IN THE DIFFERENT STATES 1 23 



grow the first season. The trouble is that it will not 

 survive the winter. ' ' This is apparently not due to 

 the severity of the winter, but to smothering with 

 ice; as in irrigated sedtions in cold cUmates a favorite 

 method of destroying alfalfa when they wish to change 

 to other crops is to flood in the fall and allow a coat- 

 ing of ice to form over the tradl. These conditions 

 exist pradlically everywhere in New England. Each 

 year early snows and heavy fall rains leave the ground 

 saturated and more or less completely covered with 

 wet snow. These storms alinost invariably clear ofE 

 cold, and the saturated snow freezes. It is the excep- 

 tion when the fields are not more or less completely 

 covered for several weeks with a layer of ice. Some- 

 times it is severe enough to cause grass to winter-kill. ' ' 

 As examples of attempts to grow alfalfa in his 

 state, he cites two different conditions: one on a fairly 

 heavy loam and the other on a light sandy soil. In 

 both cases there was no difficulty in making the plants 

 grow fairly well during the first summer, leaving a 

 good covering on the ground for winter protection. 

 On both the heavy and Ught soil the plants failed to 

 survive the winter with the exception of here and 

 there a .single plant. 



MARYLAND 



Diredtor H. J. Patterson, of the Maryland station, 

 writes: " Alfalfa has not been given a very extensive 

 trial in this state, yet it has been grown to a sufficient 

 extent to prove that it can be grown where proper 

 precautious are taken to obtain a stand. The greatest 

 difficulty our people encounter in growing alfalfa is to 

 get it established. Weeds are very numerous and 



