11)4 BOAKD OF AGRICULTUKE. [Pub. Doc. 



things that are so, than it is to know things that are 

 not so. 



Question. Would you advise the farmers of Massachu- 

 setts to sow alfalfa ? 



Dr. Woods. Why, if a man likes to play with a thing, 

 yes ; but don't sow alfalfa to the extent that you are going 

 to depend on it for bread and butter, or for milk, for the first 

 year. About fourteen ^^ears ago, in Connecticut, when I was 

 with a station there, we tried alfalfa as thoroughly as Ave 

 knew how. We imported soil containing root nodules, or 

 containing the bacteria that form root nodules, and Ave 

 couldn't make the alfalfa survive our winters. I suppose 

 you will find along Long Island Sound now and then an 

 alfalfa i)lant that has stayed all these dozen or fifteen years. 

 As there has been a great interest in alfalfa aroused in New 

 England, three years ago we began experiments with it in 

 ]\Iaine. I didn't know but it would grow in that beautiful 

 region that we call the "Garden of Maine," the north-east 

 corner of it. It is an elegant piece of land ; all it needs is 

 climate. The snow comes before the frost, ordinarily, 

 and so, singularly enough, in that very northern altitude 

 we have almost no frost in the ground. It is naturally 

 underdrained by a broken ledge, so the moment the snow 

 goes in the spring it is ready to work. I didn't know 

 but alfalfa might persist through the winters, under those 

 conditions. In Colorado, Avhen they want to get rid of an 

 alfalfa field, — it is very tough stuif to plow, the roots being 

 bigger than your finger and hard to break, - — they flood it 

 with Avatcr and leave it for about twenty-four or forty-eight 

 hours, and if by any possibility they can get a little freeze, 

 it is sure to kill the alfah'a. You know we get those condi- 

 tions in central and southern New England, and so we at- 

 tributed the loss of our alfalfa in Cyonnecticut to that. We 

 are trying it in Maine, but haven't met with a great deal of 

 success yet. It is hard stufl" to get to grow. You have to 

 learn the culture of it. It is not as simple as the ordinary 

 crops we grow. I sent out a lot of seed this year, and 

 about 20 per cent of farmers succeeded in getting a stand. 

 I suppose next year about 5 per cent of those will have 



