100 FOOD FOR PLANTS 



Standard Alfalfa : May be of green color, of coarse 

 or medium texture, and may contain 5 per cent, for- 

 eign matter; or it may be of green color, of coarse 

 or medium texture, 20 per cent, bleached and 2 per 

 cent, foreign matter; or it may be of a greenish cast 

 of fine stem and clinging foliage, and may contain 5 

 per cent, foreign matter, all to be sound, sweet, and 

 well baled. 



No. 2 Alfalfa: Shall be of any sound, sweet and 

 well baled alfalfa, not good enough for standard, and 

 may contain 10 per cent, foreign matter. 



No. 3 Alfalfa: May contain 35 per cent, stack- 

 spotted hay, but must be dry and not to contain more 

 than 8 per cent, of foreign matter; or it may be of a 

 green color and may contain 50 per cent, foreign 

 matter ; or it may be set alfalfa and may contain 5 per 

 cent, foreign matter, all to be reasonably well baled. 



No grade Alfalfa : Shall include all alfalfa not good 

 enough for No. 3. 



The Alfalfa, Cow Pea and Clover Question. 



This class of plants has the property of taking inert 

 Nitrogen from the air and transforming it into com- 

 binations more or less useful as plant food. This 

 feature is of great value to agriculture, but not so 

 much from the plant food point of view as from the 

 fact that these plants are rich in that kind of food 

 substance commonly called "flesh formers." Lib- 

 erally fertilized, and not omitting Nitrate in the fer- 

 tilizer, we have a crop containing more nitrogenous 

 food (protein or flesh formers) than the Nitrogen 

 actually given as fertilizer could have made by itself. 



