ALFALFA IN NEW YORK AND GEORGIA. 91 



find out its merits, and no poverty of stock will ever occur where 

 Alfalfa is raised. In the summer of 1881, when everything else was 

 parched here with heat and drought, this alone was prompt in its 

 maturity for the mower. It should be cut for hay when in blossom, 

 and can easily be cut three or four times here, wherever the land is 

 in fairly good condition. 



" Those who do not succeed with it, sow it broadcast and surrender 

 it to the hogs .early in the season. Those who do succeed sow in 

 drills, eighteen inches apart, and cultivate early." 



It will be seen that Mr. Sargent advises drills much wider than we 

 recommend, which I presume is to admit the horse-hoe, but a quicker 

 crop undoubtedly would be goi at fourteen inches apart, and by use 

 of the hand wheel-hoe, the work could be done on light soil nearly 

 as quickly as by horse cultivator. 



Alfalfa is extensively grown in Europe, particularly in France and 

 Germany, where it is considered a valuable crop for rotation, and is 

 classed by the French as one of the Plantes Ameliorates (restorative 

 crops) ; for in southern France wheat has been successfully raised 

 after six or seven years of Alfalfa on ground which formerly had 

 failed to give good crops of wheat. Although Alfalfa may be grown 

 in cold latitudes as well as in warm, as the plant is entirely hardy, 

 yet its value is not so marked in cold climates, where it finds competi- 

 tors in Red Clover and the grasses; but in light soils, anywhere, parti- 

 cularly in warm climates, its deep-rooting properties make it com- 

 paratively independent of moisture; hence it is the forage plant par 

 excellence for the Southern States; and when it is considered that im- 

 mense sums are paid annually for baled hay, by the Southern to the 

 Northern States, not only for the hay itself, but to freight it, the 

 wonder is how long they will continue to do so, with the material at 

 hand to produce a better article at probably one-fourth the cost. 



At the date of our writing, thousands in Florida and other 

 Southern States are engaged in the culture of oranges, and other 

 fruits and vegetables, for the Northern markets and while in 

 specially favored locations success has attended these enterprises, yet 

 it is doubtful if one in four makes it profitable ; while, with the culture 

 of this valuable forage plant, the vast sums paid for Northern hay 

 would not only be saved, but the products of the dairy would assume 

 an importance which now, among most farmers in the extreme 

 Southern States, is altogether unknown. 



Q. If you were confined to one of these two crops, Mr. Crozier, 

 which would you prefer to grow in your latitude, clover or lucern ? 



A. As .a general crop I would use clover, because my land is better 

 suited to it than it is to lucern. 



