No. 4.] GRASS AND CLOVER. 145 



limits. Tliere is more alfalfa grown in that section to the 

 acre, perhaps, than anywhere in the rest of the State. There 

 is some in the western part, but not so much. 



Professor Hurd. What do you consider an ideal alfalfa 

 soil? 



Mr. Dawley. I believe a soil where standing water is 

 never going to come within 14 feet of the surface, and where 

 we are sure it never does stand higher than 13, 14 or 15 

 feet from the surface, with a clay loam top soil, with a gravel 

 subsoil, is pretty nearly ideal. I believe, on a stiff clay 

 loam, with a stiif subsoil going down 4 or 5 feet, and where 

 they are working out limestone in an adjoining field, that I 

 can show you as heavy crops as you will see anywhere. 



Mr. Wm. II. Porter (of Agawam). Then valley soil 

 will not meet those conditions ? 



Mr. Dawley. As a general thing, I think valley soils will 

 not make alfalfa soils unless up on a table land. 



Mr. Porter. I mean sandy loam. 



Mr. Dawley. I wouldn't want to discourage any man 

 from growing alfalfii, and I would try it, no matter what the 

 soil was, if I coidd l)e sure I had the proper drainage and 

 acidity ; l)ut I don't think the conditions in the valleys are 

 ideal. 



Prof. "Wm. p. Brooks (of Amherst) . I have rather by 

 design refrained from rising, because I wanted to hear what 

 those from other localities might say on this subject. I 

 think our difficulty is a fundamental one, and that it is con- 

 nected with our locality and its climate, and in part with 

 the geological origin of our soils. I don't know whether 

 you noticed, as I did, that Mr. Dawley, in speaking of one 

 of the types of soil where he said it succeeded, said the clay 

 loam was underlaid by limestone. At dinner to-day he spoke 

 of an abandoned lime kiln on his farm, Avhich he had started 

 into activit}^ Alfalfa succeeds as a rule much the best 

 where the soils contain a great deal of lime, — where lime- 

 stone plays an important part in the formation of the soil. 

 Mr. Bliss of the Department of Agriculture has been making 

 a very careful study of the conditions in New England as 

 related to alfalfa, and the degree of success or failure which 



