No. 4.] ALFALFA GROWING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 123 



There is no expense of seeding or preparing the land after 

 the first year. One merely feeds back the chemicals that the 

 alfalfa has withdrawn from the land and harvests with joy 

 and great profit his crop. It is the surest crop there is ex- 

 cept the pasture grass and the forest trees. There is no need 

 whatever of failure in establishing alfalfa in Massachusetts. 

 In recent years I have helped establish alfalfa on farms from 

 Texas to Vermont, without a single failure. Why, just be- 

 low New York, in northern New Jersey, at Plainsboro, is 

 the Walker-Gordon farm with 475 acres of alfalfa, all re- 

 cently established and all successful. From that farm they 

 sell nearly $1,000 worth of milk each day, and it comes in 

 large part from their own soil, through the channels of the 

 alfalfa roots. That farm is not on especially favorable soil. 

 Mr. Jeffers, the manager, is simply an alfalfa enthusiast, and 

 manures, drains, limes, inoculates and sows the alfalfa with 

 never a fear of failure. He buys an old, " worn out " farm 

 and pulls out the old fence rows, cleans it up, manures and 

 limes it, and sets the whole farm at once to alfalfa. 



Gentlemen, last spring I came home to Woodland Farm 

 from a long journey and found on the farm 100 acres of 

 alfalfa that seemed to me especially beautiful and fine. I 

 longed for men to come and see it, and so we announced that 

 we would give a picnic on Woodland Farm, an Alfalfa Day 

 picnic. The Governor came, Dean Price of our Agricul- 

 tural College came, many notable men came; and to our be- 

 wildered joy there came also 3,500 men and women from our 

 own State of Ohio and adjoining States. 



It was one of the happiest days of my life. We tramped 

 through the fields together and then assembled on the lawn, 

 where lectures were given and information imparted how 

 successfully to grow alfalfa. In a little booklet we have put 

 pictures of this great gathering of farmers, and given quite 

 careful instructions how to grow alfalfa. If you will send 

 us your names we will be glad to send the -booklet. 



Question. I had a soil which is a light loam, with sand 

 underneath, and I put on 2 tons of burnt lime on one-eighth 



