No. 4.] NITROGEN AND FERTILITY. 195 



something to go into next winter with. And still, alfalfa on 

 a dairy farm, if it can be established, would be a very good 

 thing ; and a man who can ali'ord to do it, and doesn't fool 

 with more than a quarter or a half acre may, during the 

 next ten or fifteen years, master it, and if he does, it will be 

 a very valuable thing. Not to grow it in 1905 and 1906, 

 but to grow it right along to 1910 or 1915 is the aim. 



Hon. Wm. R. Sessions (of Springheld ) . A few days ago 

 1 heard of a gentleman within ten miles of our Agricultural 

 College wdio said he had had alfalfa on his place for 3'ears, 

 and had plowed it and couldn't get it out; that the state- 

 ment that it couldn't be grown w^as ridiculous, for he 

 couldn't ofet rid of it. 



Dr. Woods. At our college we are told very much the 

 same story you tell us. I wish some expert would examine 

 into the condition of this gentleman who says he can't get 

 rid of it. The last time I had the pleasure of speaking 

 before this Board I heard a man down in Newburyport, I 

 think, — it Avas down that way somewhere, — say that he 

 had grown alfalfa, and found it an enormous success. He 

 was a dairy farmer, and it was a thing beyond all compare. 

 I wrote him, and didn't get anything very satisfactory, so I 

 went to see him. He wasn't trrowino^ any alfalfa then. He 

 told me he had grown it, and it had been a great success. 



Mr. PitATT. What kind of soil would } ou recomuiend to 

 try it on ? 



Dr. Woods. Naturally w^ell drained to a good depth. 

 Alfalfa won't get along with wet feet any better than I will. 

 For instance, talking with a man — 1 think it was yester- 

 day — about the matter, he said he started some and it grew 

 right off, very fine the first season, but the latter part of the 

 season it died. Then he saw he had placed it on land that 

 was underlaid with hard-pan, and when the roots struck the 

 hard-pan they died. It was all right before it got to the 

 depth where there wasn't any drainage ; then out it went. 

 Place it preferably, I should say, on a hillside, so the water 

 won't stand on the surface, and not a shallow soil ; the sub- 

 soil must be 10 or 12 feet deep. 



Mr. Pratt. And wdiat time in the year would you sow it? 



