82 AI.FAI,FA 



yields from Superintendent Smart, under whose direc- 

 tion this land was disked, and who likewise harvested, 

 a large acreage that season. His statement I will give 

 verbatim: ' In regard to the yield of alfalfa on our 

 lands, I will say that the first crop raised on land that 

 was disked was about one and one-fourth tons per acre, 

 and the second crop one ton per acre. We have 

 harvested on our other lands in Edwards and Ford 

 counties, the past year, about 2,500 acres, and the 

 average yield for the first crop was three-fourths ton 

 per acre, and the second crop one-half ton. ' 



' ' From this statement it will be readily seen that the 

 disking added one-half ton per acre to each crop. In 

 other words, 160 tons, or eight additional twenty-ton 

 ricks of alfalfa hay, were cut from and stacked upon 

 that quarter-sedlion of Kansas land in the one season 

 because of this cultivation with harrows. 



"While the second' crop was growing that season I 

 left the field-station in Edwards County and made a 

 cursory survey of the alfalfa-growing distridls of 

 Edwards, Ford, Finney, Hamilton, Greeley, Wallace, 

 lyOgan, Thomas, Sherman, Decatur, and Norton coun- 

 ties, and nowhere under any conditions did I observe 

 such a fine quality of alfalfa as grew that season upon 

 this experimental quarter-sedlion. 



CONFIRMED BY FURTHER EXPERIMENTS 



" One season's study not being sufficient to thor- 

 oughly satisfy us, this method of culture was resumed, 

 and 800 acres were disked in a like manner this spring, 

 giving equally satisfactory results. The yield was not 

 quite so great, owing to the fadl that these lands were 

 closely pastured until about the ist of May, after which 



