304 THE BOOK OF ALFALFA 



any way favorable to its growth. At present prices, 

 after it is once established, a yield of one ton of hay per 

 acre will afford a good profit, while yields of four and six 

 tons, which are not unusual on favorable soils, make the 

 investment exceedingly profitable. The present demand 

 is much greater than the supply and bids fair to increase 

 in greater proportion during the coming year. Its in- 

 creasing popularity with the farmer is based upon sound 

 business principles, as its value does not consist solely in 

 its market price, but in its value as food for his stock and 

 food for his soil. It will furnish green pasturage and 

 hay of the best quality without materially impoverishing 

 the soil. Many farmers refrain from planting alfalfa 

 because some neighbor, far or near, planted on land ap- 

 parently similar to theirs, and it died of the disease com- 

 monly known as cotton root rot. It would be far better 

 for each farmer to test his own land, for alfalfa may be 

 affected by this fungus at one place and entirely unaffect- 

 ed on ground only a fev/ rods away. The value of an al- 

 falfa meadow is such as to warrant a farmer in giving 

 considerable time, labor and study to the plant, before de- 

 ciding that natural conditions prohibit him from success- 

 fully growing it. 



Aaron F. Farr, Jr., Cache county. — Fifteen years ago, 

 when I began raising alfalfa, I had 40 acres, and for the 

 past eight years I have had about 135 acres, all on heavy 

 clay soil, containing considerable salt, and underlaid with 

 very stiff, white clay. Tlie soil is dry on top, but below 

 a depth of 2>4 feet is damp, and salty water is found at 



