156 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



bottle. The instructions told me to put the bag of alfalfa seed 

 into a pail of water and let it moisten there, and then take 

 the seed and pour it out on a cloth, and then put the inocula- 

 tion on. I sowed the seed by hand. I understood I should 

 sow it in a wheelbarrow seeder, but failed to as the inoculation 

 seemed to be a little stick}-. The seed came up splendidly, 

 but there were some poor spots. The seed lived through the 

 first winter beautifully and started up in the spring in very 

 good shape, and I got a fair crop, — about a ton and a half 

 to the acre, — what I would consider down there where I live 

 a fair crop. The second crop started, and after a very short 

 time some kind of a blight struck the plants. I don't know 

 what it was. Professor Foord, I think, can tell us something 

 about it, because I sent him a sample. The second crop was 

 mowed earlier than, perhaps, I ought to have mowed it, but 

 the reason for getting the second crop in when I did was 

 because the army worms had struck it with full force and if 

 I didn't get the alfalfa in I expected to lose it with the army 

 worm. So I cut the alfalfa before the buds had started from 

 the bottom, — before the third crop had started. We had 

 some wet weather, and the army worms continued to eat it. 

 It didn't wilt fast enough so that the army worms cared to 

 leave it, and when the sun did get out there was not alfalfa 

 enough left to raise. You could hardly see where I mowed any 

 alfalfa. There was not enough to pay for raking. The third 

 crop came up, but not very strong, and there seemed to be a 

 blight on that, and to-day I don't believe there is one plant 

 left in a field of nearly two acres. Now, I want to know why 

 those plants died. 



Professor Cromwell. I suspect that Professor Foord knows 

 more than I do about why that failed. 



Professor Foord. I would like to say that the sample that 

 Mr. Adams sent us, and also some that I took myself, were 

 turned over to our plant pathologist, and he stated that the 

 disease, so far as he could find it, was not an alfalfa disease. 

 The only suggestion I could give on Mr. Adams' proposition 

 was the question of seed. He got the seed from the local 

 dealers. After the second crop was cut and the army worm 

 had been there, there were a good many weeds. With the 



