4.50 per bushel, 

 and hay in the stack has sold for $3.50 to $5. For feed- 

 ing farm animals, alfalfa hay is far more valuable than 

 timothy or clover. Horses will work and do well the 

 year round on the first cutting of alfalfa, and no grain 

 whatever. The pasturage for hogs and cattle is far bet- 

 ter than clover, and is profitable and satisfactory for 

 horses and sheep. I have 250 hogs now, and raise them 

 to weigh 200 pounds on green alfalfa alone; turn the 

 sows in the lot in early spring; they raise their young, and 

 I never bother ^hem for eight months at a time, as they 

 have plenty of alfalfa and water. Put cattle on the pas- 

 ture in early spring and let them run, and few, if any, 

 will bloat ; but when they are not used to it, they eat too 

 fast, or too much, and bloat. The hay is not so good 

 after it is threshed as that cut earlier for hay alone, but 

 the straw sells readily at $1.50 in the stack. The stand 

 gets better every year for hay, and I know of fields in 

 old Mexico 60 years old that have never been reseeded. 

 There is no difficulty in ridding land of the plant if it is 

 plowed under eight inches deep while green. It makes 

 Tar better green manure than does red clover. On the 

 same quarter section, wheat grown on old wheat land 

 produced 20 bushels per acre, and that on broken alfalfa 

 land 50 bushels per acre. 



CONNECTICUT 



Dr. E. H. Jenkins, Director Connecticut experiment 

 station. — Alfalfa has been tried in a haphazard way in 



