SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 503 



on sandy loam with encouraging success, her alfalfa 

 growing nearly 3' high. Unhappily, all of these 

 fields went under 12' of water in the spring of 1912, 

 but that is not a catastrophe to be seen again in my 

 lifetime, probably. It is at least definitely proved 

 that alfalfa is well adapted to most of the alluvial 

 soils of the delta region along the Mississippi Eiver. 

 Few if any of these soils need lime. Strangely 

 enough, we failed absolutely to grow melilotus on 

 this same soil, I do not know why, but we did not 

 need the plant, since we had the better one, alfalfa. 

 Lespedeza grew luxuriantly and we made hay from 

 it as well as from alfalfa. 



Alfalfa on Woodland Farm. Naturally one knows 

 most of his own farm, and some things that we have 

 learned since the first edition of this book was 

 printed may be helpful. We have in no essential 

 thing changed our manner of farm practice. We 

 continue to grow alfalfa for four or more years on 

 the land, followed then by two years of corn, the 

 second year with manure and back to alfalfa again. 

 This is our plan, but circumstances sometimes modi- 

 fy it. We usually cut our alfalfa but three times, 

 learning that a strong growth left standing results 

 in much less winterkilling and makes a far better 

 growth the following season. The year 1911 was, 

 however, an unhappy one for alfalfa in Ohio. A 

 good first cutting was taken, then followed unprece- 

 dented heat and drouth, with a plague of grasshop- 

 pers that ate off the buds of the young alfalfa as 

 fast as they appeared. The result was that our 



