520 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



be produced, since there grown it is certain to be 

 hardy. I quote from Prof. Hansen as follows : 



"On May 2 at Ipswich, S. D., alfalfa plants were set at the 

 rate of 100 per minute, or 6,000 per hour by machine. Dem- 

 onstrations of this machine planting were first made April 

 23 at Brookings and a half dozen other points later. The 

 plants were set with plow, spade and hoe. I claim no origin- 

 ality for the method except that this is the first time where 

 a machine has been used for transplanting alfalfa. I have 

 combined an old oriental method with an American machine, 

 one of the standard transplanting machines used for tobacco, 

 cabbage, tomatoes and many other plants, which used a nine- 

 inch shoe slightly widened at the back by a local blacksmith 

 to allow more space for the alfalfa roots. 



"My alfalfa studies indicate that transplanting is an an- 

 cient practice, reported from India, Prance, England and 

 South America. Under certain conditions in intensive agricul- 

 ture it would naurally come in for such a long-lived plant as 

 alfalfa. I have used the method since the spring of 1907 

 with the new alfalfas I brought over from Russia and Siberia 

 as Agricultural Explorer sent out by the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture. I have been much pleased with the wonderfully 

 vigorous growth of these alfalfa plants and with the good 

 results obtained by the many farmers who have set out these 

 one-year plants. When set in good garden soil 2'x4' we get 

 plants with over 100 shoots to the crown, and bearing as 

 much as 3 ounces of seed per plant the third year, on plants 

 transplanted the first year from seed. This means 1,029 

 pounds of seed per acre. The variety was the one secured in 

 Russia, which I have named the Cossack. From present pros- 

 pects they will yield much more the present season. Some 

 farmers report obtaining 7,000 to 8,000 seeds per plant the 

 first year, and one North Dakota farmer reports raising one 

 pound of seed in 1911 from eight plants set in the spring of 

 1910, which means 25,000 seeds per plant. 



"At present I give this out simply as an item of agri- 

 cultural news and do not advise the method until its value has 

 been demonstrated. However, here are some of my reasons 

 for undertaking the work: 



"That 20 pounds of seed per acre means 106 seeds per 



