514 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



sowed alfalfa on a field that had by overflow been 

 covered deep with mud, which on drying had cracked 

 open to a depth of 4 inches to 6 inches. His seed 

 falling on the hard surface rolled into the cracks, 

 germinated there and after a while the leaves 

 emerged, followed by the stems leaving the crowns 

 buried several inches. Later he harrowed the land, 

 filling the cracks, but not of course before the plants 

 had become strong enough to withstand treatment. 

 The results were most promising, the alfalfa stand- 

 ing the winter perfectly and also resisting drouth 

 well. He could cultivate without injury to the buried 

 crowns. This led him to experiment to see how he 

 could bury crowns on land that did not crack open to 

 give him any natural opportunity to do this. I quote 

 his words : 



"Having arrived at these conclusions, I was so thoroughly 

 convinced that this is the proper method of alfalfa culture 

 that I risked a large amount of Turkestan seed on a field 

 which had been overflowed and had received a deposit of 

 mud, which after being dried, was from 4" to 6" in depth. 

 This mud, in the drying process, cracked, leaving openings 

 from 2" to 3" wide and as deep as the thickness of the mud. 

 This field least appeared to be in shape for a coming alfalfa 

 field of any field I ever saw, that is looking at it from a 

 standpoint of common alfalfa philosophy. But believing in 

 my discovery, I proceeded, without any further preparation 

 of the ground, to sow this land to alfalfa, trusting that most 

 of the seeds would roll into the cracks. I seeded it broadcast 

 at the rate of from 5 to 7 pounds per acre. After seeding, 

 I ran a common harrow, with teeth slanted back, over it 

 once. This served to make enough loose mulch on top of 

 the crusted mud so the first rains could cover the seeds 

 sufficiently to germinate. Then I left matters to nature. 



"The first result was that by this act I fully established 

 the correctness of my philosophy concerning the nature of 



