112 ALFALFA 



average yield of seed is about 500 pounds to the 

 acre. Alfalfa will pasture more animals than will red 

 clover. Every year we pasture about one hundred 

 head of hogs on three acres, fenced in two lots." 



II^UNOIS 



A. D. Shamel, assistant at the experiment station, 

 Urbana, says: " On the experiment station trial- 

 grounds alfalfa has been tested for the past four years. 

 I/ast winter all the plants that remained from the 

 previous year's stand were killed by freezing and thaw- 

 ing in February. In other cases where trials of from 

 one-half to five acres were made in different sedtions 

 of the state, no good stands have been secured. In 

 some cases after three years' growth with constant re- 

 seeding a fair stand was obtained, but during the late 

 severe winters all of these fields have been injured, and 

 in most instances the alfalfa has been killed. Further 

 trial with the lately introduced varieties will be neces- 

 sary before a definite statement can be made as to its 

 success or failure. The chief cause of failure seems to 

 be the nature of the subsoil. In most instances our 

 rich prairie loam is underlaid with a hard clay sub- 

 soil, and in some cases the so-called hard-pan. Alfalfa 

 roots refuse to penetrate this stratum of soil, and con- 

 sequently the plant does not obtain a full root develop- 

 ment, so that during the winter a temperature of a 

 few degrees below zero kills the plant. Another 

 fadlor entering into its introdudlion is that it requires 

 at least two, and usually three, years to get a stand 

 from which a crop can be cut. The farmer loses three 

 years' cropping from the land, which he cannot afford. 

 The medium red clover can be seeded with oats and 



