No. 4.] ALFALFA FOR NEW ENGLAND. 157 



tillage that Mr. Adams gave the field it does not seem to me 

 there ought to have been as many weeds there. They may 

 have come in with your seed. I have a good many friends in 

 the seed trade, but I like to jack them up a little occasionally. 

 I think the seed problem in New England is an important one. 

 I hope Mr. Adams will not feel discouraged on that two acres, 

 but will go at it again. 



Mr, Adams. I will say that I have no idea of giving up 

 that field of alfalfa at the present time, although that field 

 cost me about $40 to the acre. I am going to plant it to 

 alfalfa again, if nothing happens. 



Professor Cromwell. Let me relate the experience of one 

 farmer in our county. After the first cutting he said, "My 

 alfalfa is not what it should be. I want to find out wdiat is 

 the trouble w4th it." So he went over the field and dug up 

 half of it and found that the plants had only gone about 4 

 inches in the ground and the root was black. He thought he 

 had a bacterial disease and asked us what was the matter. 

 We sent to Washington and had them send out a specialist. 

 It seemed the man had plowed up a badly infested clover field, 

 and the clover worms were unable to get any food, so they 

 were migrating in large numbers to that alfalfa, and were 

 killing it. The alfalfa was coming up with a stem only 4 

 inches long. Now, because you didn't dig for the bacteria, 

 you didn't know about the clover worm. That may be the 

 solution of that problem. 



Question. Will you say something about the depth to 

 plant, the covering and whether to use a roller or not? 



Professor Cromwell. My advice would be to plant the 

 alfalfa | to 2 inches deep, depending on the moisture, and 

 then have the ground harrowed. Do your rolling before you 

 plant. 



Mr. TowxE. Would it be practicable to use alfalfa to renew 

 old pasture lands; in other words, would it be a good thing 

 for pasture and for cattle in pastures? 



Professor Cromw^ell. It was my good fortune this summer 

 to have an automobile ride of 150 miles, studying pastures. 

 A man from the Department at Washington came up to get 

 some information — by the way, you folks notice that to-day 



