No. 4.] ALFALFA FOR NEW ENGLAND. 155 



In the west they only use 12 or 14 pounds to the acre. I am 

 afraid it is because of our poor seed. 



Question. Do you put Hme on every year? 



Professor Cromwell. If you use the Htmus paper test, or 

 have any reason to think your soil is sour, I would put on 2 

 tons of ground limestone just preceding your seeding, then I 

 would take off two crops of alfalfa, worth $100 a year, and 

 then I would put on another ton every two years as long as the 

 alfalfa stands. 



Question. What do you say about drilling or broadcasting? 



Professor Cromwell. The ideal way to sow alfalfa is to 

 sow it with the disk drill, drilling both ways of the field, one- 

 half one way and the other half crossways of that, and if you 

 have a disk drill I think you might get along with 20 pounds of 

 seed quite well. We have one man this year whose field looks 

 well and who used only 20 pounds with the disk drill. 



Question. Will you tell us something about raising alfalfa 

 on gravelly soil? 



Professor Cromwell. If you have a southern slope so full 

 of stones that corn won't mature there, I would expect to get 

 21 or 3 tons of alfalfa. It is the only crop except sweet clover 

 which will grow there. 



Mr. J. F. Adams. I want to relate a little of my experience 

 in trying to raise alfalfa, and then I want to ask the professor 

 why I didn't succeed. One year ago last July I seeded to 

 alfalfa about two acres of ground. The year before I planted 

 corn, and before planting the corn a good coat of barn manure 

 was plowed in about 8 or 9 inches deep, and in the spring about 

 a ton and a half of lime put on. The lime cost me, delivered 

 at my steamboat landing, about $9.20 a ton. I put on basic 

 slag at the rate of 1,000 pounds to the acre, and potash. 

 When I was ready to sow the alfalfa we distributed over the 

 ground about 100 pounds of nitrate of soda to the acre. The 

 ground was tilled thoroughly all summer whenever weeds made 

 their appearance, with a disk harrow most of the time, oc- 

 casionally with a spiked-tooth smoothing harrow. In July, 

 when I was ready to sow my seed, I bought the best seed that 

 I could get. I bought it from our local seed dealer, and 

 inoculated the seed with something that came in a small 



