242 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



to be fed, or dairy cows kept, one can hardly have 

 too much alfalfa,. 



The cash value of these crops would be about as 

 follows : The farmer could not sell all of the 7,000 

 bushels of corn since his horses must be fed. He 

 could sell 6,000 bushels, for say 50 cents per bushel or 

 $3,000, or he could sell of his hay, 400 tons, by feed- 

 ing his corn stover to his cows and work teams ; the 

 hay would be worth about $8 per ton as an average 

 low price, or $3,200 or more. The 1,000 bushels of 

 barley would be worth say 60 cents, or $600: The 

 gross returns then from the 300 acre farm devoted 

 to corn and alfalfa would be around $6,800. And if 

 one bought what phosphorus his crops took out of 

 his soil it is probable that he could keep on selling 

 off these crops for some years. It would certainly 

 be far better to feed the crops, and the profits ought 

 to be larger in proportion. 



Crop Failures. "Hold on!" I hear the reader 

 say, ' * do you not allow for crop failures in this esti- 

 mate of yours ? ' ' 



One has occasionally a poor year in corn growing. 

 A crop failure in corn grown on well drained, well 

 enriched land, on alfalfa sod, has yet to be recorded. 

 A crop failure with alfalfa has not yet been recorded. 

 Certainly some years produce more than other years. 

 Alfalfa is the safest and surest of all crops when 

 established on kindly soil. The risk is very slight, 

 only one has always the labor of harvest, not the 

 labor of preparing the land each year, of eternally 

 seeding. 



