No. 4.] ALFALFA GROWING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 127 



That is all I know about curing, except the various ways 

 of putting it up on frames. It is a good plan, of course, to 

 have covers to put over it. I have had a hay cap made of 

 sheeting about 42 inches square. Mr. Jeffreys, in his big 

 alfalfa farm in New Jersey, has them, and he has a wire 

 like a woman's hat pin that he sticks in each corner to hold 

 it on the shock. 



Mr. Palmeeton. I would like to ask something further 

 about lime; you spoke of using ground limestone as prefer- 

 able, perhaps, to burned lime. Did I understand you cor- 

 rectly ? 



Mr. Wing. I think it makes bigger alfalfa. 



Mr. Palmekton. Now, in New England here we are 

 offered a ground marble which is as insoluble as sharks' 

 teeth. 



Mr. Wing. Ground marble dust ? 



Mr. Palmerton. Well, I should say granulated marble, 

 and I want to know whether that is preferable to hydrated 

 lime or burned lime, — so-called air-slacked lime, — or 

 whether a good carbonate of lime, shell marl or something of 

 that sort would be all right. 



Mr. Wing. It is all a question of price. Will you please 

 tell me what the marble dust is costing you? 



Mr. Palmerton. Down here in this section, about $4 

 or $5 a ton. 



Mr. Wing. That is too much. I believe there is a place 

 somewhere in western Massachusetts where they grind it and 

 put it on the car for $1.50 or $1.25 a ton. They put it on 

 the car for $1.25 in carloads, and if there is one farm in 

 New England that couldn't use a carload of limestone, I 

 don't know where it is. You ought to buy it in carload lots. 

 That price of $5 a ton for ground marble dust is entirely too 

 high. I would rather use burned lime than the marble dust 

 at that price. But I don't know that it makes a great dif- 

 ference what form you use, if you remember that the un- 

 burned only has about half as much calcium as the burned. 

 Marl has good results if it has enough calcium. 



Mr. F. H. Ray. I bought lime last year for $4.75, and 



