No. 4.] ALFALFA FOR NEW ENGLAND. 161 



stuck them in a paper bag and tied tliem up and put them in 

 my grip and laid them on a shelf in my study. That seed 

 fully ripened. That was within 30 feet of a northeastern shore 

 coming down on Cape Cod. So there is no doubt but what Ave 

 can raise seed of our own in New England. Mr. Prescott of 

 Concord has told us that we can raise our own seed. I don't 

 want to advocate raising alfalfa seed, but I wanted to tie 

 together the sand and the manure spreader, because if you 

 don't you will make a failure as we did in the beginning. 



Mr. C. R. Harris. I want to ask about the use of lime. 

 The speaker has very strongly come out for the use of ground 

 limestone. Now, my farm has a heavy clay soil, and I have 

 been using a caustic lime, and the alfalfa has grown, I think 

 we can say, successfully. There is one field from which we have 

 taken three cuttings. Some of my neighbors have also used 

 the lime out of the same car, and their fields have grown 

 equally well. Now, would it be better to stop using the 

 caustic lime on this particular kind of soil and use the ground 

 limestone? There is an economic advantage, of course, in the 

 cost of lime which I am anxious to get if we can use it. 



Professor Cromwell. Of course, if the caustic lime has 

 been on the field long enough before your alfalfa bacteria get 

 there, why there is no difference between caustic lime and 

 ground limestone. It is only where you use it immediately 

 before that I fear it. And yet I know of instances where 

 people have plowed under heavy green crops and have gotten 

 splendid results with caustic lime. But I think there are 

 eight failures to one success with caustic lime used immediately 

 before you sow the alfalfa. Did you do that? 



Mr. Harris. Perhaps in the light of what you say a further 

 explanation is necessary. Our method of growing is to follow 

 oats cut for green fodder with alfalfa, and the alfalfa seeding 

 would take place, probably, not more than a week after the 

 application of the lime, and we have seeded in that way with 

 success, both myself and my neighbors. 



Question. Would you cut alfalfa that is affected with the 

 leaf blight? 



Professor Cromwell. I certainly would cut it just as soon 

 as I saw that the leaf blight was going to be serious. 



